org.springframework.beans.factory.CannotLoadBeanClassException: Cannot find class

Question

I replaced j2ee.jar with servle-api.com from my tomcat 6.0 installation directory: And that yields the error below. I'm presently trying to figure out the cause. What might the problem be.

I have a the bean defined in a configuration file: Sempedia-service.xml as follows

<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-2.5.xsd">
    <bean id="sempediaSearchService"
        class="com.service.SempediaSearchManager" />


</beans>

my web.xml specifies the following beans:

<context-param>
    <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
    <param-value>/WEB-INF/Sempedia-service.xml,/WEB-INF/Sempedia-persistence.xml</param-value>
</context-param>

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

Stack Trace

SEVERE: Exception sending context initialized event to listener instance of class org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
org.springframework.beans.factory.CannotLoadBeanClassException: Cannot find class [com.service.SempediaSearchManager] for bean with name 'sempediaSearchService' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/Sempedia-service.xml]; nested exception is java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.service.SempediaSearchManager
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.resolveBeanClass(AbstractBeanFactory.java:1141)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.predictBeanType(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:524)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.isFactoryBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:1177)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.isFactoryBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:758)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:422)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:728)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:380)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.createWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:255)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:199)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:45)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:3934)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4429)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1045)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:722)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1045)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:443)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:516)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:710)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:583)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:288)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:413)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.service.SempediaSearchManager
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1387)
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1233)
    at org.springframework.util.ClassUtils.forName(ClassUtils.java:211)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinition.resolveBeanClass(AbstractBeanDefinition.java:385)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.resolveBeanClass(AbstractBeanFactory.java:1138)
    ... 24 more

Answer 1

I got the same error and the cause was the directory:

U:.....WEB\WebRoot\WEB-INF\classes\com\yourcompany\cc\dao

was corrupted(directory or file not readable or damaged).. solved with

• renaming the directory WEB-INF\classes as WEB-INF\classes_old
• Eclipse's Project menu--> Clean (to recreate directories)
• redeploy --> restart server.