Exception: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: jakarta/servlet/Filter

Question

Upgraded springboot version 2.1.18.RELEASE to 2.7.16 and java 8 to java 17 Project build completed successfully but I am getting below error when i run the program locally.

Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: jakarta/servlet/Filter
  at java.base/java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods0(Native Method) ~[na:na]
  at java.base/java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredMethods(Class.java:3402) ~[na:na]
  at java.base/java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods(Class.java:2504) ~[na:na]
  at org.springframework.util.ReflectionUtils.getDeclaredMethods(ReflectionUtils.java:465) ~[spring-core-6.0.12.jar:6.0.12]
  ... 38 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: jakarta.servlet.Filter
  at java.base/jdk.internal.loader.BuiltinClassLoader.loadClass(BuiltinClassLoader.java:641) ~[na:na]
  at java.base/jdk.internal.loader.ClassLoaders$AppClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoaders.java:188) ~[na:na]
  at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:520) ~[na:na]
  ... 42 common frames omitted

Dependencies used: excluded some project related dependencies

<dependencies>
        
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.kafka</groupId>
            <artifactId>kafka-clients</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-actuator</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-oauth2-resource-server</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-security</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-security-core</artifactId>
        </dependency>
    <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.embed</groupId>
            <artifactId>tomcat-embed-core</artifactId>
            <version>${tomcat-embed.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.embed</groupId>
            <artifactId>tomcat-embed-el</artifactId>
            <version>${tomcat-embed.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.embed</groupId>
            <artifactId>tomcat-embed-websocket</artifactId>
            <version>${tomcat-embed.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.tomcat</groupId>
            <artifactId>tomcat-annotations-api</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>net.logstash.logback</groupId>
            <artifactId>logstash-logback-encoder</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.micrometer</groupId>
            <artifactId>micrometer-registry-prometheus</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.google.guava</groupId>
            <artifactId>guava</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
            <artifactId>jackson-core</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
            <artifactId>jackson-annotations</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
            <artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-context-support</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>commons-validator</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-validator</artifactId>
            <version>1.4.0</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-collections4</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.json</groupId>
            <artifactId>json</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
            <version>7.0.4.Final</version>
        </dependency>

<!--        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.swagger.codegen.v3</groupId>
            <artifactId>swagger-codegen</artifactId>
            <version>${swagger.codegen.version}</version>
        </dependency>-->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.agileware</groupId>
            <artifactId>smartunit</artifactId>
            <version>0.10.2</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-security-test</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-devtools</artifactId>
            <optional>true</optional>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.github.stefanbirkner</groupId>
            <artifactId>system-lambda</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.1</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.testcontainers</groupId>
            <artifactId>testcontainers</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.testcontainers</groupId>
            <artifactId>kafka</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <!-- Postgres -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.postgresql</groupId>
            <artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.h2database</groupId>
            <artifactId>h2</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.flywaydb</groupId>
            <artifactId>flyway-core</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.testcontainers</groupId>
            <artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-openfeign</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>jakarta.validation</groupId>
            <artifactId>jakarta.validation-api</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>jakarta.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>jakarta.servlet-api</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

Upgraded springboot version 2.1.18.RELEASE to 2.7.16 and java 8 to java 17 Project build completed successfully but I am getting below error when i run the program locally.

Methods tried:

Added jetty-server (11.x and 12.x )dependencies compatible with Jakarta versions (6.0.0, 5.0.0 )with varying versions

Tomcat versions 9.x and 10.x were tested

PS: When I comment @EnableSwagger2 in my code the error does not appear, but I need to use the annotation for my code

Did not tried adding the dependency: springdoc-openapi-starter-webmvc-ui.

Questions i would like to have answers to:

1. How to solve this error?

2. Is there any other method other than adding springdoc-openapi-starter-webmvc-ui dependency or above methods? and if possible could you please explain why.

Thanks in Advance!

Answer 1

It seems you have a mix-up in the spring version in your project.

• SpringBoot 2.7.16 is javax based version
• SpringBoot 3+ is jakarta based version

In the stacktrace you mentionned, I see that you have spring-core 6

[...]ReflectionUtils.getDeclaredMethods(ReflectionUtils.java:465) ~[spring-core-6.0.12.jar:6.0.12]

This version of spring-core is jakarta based (see Spring Framework Versions wiki).

Since you're targeting SB 2.7, you should have spring-core in 5.x version.

In order to fix your project, I'd suggest

• checking where you're having the spring-core 6 dependency and fixing that dependency
• or move to SB 3 target version (that fully support Jakarta)