Springs Element 'beans' cannot have character [children], because the type's content type is element-only

Question

I search some page in stackoverflow to solve this problem, did follow some true answer but not working. I am new in spring , sorry. here is my dispatcher-servlet

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' ?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p"
       xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
       xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc" 
       xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop"

       xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans 
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-4.0.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context    
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-4.0.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc 
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-4.0.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop 
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-4.0.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx 
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-4.0.xsd">

 <context:component-scan base-package="controller" />
  <mvc:annotation-driven />
    <bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.support.ControllerClassNameHandlerMapping"/>

    <bean id="urlMapping" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.SimpleUrlHandlerMapping">
        <property name="mappings">
            <props>
                <prop key="index.htm">indexController</prop>
            </props>
        </property>
    </bean>

    <bean id="viewResolver"
          class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver"
          p:prefix="/WEB-INF/jsp/"
          p:suffix=".jsp" />
    <bean name="indexController"
          class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.ParameterizableViewController"
          p:viewName="index" />

</beans>   < -- line 52 here...

Here is my web.xml

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <web-app version="3.1" 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">
        <context-param>
            <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
            <param-value>/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml</param-value>
        </context-param>
        <listener>
            <listener-
          class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
        </listener>
        <servlet>
            <servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
            <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet- 
class>
            <load-on-startup>2</load-on-startup>
        </servlet>
        <servlet-mapping>
            <servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
            <url-pattern>*.htm</url-pattern>
        </servlet-mapping>
        <session-config>
            <session-timeout>
                30
            </session-timeout>
        </session-config>
        <welcome-file-list>
            <welcome-file>redirect.jsp</welcome-file>
        </welcome-file-list>
    </web-app>

And my ApplicationContext

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' ?>
<!-- was: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> -->
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p"
       xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop"
       xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans 
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-4.0.xsd
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop 
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-4.0.xsd
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx 
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-4.0.xsd">

    <!--bean id="propertyConfigurer"
    class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer"
          p:location="/WEB-INF/jdbc.properties" />

<bean id="dataSource"
    class="org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DriverManagerDataSource"
    p:driverClassName="${jdbc.driverClassName}"
    p:url="${jdbc.url}"
    p:username="${jdbc.username}"
    p:password="${jdbc.password}" 
</beans>

I have controller package in Source Package. The log say:

 04-Nov-2014 07:15:34.187 SEVERE [http-nio-8084-exec-375] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke Allocate exception for servlet dispatcher
 org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; lineNumber: 52; columnNumber: 9; cvc-complex-type.2.3: Element 'beans' cannot have character [children], because the type's content type is element-only.
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.util.ErrorHandlerWrapper.createSAXParseException(ErrorHandlerWrapper.java:198)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.util.ErrorHandlerWrapper.error(ErrorHandlerWrapper.java:134)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLErrorReporter.reportError(XMLErrorReporter.java:437)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLErrorReporter.reportError(XMLErrorReporter.java:368)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLErrorReporter.reportError(XMLErrorReporter.java:325)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.xs.XMLSchemaValidator$XSIErrorReporter.reportError(XMLSchemaValidator.java:458)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.xs.XMLSchemaValidator.reportSchemaError(XMLSchemaValidator.java:3237)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.xs.XMLSchemaValidator.elementLocallyValidComplexType(XMLSchemaValidator.java:3200)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.xs.XMLSchemaValidator.elementLocallyValidType(XMLSchemaValidator.java:3160)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.xs.XMLSchemaValidator.processElementContent(XMLSchemaValidator.java:3062)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.xs.XMLSchemaValidator.handleEndElement(XMLSchemaValidator.java:2140)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.xs.XMLSchemaValidator.endElement(XMLSchemaValidator.java:859)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanEndElement(XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.java:1782)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl$FragmentContentDriver.next(XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.java:2973)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentScannerImpl.next(XMLDocumentScannerImpl.java:606)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLNSDocumentScannerImpl.next(XMLNSDocumentScannerImpl.java:117)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanDocument(XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.java:510)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(XML11Configuration.java:848)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(XML11Configuration.java:777)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XMLParser.parse(XMLParser.java:141)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.DOMParser.parse(DOMParser.java:243)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.DocumentBuilderImpl.parse(DocumentBuilderImpl.java:347)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultDocumentLoader.loadDocument(DefaultDocumentLoader.java:76)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.doLoadDocument(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:428)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.doLoadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:390)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:335)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:303)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:180)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:216)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:187)
    at org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:125)
    at org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:94)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.refreshBeanFactory(AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.java:129)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.obtainFreshBeanFactory(AbstractApplicationContext.java:540)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:454)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.configureAndRefreshWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:658)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:624)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:672)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:543)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initServletBean(FrameworkServlet.java:484)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.HttpServletBean.init(HttpServletBean.java:136)
    at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:158)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.initServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1241)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1154)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.allocate(StandardWrapper.java:827)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:135)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:106)
    at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:503)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:136)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:79)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.AbstractAccessLogValve.invoke(AbstractAccessLogValve.java:610)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:88)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:526)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1078)
    at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:655)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11NioProtocol.java:222)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1566)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(NioEndpoint.java:1523)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)

remove 2 lines:

 <context:component-scan base-package="controller" />
      <mvc:annotation-driven />

then the project run normally. I do not know why....

Answer 1

I had the same problem. I looked at it for hours. I could not find any problem. Then I decided, sometimes you see something different if you use a different editor. I closed Netbeans and opened the file in emacs. I immediately saw, there were some kind of non-breaking space characters, or tabs, or some type of whitespace that wasn't whitespace. I don't know which character it was but it showed up in red in emacs, but was whitespace in Netban

Answer 2

Unfortunately mine was a simple mistake I type a '.' character in the middle.

Solved by just removing the '.' - so will get this type of error if any unused and unknown character is present in the configuration file.

Answer 3

Follow the below steps outlined and you should be able to resolve it :

1. Try to open the xml in Internet Explorer or any xml view tool and see whether the xml is rendered properly.
2. Or you can do a ctrl + shift + F to format the xml file and see if xml is well formed or not.
3. With the above step you should be able to find the exact location where you need to make changes to make the xml well formed.
4. In my case I had to just remove the extra "<" closing tag to resolve the issue.

Answer 4

Noticed in the your dispatcher-servlet.xml file you are missing "<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>".

Please add it to top of file and re-run. Let me know if it doesn't work.

Answer 5

Yes, i experience thesame problem. I solved it by first: format the xml. Then i took a keen look through the lines, i found an extra closing tag (/>) which have been blocking the closing tag from seeing the open tag. So i removed the bug (/>) and the program deployed.