class org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener not found

Question

When I am creating a new Spring MVC project using eclipse and maven, it throws the following error when I do a run as maven build(goal is tomcat:run). I did the build after clean and install.

SEVERE: Error configuring application listener of class org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener

java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener

1. The other solutions for this problem are to add the maven dependencies in deployment assembly from the project properties.
2. But, the deployment assembly option is not present when I right click the properties.
3. I also tried adding spring.jar manually.
4. The class org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener is present in the maven dependency and still the error is thrown.

pom.xml

My pom.xml is as follows:

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>com.org</groupId>
    <artifactId>Remindem</artifactId>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <packaging>war</packaging>

    <name>Remindem</name>
    <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
            <version>3.0.1</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
            <artifactId>jsp-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.1</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-plugin-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.0</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>junit</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
            <version>3.8.1</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
            <version>3.6.8.Final</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
            <version>4.0.0.Beta2</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>mysql</groupId>
            <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
            <version>5.1.6</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javassist</groupId>
            <artifactId>javassist</artifactId>
            <version>3.12.1.GA</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.mail</groupId>
            <artifactId>mail</artifactId>
            <version>1.4</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Spring framework -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring</artifactId>
            <version>2.5.6</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
            <version>3.0.5.RELEASE</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>

        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
            <version>3.2.3.RELEASE</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>


        <!-- Spring MVC framework -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
            <version>2.5.6</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>

        <!-- JSTL -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
            <version>1.1.2</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>taglibs</groupId>
            <artifactId>standard</artifactId>
            <version>1.1.2</version>
        </dependency>


        <!-- for compile only, your container should have this -->
        <!-- <dependency> <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId> <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId> 
            <version>2.5</version> <scope>provided</scope> </dependency> -->

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.tomcat</groupId>
            <artifactId>tomcat-api</artifactId>
            <version>7.0.19</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <plugins>
    <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.maven</groupId>
        <artifactId>tomcat7-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.0</version>
        <configuration>
          <url>http://localhost:8080/Remindem</url>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

web.xml

My web.xml is as follow:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app version="2.4" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd">
    <display-name>Remindem</display-name>
    <session-config>
        <session-timeout>
            30
        </session-timeout>
    </session-config>
    <welcome-file-list>
        <welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
        </welcome-file-list>

     <servlet>
        <servlet-name>svn</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
            <param-value>
                /WEB-INF/SpringAppServlet.xml               
            </param-value>
        </init-param>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet> 
 <context-param>
    <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
    <param-value>
        /WEB-INF/SpringAppServlet.xml
    </param-value>
</context-param> 


 <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>svn</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping> 

 <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
</listener>

</web-app>

Answer 1

This is because you mark your Spring dependencies with <scope>provided</scope> on your maven pom.xml and you did not include the actual jars on the classpath when running the program. There are two possible solutions:

1. Change the dependency scope into compile
2. Include the spring jars with matching version to your classpath when running the application