Exception while starting spring web mvc application

Question

My spring project works fine when I am using spring 3.2.9 but if I changed it to 4.1.4 I get following exception when i m starting the application.

<org.springframework-version>4.1.4.RELEASE</org.springframework-version>

here is the exception details of the exception:

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'requestMappingHandlerAdapter' defined in class path resource [org/springframework/web/servlet/config/annotation/DelegatingWebMvcConfiguration.class]: Bean instantiation via factory method failed; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.BeanInstantiationException: Failed to instantiate [org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter]: Factory method 'requestMappingHandlerAdapter' threw exception; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'mvcValidator' defined in class path resource [org/springframework/web/servlet/config/annotation/DelegatingWebMvcConfiguration.class]: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.AbstractMethodError: org.hibernate.validator.engine.ConfigurationImpl.getDefaultParameterNameProvider()Ljavax/validation/ParameterNameProvider;
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.ConstructorResolver.instantiateUsingFactoryMethod(ConstructorResolver.java:599)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.instantiateUsingFactoryMethod(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1111)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBeanInstance(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1006)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:504)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:476)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:303)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:230)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:299)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:194)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:762)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:757)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:480)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.configureAndRefreshWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:663)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:629)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:677)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:548)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initServletBean(FrameworkServlet.java:489)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.HttpServletBean.init(HttpServletBean.java:136)
    at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:158)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.initServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1241)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1154)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:1041)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:4944)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5230)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:725)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:701)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:714)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDescriptor(HostConfig.java:581)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployDescriptor.run(HostConfig.java:1683)
    at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:511)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)

Answer 1

The key statement of your stack trace is:

java.lang.AbstractMethodError: org.hibernate.validator.internal.engine.ConfigurationImpl.getDefaultParameterNameProvider()Ljavax/validation/ParameterNameProvider;

This answer seems also to apply to your problem description/exception message: You have a conflicting javax.validation version!

Hint: I prefer Netbeans' "Graph View" (of a pom editor) for identification & elimination of dependency conflicts (especially after some version upgrade). The "pure-maven-way" would be:

mvn dependency:tree -Dverbose -Dincludes=javax.validation