java.lang.IllegalStateException: BeanFactory not initialized or already closed - call 'refresh' before accessing beans via the ApplicationContext

Question

I need to add Spring Security with customized login page and connection to database to my Spring MVC project. I am receiving following error message, based on answers of other questions, I tried to change the code, for example I changed my Spring Security Schema version to 4.0 but the code returns following error:

Changed schema to 4.0

http://www.springframework.org/schema/security/spring-security-4.0.xsd

Error

Cannot initialize context because there is already a root application context 
present - check whether you have multiple ContextLoader* definitions in your 
web.xml!

My code

my-security.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans:beans xmlns='http://www.springframework.org/schema/security'
    xmlns:beans='http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans' xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'
    xsi:schemaLocation='http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans 
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.2.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/security
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/security/spring-security-3.2.xsd'>

    <beans:import resource="security-db.xml" />

    <http auto-config="true" access-denied-page="/notFound.jsp"
        use-expressions="true">
        <intercept-url pattern="/" access="permitAll" />
    </http>
</beans:beans>

web.xml

<?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">
    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.apache.tiles.extras.complete.CompleteAutoloadTilesListener</listener-class>
    </listener>
    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
    </listener>
    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>my</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>
    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>my</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

    <context-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>/WEB-INF/config/my-security.xml
        </param-value>
    </context-param>

</web-app>

security-db.xml

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.1.xsd">

    <bean id="dataSource"
        class="org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DriverManagerDataSource">
        <property name="driverClassName" value="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver" />
        <property name="url" value="jdbc:mysql://localhost/dbproj" />
        <property name="username" value="jack" />
        <property name="password" value="jack" />
    </bean>
</beans>

Answer 1

I think you need have only one xml configuration file (my-servlet.xml as your servlet name is "my" so filename must be "my-servlet.xml") in web-xml and then refer others in that file. Refer to xmls below.

<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">
    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.apache.tiles.extras.complete.CompleteAutoloadTilesListener</listener-class>
    </listener>
    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
    </listener>
        <servlet>
            <servlet-name>my</servlet-name>
            <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
            <init-param>
                <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
                <param-value>/WEB-INF/my-servlet.xml</param-value>
            </init-param>
            <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>

</web-app>

In my-servlet.xml file you can use import to compose your other XML configurations.

<beans>
  <bean id="bean1" class="..."/>
  <bean id="bean2" class="..."/>

  <import resource="security-db.xml"/>
  <import resource="foo-db.xml"/>
</beans>

Answer 2

Add DelegatingFilterProxy to your 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">
    <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>
    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
    </listener>
    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>my</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>
    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>my</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

    <context-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>classpath:config/security-config.xml</param-value>
    </context-param>
</web-app>

add my-servlet.xml as your web application context configuration to /webapp/WEB-INF/. add authentication-manager element to my-security.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans:beans xmlns:beans="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/security"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/security
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/security/spring-security.xsd">
       <beans:import resource="spring-db.xml" />

       <http auto-config="true" use-expressions="true">
              <intercept-url pattern="/" access="permitAll" />
       </http>

       <authentication-manager>
              <authentication-provider>
                     <user-service>
                            <user name="username" authorities="ROLE_ADMIN" password="password" />
                     </user-service>
              </authentication-provider>
       </authentication-manager>
</beans:beans>

get rid of access-denied-page and use access-denied-handler as Mkyong did it here