Maven Error - Expected START_TAG or END_TAG not TEXT

Question

I am setting up a spring mvc web application + hibernate jpa + maven from scratch using Eclipse Indigo. I am stuck in this error when doing a Maven build.

[ERROR] BUILD ERROR
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Error installing artifact's metadata: Error installing metadata: Error updating group repository metadata

expected START_TAG or END_TAG not TEXT (position: TEXT seen ...<extension>war</... @13:25) 
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

I tried googling but can't find a solution that works for me. I even search the whole project for the text <extension>war</ and mysteriously, there is no text like this in my project. However, in the tomcat web.xml there are a lot of <extension> tag, but I doubt that it has something to do in this error because I never touched that web.xml

Here is my pom.xml

<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/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">

    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>com.mycompany.applicationname</groupId>

    <artifactId>Application MVC</artifactId>

    <packaging>war</packaging>

    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>

    <name>Maven Application Webapp</name>

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

    <properties>
        <spring.version>3.0.3.RELEASE</spring.version>
    </properties>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate.javax.persistence</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-jpa-2.0-api</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.0.Final</version>
        </dependency>

    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <finalName>ApplicationName</finalName>
    </build>
</project>

As Funtik has suggested, I did a build with -X. Here is the stacktrace.

[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] BUILD ERROR
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Error installing artifact's metadata: Error installing metadata: Error updating group repository metadata

expected START_TAG or END_TAG not TEXT (position: TEXT seen ...<extension>war</... @13:25) 
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[DEBUG] Trace
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.LifecycleExecutionException: Error installing artifact's metadata: Error installing metadata: Error updating group repository metadata
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoals(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:583)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoalWithLifecycle(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:499)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoal(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:478)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoalAndHandleFailures(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:330)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeTaskSegments(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:291)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.execute(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:142)
    at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:336)
    at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.execute(DefaultMaven.java:129)
    at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.main(MavenCli.java:287)
    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:592)
    at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.launchEnhanced(Launcher.java:315)
    at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:255)
    at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.mainWithExitCode(Launcher.java:430)
    at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:375)
Caused by: org.apache.maven.plugin.MojoExecutionException: Error installing artifact's metadata: Error installing metadata: Error updating group repository metadata
    at org.apache.maven.plugin.install.InstallMojo.execute(InstallMojo.java:143)
    at org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultPluginManager.executeMojo(DefaultPluginManager.java:451)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoals(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:558)
    ... 16 more
Caused by: org.apache.maven.artifact.installer.ArtifactInstallationException: Error installing artifact's metadata: Error installing metadata: Error updating group repository metadata
    at org.apache.maven.artifact.installer.DefaultArtifactInstaller.install(DefaultArtifactInstaller.java:91)
    at org.apache.maven.plugin.install.InstallMojo.execute(InstallMojo.java:105)
    ... 18 more
Caused by: org.apache.maven.artifact.repository.metadata.RepositoryMetadataInstallationException: Error installing metadata: Error updating group repository metadata
    at org.apache.maven.artifact.repository.metadata.DefaultRepositoryMetadataManager.install(DefaultRepositoryMetadataManager.java:463)
    at org.apache.maven.artifact.installer.DefaultArtifactInstaller.install(DefaultArtifactInstaller.java:79)
    ... 19 more
Caused by: org.apache.maven.artifact.repository.metadata.RepositoryMetadataStoreException: Error updating group repository metadata
    at org.apache.maven.artifact.repository.metadata.AbstractRepositoryMetadata.storeInLocalRepository(AbstractRepositoryMetadata.java:76)
    at org.apache.maven.artifact.repository.metadata.DefaultRepositoryMetadataManager.install(DefaultRepositoryMetadataManager.java:459)
    ... 20 more
Caused by: org.codehaus.plexus.util.xml.pull.XmlPullParserException: expected START_TAG or END_TAG not TEXT (position: TEXT seen ...<extension>war</... @13:25) 
    at org.codehaus.plexus.util.xml.pull.MXParser.nextTag(MXParser.java:1083)
    at org.apache.maven.artifact.repository.metadata.io.xpp3.MetadataXpp3Reader.parseVersioning(MetadataXpp3Reader.java:513)
    at org.apache.maven.artifact.repository.metadata.io.xpp3.MetadataXpp3Reader.parseMetadata(MetadataXpp3Reader.java:352)
    at org.apache.maven.artifact.repository.metadata.io.xpp3.MetadataXpp3Reader.read(MetadataXpp3Reader.java:866)
    at org.apache.maven.artifact.repository.metadata.AbstractRepositoryMetadata.updateRepositoryMetadata(AbstractRepositoryMetadata.java:98)
    at org.apache.maven.artifact.repository.metadata.AbstractRepositoryMetadata.storeInLocalRepository(AbstractRepositoryMetadata.java:68)
    ... 21 more
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 2 seconds
[INFO] Finished at: Thu Jun 27 17:36:23 SGT 2013
[INFO] Final Memory: 9M/16M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

web.xml

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

<web-app id="WebApp_ID" 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>Adjustment Tool</display-name>

    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>mvc-dispatcher</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
            <param-value>/WEB-INF/spring-mvc.xml</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>mvc-dispatcher</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>
    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
    </listener>

</web-app>

Any ideas?

Answer 1

I just fixed this by removing my already installed artifact for that version from my local repository.

For me the cause seems to be a downgrade from maven 3 to maven 2. The maven metadata xml in the local repository, installed by maven 3, contained something (extension) that was incompatible with maven 2. Thus, the new install with maven 2 resulted in the error.

Maven could have been more accurate in its message. Like a file path of the file containing the problem, for example :)