Getting java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: javax.servlet.ServletContext in JUnit

Question

I'm using Sping MVC in my application and writing JUnit test cases for a DAO. When I run the test, I receive the error: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: javax.servlet.ServletContext.

In the stacktrace, I see that this error is caused during getApplicationContext. In my applicationContext, I haven't defined any servlet. Servlet mapping is done only in web.xml so I don't understand why I'm getting this error.

Here is my applicationContext.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p" xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context" xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-2.0.xsd http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-2.0.xsd http://www.springframework.org/schema/context  http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd"  xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx">  <bean id="dataSource" class="com.mchange.v2.c3p0.ComboPooledDataSource" destroy-method="close">     <property name="driverClass" value="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"/>     <property name="jdbcUrl" value="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/testdb"/>     <property name="user" value="username"/> </bean>  <bean id="sessionFactory" class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.annotation.AnnotationSessionFactoryBean">     <property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/>     <property name="hibernateProperties">         <props>             <prop key="hibernate.dialect">org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLDialect</prop>             <prop key="hibernate.connection.driver_class">com.mysql.jdbc.Driver</prop>             <prop key="hibernate.connection.url">jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/myWorld_test</prop>             <prop key="hibernate.connection.username">username</prop>         </props>     </property>     <property name="packagesToScan">         <list>             <value>com.myprojects.pojos</value>         </list>     </property> </bean>  <bean id="hibernateTemplate" class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTemplate">     <property name="sessionFactory" ref="sessionFactory"/> </bean>  <tx:annotation-driven transaction-manager="transactionManager"/>  <bean id="transactionManager" class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTransactionManager">     <property name="sessionFactory" ref="sessionFactory" /> </bean>  <context:component-scan base-package="com.myprojects"/>  <context:annotation-config/>  <mvc:annotation-driven/> </beans> 

Here is the stacktrace:

