Fails to load Spring application context in tests with SpringJUnit4ClassRunner

Question

I can't figure out why Spring can't load the application context in a test class defined as follows:

    @RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
    @ContextConfiguration(locations={"/springMVC-config/mainController-servlet.xml"})
    public class DiagnosticsControllerTest {

    @Mock
    DiagnosticsService diagnosticsService;

    private DiagnosticsController diagnosticsController;

    private MockMvc mockMvc;

    @Before
    public void setUp() {
        MockitoAnnotations.initMocks(this);
        diagnosticsController = new DiagnosticsController();
        diagnosticsController.setService(diagnosticsService);
        this.mockMvc = MockMvcBuilders.standaloneSetup(diagnosticsController).build();
    }

    @Test
    public void shouldRun() {
        assertTrue(1 == 1);
    }
}

The file 'mainController-servlet.xml' is in "myproject\src\main\webapp\WEB-INF\springMVC-config\mainController-servlet.xml"

The error I get is:

java.lang.IllegalStateException: Failed to load ApplicationContext
    at org.springframework.test.context.cache.DefaultCacheAwareContextLoaderDelegate.loadContext(DefaultCacheAwareContextLoaderDelegate.java:124)
    at org.springframework.test.context.support.DefaultTestContext.getApplicationContext(DefaultTestContext.java:83)
    at org.springframework.test.context.support.DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener.injectDependencies(DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener.java:117)
    at org.springframework.test.context.support.DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener.prepareTestInstance(DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener.java:83)
    at org.springframework.test.context.TestContextManager.prepareTestInstance(TestContextManager.java:228)
    at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.createTest(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:230)
    at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner$1.runReflectiveCall(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:289)
    at org.junit.internal.runners.model.ReflectiveCallable.run(ReflectiveCallable.java:12)
    at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.methodBlock(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:291)
    at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:249)
    at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:89)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.run(ParentRunner.java:290)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$1.schedule(ParentRunner.java:71)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runChildren(ParentRunner.java:288)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.access$000(ParentRunner.java:58)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$2.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:268)
    at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.statements.RunBeforeTestClassCallbacks.evaluate(RunBeforeTestClassCallbacks.java:61)
    at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.statements.RunAfterTestClassCallbacks.evaluate(RunAfterTestClassCallbacks.java:70)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:363)
    at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.run(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:193)
    at org.junit.runner.JUnitCore.run(JUnitCore.java:137)
    at com.intellij.junit4.JUnit4IdeaTestRunner.startRunnerWithArgs(JUnit4IdeaTestRunner.java:74)
    at com.intellij.rt.execution.junit.JUnitStarter.prepareStreamsAndStart(JUnitStarter.java:211)
    at com.intellij.rt.execution.junit.JUnitStarter.main(JUnitStarter.java:67)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at com.intellij.rt.execution.application.AppMain.main(AppMain.java:134)
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: IOException parsing XML document from class path resource [springMVC-config/mainController-servlet.xml]; nested exception is java.io.FileNotFoundException: class path resource [springMVC-config/mainController-servlet.xml] cannot be opened because it does not exist

I tried to change the locations for the context configuration as follows:

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration("file:src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/springMVC-config/mainController-servlet.xml")
public class DiagnosticsControllerTest {
...
}

Answer 1

Aside from not being able to reference the correct path to your XML configuration file, the truth is:

You are not even using the Spring TestContext Framework in the example you provided.

Rather, you are only using Mockito and Spring MVC Test (i.e., MockMvc).

Thus, you can simply delete the @RunWith and @ContextConfiguration declarations completely.