java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: The main resource set specified [...] is not valid

Question

I'm having trouble starting my Tomcat server, it used to work, but I did something wrong and now it throws me this exception:

Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: The main resource set specified [E:\workspace\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.wst.server.core\tmp1\wtpwebapps\workspace\j2eeapplication\target\j2eeapplication-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT] is not valid
    at org.apache.catalina.webresources.StandardRoot.startInternal(StandardRoot.java:643)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    ... 9 more

And this is my web.xml :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_1.xsd"
        version="3.1">

        <display-name>J2EE Application Example</display-name>

        <welcome-file-list>
                <welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
        </welcome-file-list>

        <context-param>
                <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
                <param-value>/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml</param-value>
        </context-param>

        <context-param>
                <param-name>javax.faces.DEFAULT_SUFFIX</param-name>
                <param-value>.xhtml</param-value>
        </context-param>

        <context-param>
                <param-name>facelets.DEVELOPMENT</param-name>
                <param-value>true</param-value>
        </context-param>

        <context-param>
                <param-name>javax.faces.FACELETS_REFRESH_PERIOD</param-name>
                <param-value>1</param-value>
        </context-param>

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

        <servlet>
                <servlet-name>Resources Servlet</servlet-name>
                <servlet-class>org.springframework.js.resource.ResourceServlet</servlet-class>
                <load-on-startup>0</load-on-startup>
        </servlet>

        <servlet-mapping>
                <servlet-name>Resources Servlet</servlet-name>
                <url-pattern>/resources/*</url-pattern>
        </servlet-mapping>

        <servlet>
                <servlet-name>Spring MVC Dispatcher Servlet</servlet-name>
                <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
                <init-param>
                        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
                        <param-value></param-value>
                </init-param>
                <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
        </servlet>

        <servlet-mapping>
                <servlet-name>Spring MVC Dispatcher Servlet</servlet-name>
                <url-pattern>/app/*</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>*.jsf</url-pattern>
        </servlet-mapping>

        <filter>
                <filter-name>charEncodingFilter</filter-name>
                <filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.CharacterEncodingFilter</filter-class>
                <init-param>
            <param-name>encoding</param-name>
            <param-value>UTF-8</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>forceEncoding</param-name>
            <param-value>true</param-value>
        </init-param>
        </filter>

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

</web-app>

I looked at different solutions over the forums, but nothing worked. Final option will be uninstalling tomcat and fresh installation, cause I read that might work. Thanks for the help in advance.

Answer 1

Seems like you have an outdated web application referenced in your Tomcat embeded server (You are using Tomcat As within Eclipse right?).

First checkout the deployed application within you server, and check the artifact name j2eeapplication-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT and version. You may need to remove it and clean your working directory the redeploy it and you should be safe.

Answer 2

For me, this was caused by a file permission issue. We use a different deployment strategy where I work (not something I can change) which means the webapp exists in a completely different directory to the normal Tomcat directory structure. The above exception occurred when the Tomcat runtime didn't have permission to access that directory.

Answer 3

I had this error when I was starting an application that was designed for Tomcat 8 using Tomcat 7.