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/servlet/ServletContext at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods0(Native Method) at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredMethods(Class.java:2521) at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods(Class.java:1845) at org.springframework.core.type.StandardAnnotationMetadata.hasAnnotatedMethods(StandardAnnotationMetadata.java:161) at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassUtils.isLiteConfigurationCandidate(ConfigurationClassUtils.java:106) at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassUtils.checkConfigurationClassCandidate(ConfigurationClassUtils.java:88) at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassPostProcessor.processConfigBeanDefinitions(ConfigurationClassPostProcessor.java:253) at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassPostProcessor.postProcessBeanDefinitionRegistry(ConfigurationClassPostProcessor.java:223) at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.invokeBeanFactoryPostProcessors(AbstractApplicationContext.java:630) at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:461) at org.springframework.test.context.support.AbstractGenericContextLoader.loadContext(AbstractGenericContextLoader.java:120) at org.springframework.test.context.support.AbstractGenericContextLoader.loadContext(AbstractGenericContextLoader.java:60) at org.springframework.test.context.support.AbstractDelegatingSmartContextLoader.delegateLoading(AbstractDelegatingSmartContextLoader.java:100) at org.springframework.test.context.support.AbstractDelegatingSmartContextLoader.loadContext(AbstractDelegatingSmartContextLoader.java:248) at org.springframework.test.context.CacheAwareContextLoaderDelegate.loadContextInternal(CacheAwareContextLoaderDelegate.java:64) at org.springframework.test.context.CacheAwareContextLoaderDelegate.loadContext(CacheAwareContextLoaderDelegate.java:91) at org.springframework.test.context.TestContext.getApplicationContext(TestContext.java:122) at org.springframework.test.context.support.DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener.injectDependencies(DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener.java:109) at org.springframework.test.context.support.DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener.prepareTestInstance(DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener.java:75) at org.springframework.test.context.TestContextManager.prepareTestInstance(TestContextManager.java:312) at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.createTest(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:211) at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner$1.runReflectiveCall(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:288) at org.junit.internal.runners.model.ReflectiveCallable.run(ReflectiveCallable.java:12) at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.methodBlock(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:284) at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:231) at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:88) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.run(ParentRunner.java:238) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$1.schedule(ParentRunner.java:63) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runChildren(ParentRunner.java:236) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.access$000(ParentRunner.java:53) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$2.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:229) at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.RunBefores.evaluate(RunBefores.java:26) at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.statements.RunBeforeTestClassCallbacks.evaluate(RunBeforeTestClassCallbacks.java:61) at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.RunAfters.evaluate(RunAfters.java:27) at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.statements.RunAfterTestClassCallbacks.evaluate(RunAfterTestClassCallbacks.java:71) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:309) at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.run(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:174) at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.testing.junit.JUnitTestClassExecuter.runTestClass(JUnitTestClassExecuter.java:80) at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.testing.junit.JUnitTestClassExecuter.execute(JUnitTestClassExecuter.java:47) at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.testing.junit.JUnitTestClassProcessor.processTestClass(JUnitTestClassProcessor.java:69) at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.testing.SuiteTestClassProcessor.processTestClass(SuiteTestClassProcessor.java:49) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606) at org.gradle.messaging.dispatch.ReflectionDispatch.dispatch(ReflectionDispatch.java:35) at org.gradle.messaging.dispatch.ReflectionDispatch.dispatch(ReflectionDispatch.java:24) at org.gradle.messaging.dispatch.ContextClassLoaderDispatch.dispatch(ContextClassLoaderDispatch.java:32) at org.gradle.messaging.dispatch.ProxyDispatchAdapter$DispatchingInvocationHandler.invoke(ProxyDispatchAdapter.java:93) at com.sun.proxy.$Proxy2.processTestClass(Unknown Source) at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.testing.worker.TestWorker.processTestClass(TestWorker.java:103) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606) at org.gradle.messaging.dispatch.ReflectionDispatch.dispatch(ReflectionDispatch.java:35) at org.gradle.messaging.dispatch.ReflectionDispatch.dispatch(ReflectionDispatch.java:24) at org.gradle.messaging.remote.internal.hub.MessageHub$Handler.run(MessageHub.java:355) at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.DefaultExecutorFactory$StoppableExecutorImpl$1.run(DefaultExecutorFactory.java:66) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:724) Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: javax.servlet.ServletContext at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:366) at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:355) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:354) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424) at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:308) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357) ... 62 more 

Test class:

import org.junit.After; import org.junit.AfterClass; import org.junit.Before; import org.junit.BeforeClass; import org.junit.Test; import static org.junit.Assert.*; import org.junit.runner.RunWith; import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired; import org.springframework.test.context.ContextConfiguration; import org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner;  @RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class) @ContextConfiguration(locations = {"classpath:applicationContext.xml"}) public class UserServiceTest {  @Autowired private UserService service;  public UserServiceTest() { }  @BeforeClass public static void setUpClass() { }  @AfterClass public static void tearDownClass() { }  @Before public void setUp() { }  @After public void tearDown() { } } 

Even before writing any test method, I got this error.

Answer 1

You have a single xml file for your ApplicationContext in this file there is a <mvc:annotation-driven /> tag. This tag loads different web related resources (view resolvers, handler mappings etc.) and as such requires the servlet api to be available.

You already should have the servlet api on your classpath as a provided dependency in maven.

<dependency>     <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>     <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>     <version>3.0.1</version>     <scope>provided</scope> </dependency> 

Next to that you might want to remove the <mvc:annotation-driven /> tag and put it in a seperate configuration file. This is also a tag which should (in general speaking) be loaded by the DispatcherServlet. (I assume here the applicationContext.xml is, as default, loaded by the ContextLoaderListener).

Answer 2

1.

<dependency>     <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>     <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>     <version>3.0.1</version>     <scope>provided</scope> </dependency> 

2.

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class) @ContextConfiguration("classpath:spring/spring-mvc.xml") @WebAppConfiguration 

These advices helped me.