Error configuring Spring ContextLoader Listener

[Deepanjali Reddy]

Hi,

I was trying to setup a new project using spring 3.1.0, Eclipse Helios and Tomcat 6. I am not using maven / ant.
I created a dynamic web project in eclipse and added all spring libraries to the project as "external jars".

I have added spring configuration in web.xml as mentioned below.

<servlet>
		<servlet-name>applicationServlet</servlet-name>
		<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
	</servlet>
	<servlet-mapping>
		<servlet-name>applicationServlet</servlet-name>
		<url-pattern>*.htm</url-pattern>
	</servlet-mapping>
	<listener>
		<listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
	</listener>

The project built successfully with all spring classes and when I started tomcat, the below exception is thrown.

java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
	at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1645)
	at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1491)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:4078)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4630)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1045)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:785)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1045)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:445)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:519)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:710)
	at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:581)
	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:289)
	at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:414)

I suspect tomcat is not identifying spring libraries.
one solution is already suggested by group members which requires maven.
could somebody just let me know if it is possible to fix this problem without using maven / ant?

Thanks in advance.
Deepa.

[Mark Spritzler]

Yes, include the Spring jars into your classpath for Tomcat. Either by including them in your war's lib directory, or putting them in your TOmcat lib directory, but I recommend including them in your war.

Mark

[Deepanjali Reddy]

Thanks Mark.
After adding the jars to war , tomcat identified spring libraries and started without errors.

--Deepa.