java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.apache.myfaces.webapp.StartupServletContextListener

Question

I get the following exception on startup of my JSF web application:

SEVERE: Error configuring application listener of class org.apache.myfaces.webapp.StartupServletContextListener
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.apache.myfaces.webapp.StartupServletContextListener
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1387)
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1233)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:3786)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4342)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1045)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:719)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1045)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:443)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:516)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:710)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:578)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:288)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:413)

This my web.xml file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app version="2.5" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"      xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee   http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd">
 <display-name>J2S</display-name>
 <context-param>
  <description>State saving method: 'client' or 'server' (=default). See JSF Specification 2.5.2</description>
  <param-name>javax.faces.STATE_SAVING_METHOD</param-name>
  <param-value>client</param-value>
 </context-param>
 <context-param>
  <param-name>javax.servlet.jsp.jstl.fmt.localizationContext</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
 </context-param>
 <context-param>
  <param-name>org.apache.myfaces.ALLOW_JAVASCRIPT</param-name>
  <param-value>true</param-value>
 </context-param>
 <context-param>
  <param-name>org.apache.myfaces.AUTO_SCROLL</param-name>
  <param-value>true</param-value>
 </context-param>
 <context-param>
  <param-name>org.apache.myfaces.DETECT_JAVASCRIPT</param-name>
  <param-value>false</param-value>
 </context-param>
 <context-param>
  <param-name>org.apache.myfaces.PRETTY_HTML</param-name>
  <param-value>true</param-value>
 </context-param>
 <listener>
  <listener-class>org.apache.myfaces.webapp.StartupServletContextListener</listener-class>
</listener>
 <servlet>
  <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
  <servlet-class>javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet</servlet-class>
  <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
 </servlet>
 <servlet-mapping>
  <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
  <url-pattern>*.jsf</url-pattern>
 </servlet-mapping>
 <servlet-mapping>
  <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
  <url-pattern>*.faces</url-pattern>
 </servlet-mapping>
<servlet-mapping>
  <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
  <url-pattern>/faces/*</url-pattern>
 </servlet-mapping>
 <welcome-file-list>
  welcome-file>index.xhtml</welcome-file>
 </welcome-file-list>
</web-app>

How is this exception caused and how can I solve it?

Answer 1

java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.apache.myfaces.webapp.StartupServletContextListener

The ClassNotFoundException means that the mentioned class is missing in the application's runtime classpath. The mentioned class is part of MyFaces JSF implementation. You need to download the MyFaces Core Distribution, unpack the file and put the JAR files found in the /lib folder in the /WEB-INF/lib folder of your webapp project. Note that MyFaces ships with three myfaces-*.jar files, you should put either both the myfaces-api and myfaces-impl JAR files, or alone the myfaces-bundle JAR file in the /WEB-INF/lib.

Answer 2

I had the same problem using Tomcat7 on Eclipse. I had all the required jar files. I discoverd that it was due to a wrong configuration of the server. Be sure, while creating a dynamic web project on Eclipse, to choose for Tomcat the JSF configuration, not the default one.