SpringSource Tool Suite - can't run a Spring Template Project

Question

I'm trying to learn about Spring using SpringSource Tool Suite. I haven't had much successful experience with either at this stage.

So far I've been able to install STS and create a new project, but haven't gotten much further. The problem seems to occur when running the application on the tc Server. I'll run through the steps I've taken and perhaps someone can point out where I'm going wrong. For the record, I'm using Ubuntu 11.10.

• I installed STS using the this link, which I found on the SpringSource Tool Suite Download page.
• During installation of STS, I chose to install in my home folder /home/luke/springsource. I left all of the packs selected: SpringSource Tool Suite 2.8.0.RELEASE; vFabric tc Server 2.6.1.RELEASE; Spring Roo 1.1.5.RELEASE; Apache Maven 3.0.3
• When selecting the JDK path, I chose /usr/lib/jvm/default-java, which links to /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk.
• The installation completes successfully and I launch STS manually by going to the installation directory /home/luke/springsource/sts-2.8.0.RELEASE and executing the file STS. I had to do this to get STS to run despite having checked the box to run STS now at the end of installation (not sure if that's a real problem but thought it'd be worth mentioning).
• I choose my workspace /home/luke/Documents/workspace-sts-2.8.0.RELEASE and clicked OK. So far so good?
• In the dashboard I click Create > Spring Template Project.
• In the following dialog I click Spring MVC Project and click Next, then agree to download.
• In the Project Settings dialog, I give the project a name, springmvc, and a valid top-level package, then click Finish.
• I can now see my newly created project in the Package Explorer, as well as a Servers folder, plus the VMware vFabric tc Server Developer Edition v2.6 in the Server window.
• I drag the project to the server in the Server window and the project appears there with a [Synchronized] status. I then right-click the project in the Package Explorer and click Run As > Run on Server. The aforementioned server is there and selected, so I click Next. The project I created is in the Configured section of the next screen, so I click Finish. I'm asked if I want to use Spring Insight, so I click Yes and the server starts up.

Here's where the big trouble begins.

• I get the following output to the console and a 404 message in the browser window, which is pointed at http://localhost:8080/springmvc/

Console output:

Nov 3, 2011 4:21:29 PM com.springsource.tcserver.security.PropertyDecoder <init>
INFO: tc Runtime property decoder using memory-based key
Nov 3, 2011 4:21:30 PM com.springsource.tcserver.security.PropertyDecoder <init>
INFO: tcServer Runtime property decoder has been initialized in 924 ms
Nov 3, 2011 4:21:32 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init
INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["http-bio-8080"]
Nov 3, 2011 4:21:32 PM com.springsource.tcserver.serviceability.rmi.JmxSocketListener init
INFO: Started up JMX registry on 127.0.0.1:6969 in 368 ms
Nov 3, 2011 4:21:32 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina load
INFO: Initialization processed in 3809 ms
Nov 3, 2011 4:21:32 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService startInternal
INFO: Starting service Catalina
Nov 3, 2011 4:21:32 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine startInternal
INFO: Starting Servlet Engine: VMware vFabric tc Runtime 2.6.1.RELEASE/7.0.20.B.RELEASE
Nov 3, 2011 4:21:32 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig deployDescriptor
INFO: Deploying configuration descriptor springmvc.xml from /home/luke/springsource/vfabric-tc-server-developer-2.6.1.RELEASE/spring-insight-instance/conf/Catalina/localhost
Nov 3, 2011 4:21:33 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.SetContextPropertiesRule begin
WARNING: [SetContextPropertiesRule]{Context} Setting property 'source' to 'org.eclipse.jst.jee.server:springmvc' did not find a matching property.
Nov 3, 2011 4:21:33 PM com.springsource.insight.collection.tcserver.ltw.TomcatWeavingInsightClassLoader start
INFO: Context [localhost|springmvc] will not be woven
Nov 3, 2011 4:21:34 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext listenerStart
SEVERE: Error configuring application listener of class org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/springframework/context/ApplicationContextException
    at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredConstructors0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredConstructors(Class.java:2406)
    at java.lang.Class.getConstructor0(Class.java:2716)
    at java.lang.Class.newInstance0(Class.java:343)
    at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:325)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.newInstance(DefaultInstanceManager.java:119)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:4660)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext$1.call(StandardContext.java:5226)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext$1.call(StandardContext.java:5221)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:334)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:166)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1110)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:603)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:679)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextException
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1678)
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1523)
    ... 14 more
Nov 3, 2011 4:21:34 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext listenerStart
SEVERE: Skipped installing application listeners due to previous error(s)
Nov 3, 2011 4:21:34 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext startInternal
SEVERE: Error listenerStart
Nov 3, 2011 4:21:34 PM org.apache.catalina.util.SessionIdGenerator createSecureRandom
INFO: Creation of SecureRandom instance for session ID generation using [SHA1PRNG] took [227] milliseconds.
Nov 3, 2011 4:21:34 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext startInternal
SEVERE: Context [/springmvc] startup failed due to previous errors
Nov 3, 2011 4:21:34 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig deployDescriptor
INFO: Deploying configuration descriptor insight.xml from /home/luke/springsource/vfabric-tc-server-developer-2.6.1.RELEASE/spring-insight-instance/conf/Catalina/localhost
Nov 3, 2011 4:21:41 PM com.springsource.insight.collection.tcserver.ltw.TomcatWeavingInsightClassLoader start
INFO: Context [localhost|insight] will not be woven
Nov 3, 2011 4:21:42 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: Initializing Spring root WebApplicationContext
Nov 3, 2011 4:22:00 PM org.apache.jasper.compiler.TldLocationsCache tldScanJar
INFO: At least one JAR was scanned for TLDs yet contained no TLDs. Enable debug logging for this logger for a complete list of JARs that were scanned but no TLDs were found in them. Skipping unneeded JARs during scanning can improve startup time and JSP compilation time.
Nov 3, 2011 4:22:11 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: Initializing Spring FrameworkServlet 'Spring MVC Dispatcher Servlet'
Nov 3, 2011 4:22:18 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig deployDirectory
INFO: Deploying web application directory manager
Nov 3, 2011 4:22:18 PM com.springsource.insight.collection.tcserver.ltw.TomcatWeavingInsightClassLoader start
INFO: Context [localhost|manager] will not be woven
Nov 3, 2011 4:22:18 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig deployDirectory
INFO: Deploying web application directory ROOT
Nov 3, 2011 4:22:18 PM com.springsource.insight.collection.tcserver.ltw.TomcatWeavingInsightClassLoader start
INFO: Context [localhost|ROOT] will not be woven
Nov 3, 2011 4:22:18 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol start
INFO: Starting ProtocolHandler ["http-bio-8080"]
Nov 3, 2011 4:22:19 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start
INFO: Server startup in 46286 ms

Any help in deciphering this, figuring out a solution and pointing out what I'm doing wrong here in what seems like a very simple use case of STS, would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

ditto Ralph.

selected the top level project, went to

Run As > Maven Clean  
Run As > Maven Install  
Run As > Run on Server  

and it went through correctly. I'm not sure why it was failing on the first place though, or why installing it twice fixes it.

Answer 2

Looks like the Project is not correct deployed to the server. The context menu, for the server contains a option to clean it. After you have clean it use the same context menu and publish the application. Then try it again.

(An other cause for this problem can be that there is a compiler failure.)