java.lang.ClassFormatError: Absent Code attribute in method that is not native or abstract in class file javax/faces/webapp/FacesServlet

Question

I want to use Mojarra 2.1 with Tomcat 7, so I added following dependencies in my pom file:

<dependency>
       <groupId>com.sun.faces</groupId>
       <artifactId>jsf-api</artifactId>
       <version>2.1.2</version>
     </dependency>

     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.sun.faces</groupId>
       <artifactId>jsf-impl</artifactId>
       <version>2.1.2</version>
     </dependency>

However, when I tried to start Tomcat, I got following exception:

org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardServer[8007]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:152)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:621)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:322)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:450)
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardService[Catalina]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:152)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.startInternal(StandardServer.java:727)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:148)
    ... 7 more
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:152)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.startInternal(StandardService.java:443)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:148)
    ... 9 more
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:152)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.startInternal(ContainerBase.java:1033)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.startInternal(StandardEngine.java:291)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:148)
    ... 11 more
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/myapp]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:152)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.startInternal(ContainerBase.java:1033)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.startInternal(StandardHost.java:774)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:148)
    ... 14 more
Caused by: java.lang.ClassFormatError: Absent Code attribute in method that is not native or abstract in class file javax/faces/webapp/FacesServlet
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(ClassLoader.java:632)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:616)
    at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:141)
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.findClassInternal(WebappClassLoader.java:2820)
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.findClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1150)
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1645)
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1523)
    at com.sun.faces.config.FacesInitializer.<clinit>(FacesInitializer.java:107)
    at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:247)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.getServletContainerInitializer(ContextConfig.java:1543)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processServletContainerInitializers(ContextConfig.java:1466)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.webConfig(ContextConfig.java:1285)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.configureStart(ContextConfig.java:896)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.lifecycleEvent(ContextConfig.java:322)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:119)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleBase.java:90)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5103)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:148)
    ... 17 more

How is this caused and how can I solve it?

Here's my web.xml file which may contain the cause of the problem:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
      xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
      xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_0.xsd"
      version="3.0"> 

  <display-name>appName</display-name>

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

  <listener>
    <listener-class>
        org.springframework.web.context.request.RequestContextListener
    </listener-class>
  </listener>

  <context-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>
        classpath:META-INF/spring/context.xml
        classpath:META-INF/spring/security.xml
        </param-value>

  </context-param>


  <context-param>
    <param-name>javax.faces.PROJECT_STAGE</param-name>
    <param-value>Development</param-value>
  </context-param>

  <welcome-file-list>
    <welcome-file>customers</welcome-file>
  </welcome-file-list>

  <context-param>
    <description>State saving method: 'client' or 'server' (=default). See JSF Specification 2.5.2</description>
    <param-name>javax.faces.STATE_SAVING_METHOD</param-name>
    <param-value>server</param-value>
  </context-param>

  <context-param>
    <param-name>javax.servlet.jsp.jstl.fmt.localizationContext</param-name>
    <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </context-param>

  <listener>
    <listener-class>com.sun.faces.config.ConfigureListener</listener-class>
  </listener>

  <context-param>
    <param-name>javax.faces.FACELETS_SKIP_COMMENTS</param-name>
    <param-value>true</param-value>
  </context-param>

  <!-- Spring Security -->
    <filter>
        <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
        <filter-class>
            org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy
        </filter-class>
    </filter>

    <filter-mapping>
        <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
        <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
    </filter-mapping>


    <filter>
      <filter-name>Pretty Filter</filter-name>
      <filter-class>com.ocpsoft.pretty.PrettyFilter</filter-class>
    </filter>

    <filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>Pretty Filter</filter-name>
      <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
      <dispatcher>FORWARD</dispatcher>
      <dispatcher>REQUEST</dispatcher>
      <dispatcher>ERROR</dispatcher>
    </filter-mapping>


  <servlet>
    <servlet-name>Resource Servlet</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>com.icesoft.faces.webapp.CompatResourceServlet</servlet-class>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
  </servlet>

  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>Resource Servlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/xmlhttp/*</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>

  <servlet>
    <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet</servlet-class>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
  </servlet>

  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/faces/*</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>

</web-app>

Answer 1

I have the same problem as you and found out that change from servlet-api to javax.servlet.api will fix the problem. Hope this help. Please note that, I am using Juno Eclipse, Tomcat 7, Dynamic Web Module 3.0, and JDK 1.7.

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.sun.faces</groupId>
  <artifactId>jsf-api</artifactId>
  <version>2.1.13</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>com.sun.faces</groupId>
  <artifactId>jsf-impl</artifactId>
  <version>2.1.13</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
  <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
  <version>3.0.1</version>
</dependency>

Answer 2

I have the same problem, and it seams somehow to

<groupId>javax</groupId>
<artifactId>javaee-web-api</artifactId>

or

<groupId>javax</groupId>
<artifactId>javaee-api</artifactId>

after setting them to scope provides (or delete them at all when you start an server in maven test) it starts working for me.

@See this Blog: java.lang.ClassFormatError : Absent Code attribute in method that is not native or abstract in class file … - It discuss the problem for javax.persistence.GenerationType but I think you and I hit the same problem.

Answer 3

Change:

<dependency>
   <groupId>com.sun.faces</groupId>
   <artifactId>jsf-impl</artifactId>
   <version>2.1.2</version>
 </dependency>

To:

 <dependency>
    <groupId>org.glassfish</groupId>
    <artifactId>javax.faces</artifactId>
    <version>2.1.6</version>
 </dependency>