Spring configuration XML not found for ApplicationContext

Question

I have this very simple project made with NetBeans 8.1 (new project > Maven > Java application):

Here's App.java:

import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;

public class App {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println("why");

        ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("Beans.xml");

        MyObject obj = (MyObject) context.getBean("myobj");

        obj.getMessage();
    }

}

This is MyObject.java:

public class MyObject {
    private String message;

    public String getMessage() {
        return message;
    }

    public void setMessage(String message) {
        this.message = message;
    }

}

And Beans.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<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-3.0.xsd">

   <bean id="myobj" class="asd.spring1.MyObject">
       <property name="message" value="Hello World!"/>
   </bean>

</beans>

pom.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project 
    xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" 
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>asd</groupId>
    <artifactId>Spring1</artifactId>
    <version>1.0</version>
    <packaging>jar</packaging>
    <properties>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
        <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
        <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
    </properties>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
            <version>4.3.5.RELEASE</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

</project>

If I try to run the project I get FileNotFoundException:

why
Dec 25, 2016 7:05:13 PM org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext prepareRefresh
INFO: Refreshing org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext@4d405ef7: startup date [Sun Dec 25 19:05:13 EET 2016]; root of context hierarchy
Dec 25, 2016 7:05:13 PM org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader loadBeanDefinitions
INFO: Loading XML bean definitions from class path resource [Beans.xml]
Exception in thread "main" org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: IOException parsing XML document from class path resource [Beans.xml]; nested exception is java.io.FileNotFoundException: class path resource [Beans.xml] cannot be opened because it does not exist
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:344)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:304)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:181)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:217)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:188)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:252)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractXmlApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractXmlApplicationContext.java:127)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractXmlApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractXmlApplicationContext.java:93)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.refreshBeanFactory(AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.java:129)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.obtainFreshBeanFactory(AbstractApplicationContext.java:613)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:514)
    at org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.<init>(ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.java:139)
    at org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.<init>(ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.java:83)
    at asd.spring1.App.main(App.java:11)
Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: class path resource [Beans.xml] cannot be opened because it does not exist
    at org.springframework.core.io.ClassPathResource.getInputStream(ClassPathResource.java:172)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:330)
    ... 13 more

As you can see I have put Beans.xml everywhere. Do you know why am I getting error and how can I fix this?

Answer 1

You can check compiled JAR that it doesn't contain Beans.xml. See explanation below.

First of all, you shouldn't place non-java files to src/main/java directory.

Secondly, you can check Maven's build output (default invocation of resources plugin): it uses src/main/resources directory to search resources by default.

As a result, you should to place your XML files to src/main/resources directory.

See Maven Resources Plugin for more details.

Answer 2

Do you have your Beans.xml inside target folder, you need to have your xml file somewhere inside directory where your compiled classes are.

Also if you have building and running your app with ID (so it compiles and moves classes by default in some folder), you can also try to put
ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("classpath*:Beans.xml"); to be sure to check all packages in classpath for your config class.