ApplicationEventMulticaster not initialized - call 'refresh' before multicasting events

Question

I am trying to implement ehcache for my application but when try invoking the server, getting the following error -

java.lang.IllegalStateException: ApplicationEventMulticaster not initialized - call 'refresh' before multicasting events via the context: WebApplicationContext for namespace 'dispatcher-servlet': startup date [Thu Apr 16 14:37:53 IST 2015]; root of context hierarchy
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.getApplicationEventMulticaster(AbstractApplicationContext.java:344)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.publishEvent(AbstractApplicationContext.java:331)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.publishRequestHandledEvent(FrameworkServlet.java:1061)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:996)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet(FrameworkServlet.java:852)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:620)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.service(FrameworkServlet.java:837)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:727)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:303)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:208)
    at org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:52)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:241)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:208)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:220)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:122)
    at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:503)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:170)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:103)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:950)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:116)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:421)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1070)
    at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:611)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:314)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Steps that I did follow -

STEP1 - Created ehcache.xml file under /src/main/resources as can be seen below -

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ehcache xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="ehcache.xsd" 
    updateCheck="true"
    monitoring="autodetect" 
    dynamicConfig="true">

    <diskStore path="java.io.tmpdir" />

    <cache name="movieFindCache" 
        maxEntriesLocalHeap="10000"
        maxEntriesLocalDisk="1000" 
        eternal="false" 
        diskSpoolBufferSizeMB="20"
        timeToIdleSeconds="300" timeToLiveSeconds="600"
        memoryStoreEvictionPolicy="LFU" 
        transactionalMode="off">
        <persistence strategy="localTempSwap" />
    </cache>

</ehcache>

STEP2 - Added following to appconfig.java

@Bean
    public CacheManager getEhCacheManager(){
            return  new EhCacheCacheManager(getEhCacheFactory().getObject());
    }
    @Bean
    public EhCacheManagerFactoryBean getEhCacheFactory(){
        EhCacheManagerFactoryBean factoryBean = new EhCacheManagerFactoryBean();
        factoryBean.setConfigLocation(new ClassPathResource("ehcache.xml"));
        factoryBean.setShared(true);
        return factoryBean;
    }

STEP3 - Added following to webappinitializer.java which is called on startup

AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext ctx = new AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext();  
        ctx.register(AppConfig.class);  
        ctx.register(HibernateConfiguration.class); 
        ctx.setServletContext(servletContext);    
        Dynamic dynamic = servletContext.addServlet("dispatcher", new DispatcherServlet(ctx));  
        dynamic.setLoadOnStartup(1); 

STEP4 - pom.xml contains -

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-tx</artifactId>
        <version>4.0.6.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-orm</artifactId>
        <version>4.0.6.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
        <artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>junit</groupId>
        <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
        <version>3.8.1</version>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.8.Final</version>
    </dependency>




    <dependency>
        <groupId>net.sf.ehcache</groupId>
        <artifactId>ehcache</artifactId>
        <version>2.9.0</version>
    </dependency>

        <!-- Optional, to log stuff -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>ch.qos.logback</groupId>
        <artifactId>logback-classic</artifactId>
        <version>1.0.13</version>
    </dependency>

    <!-- Spring caching framework inside this -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
        <version>4.1.4.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>

    <!-- Support for Ehcache and others -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-context-support</artifactId>
        <version>4.1.4.RELEASE</version>
    </dependency>





    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate-osgi</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.8.Final</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate-envers</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.8.Final</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate-c3p0</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.8.Final</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate-proxool</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.8.Final</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate-infinispan</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.8.Final</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate-ehcache</artifactId>
        <version>4.3.8.Final</version>
    </dependency>

I am unable to understand the root cause of the above error. Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

This is kinda stupid but my problem was that I had placed the @SpringBootApplication class (namely App, Application, WebApplication in most projects) inside the default package. Hence, everything was in total disarray.

I'm not sure why this exact error showed up, but moving the application class to a package sure fixed it.