Exception while starting spring web mvc application

Question

My spring project works fine when I am using spring 3.2.9 but if I changed it to 4.1.4 I get following exception when i m starting the application.

<org.springframework-version>4.1.4.RELEASE</org.springframework-version>

here is the exception details of the exception:

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'requestMappingHandlerAdapter' defined in class path resource [org/springframework/web/servlet/config/annotation/DelegatingWebMvcConfiguration.class]: Bean instantiation via factory method failed; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.BeanInstantiationException: Failed to instantiate [org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter]: Factory method 'requestMappingHandlerAdapter' threw exception; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'mvcValidator' defined in class path resource [org/springframework/web/servlet/config/annotation/DelegatingWebMvcConfiguration.class]: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.AbstractMethodError: org.hibernate.validator.engine.ConfigurationImpl.getDefaultParameterNameProvider()Ljavax/validation/ParameterNameProvider;
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.ConstructorResolver.instantiateUsingFactoryMethod(ConstructorResolver.java:599)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.instantiateUsingFactoryMethod(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1111)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBeanInstance(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1006)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:504)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:476)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:303)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:230)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:299)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:194)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:762)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:757)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:480)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.configureAndRefreshWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:663)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:629)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:677)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:548)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initServletBean(FrameworkServlet.java:489)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.HttpServletBean.init(HttpServletBean.java:136)
    at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:158)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.initServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1241)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1154)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:1041)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:4944)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5230)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:725)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:701)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:714)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDescriptor(HostConfig.java:581)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployDescriptor.run(HostConfig.java:1683)
    at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:511)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)

Answer 1

The key statement of your stack trace is:

java.lang.AbstractMethodError: org.hibernate.validator.internal.engine.ConfigurationImpl.getDefaultParameterNameProvider()Ljavax/validation/ParameterNameProvider;

This answer seems also to apply to your problem description/exception message: You have a conflicting javax.validation version!

Hint: I prefer Netbeans' "Graph View" (of a pom editor) for identification & elimination of dependency conflicts (especially after some version upgrade). The "pure-maven-way" would be:

mvn dependency:tree -Dverbose -Dincludes=javax.validation

Answer 2

for my case, it was due to the spring mvc version from spring boot starter web not compatible with spring data. and the exception could be really tricky, where there are two constructors for AbstractMethodError, while the first one is default without any parameter. So depends on the implementation, if they throw exception using first constructor, would require a lot hard work for debugging.