Head First Servlets & JSP - Tomcat error

[Christopher Justman]

I have been troubleshooting this error for over a week with no results. So I am hoping to get some help here. I am assuming it is something simple but I can't find it

I am going through the Head First Servlets & JSP book, in the chapter 3 beer advice application tomcat will not successfully the start the application.

I have attempted re-installing different version of Tomcat using the windows installer and the zip versions.

Tomcat: 5.5.27
OS: Vista Home Premium SP1

Error:
Nov 4, 2008 7:10:28 AM org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig applicationWebConfig
SEVERE: Parse error in application web.xml file at jndi:/localhost/beerv1/WEB-INF/web.xml
org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: Element type "web-app" must be followed by either attribute specifications, ">" or "/>".
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.parse(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.SAXParserImpl$JAXPSAXParser.parse(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.Digester.parse(Digester.java:1562)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.applicationWebConfig(ContextConfig.java:348)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.start(ContextConfig.java:1048)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.lifecycleEvent(ContextConfig.java:261)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:120)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4148)
at org.apache.catalina.manager.ManagerServlet.start(ManagerServlet.java:1173)
at org.apache.catalina.manager.HTMLManagerServlet.start(HTMLManagerServlet.java:549)
at org.apache.catalina.manager.HTMLManagerServlet.doGet(HTMLManagerServlet.java:105)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:627)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:269)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:188)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:213)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:172)
at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:525)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:127)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:117)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:108)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:174)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:875)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11BaseProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11BaseProtocol.java:665)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.PoolTcpEndpoint.processSocket(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:528)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.runIt(LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.java:81)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:689)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Nov 4, 2008 7:10:28 AM org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig applicationWebConfig
SEVERE: Occurred at line 2 column 15
Nov 4, 2008 7:10:28 AM org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig start
SEVERE: Marking this application unavailable due to previous error(s)
Nov 4, 2008 7:10:28 AM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext start
SEVERE: Error getConfigured
Nov 4, 2008 7:10:28 AM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext start
SEVERE: Context [/beerv1] startup failed due to previous errors


web.xml:

<web-app 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/web-app_2_4.xsd"
version="2.4">
<servlet>
<servlet-name>Ch3 Beer</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.example.web.BeerSelect</servlet-class>
</servlet>
 
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>Ch3 Beer</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/SelectBeer.do</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
</web-app> 

[ November 04, 2008: Message edited by: Christopher Justman ]

[Bear Bibeault]

Well, it's certainly unhappy with your web.xml. The schema location looks suspect, but I'd not expect the error you are getting.

If it helps, here's the header I use in my web apps:

<web-app 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 <a href="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd"</a>
         version="2.4">
 
    

P.S. Please be sure to use UBB code tags when posting code to the forums. Unformatted code is extremely hard to read and many people that might be able to help you will just move along to posts that are easier to read. Please read this for more information.

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[Christopher Justman]

Hello Bear,

Thanks for the heads up on the UBB code tags, I have updated my post.

I will give the schema locator a try.

Thanks again

[Christopher Justman]

Hello Bear,

I tried the schema location you posted but still getting the error. Thanks for the suggestion.


Updated web.xml file:

  
<web-app 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 <a href="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd"</a> 
version="2.4">
<servlet>
<servlet-name>Ch3 Beer</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.example.web.BeerSelect</servlet-class>
</servlet>
 
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>Ch3 Beer</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/SelectBeer.do</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
</web-app>
  

[Bear Bibeault]

I can't see anything wrong.

Grasping at straws: are you sure there aren't any weird characters in the file?

[Christopher Justman]

I don't think so, I have recreated the file many times. Some times from scratch and others time using cut and paste. But I have not looked at the file in hex editor, I will give that a try.

Thanks.

[Christopher Justman]

Hello Bear,

Thanks for the help. I looked at the web.xml file in a hex editor and didn't find any strange characters.

I did finally get the problem fixed!!! I took an example application that came with Tomcat and renamed the directory structure and the added my servlet tags to the existing web.xml file and moved over my needed files.



Thanks again!