Spring MVC HTTP Error 500 : Servlet.init() for servlet notices threw exception

Question

I'm trying to run a simple Spring MVC project.

It should basically run a .jsp file from the WEB-INF and show "Hello World!" as the tutorial suggested. When I'm running the project it's showing:

HTTP Status 500 - Servlet.init() for servlet notices threw exception

Here is what the error page contains:

type Exception report

message Servlet.init() for servlet notices threw exception

description The server encountered an internal error that prevented it from fulfilling this request.

exception

javax.servlet.ServletException: Servlet.init() for servlet notices threw exception org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:501) org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:79) org.apache.catalina.valves.AbstractAccessLogValve.invoke(AbstractAccessLogValve.java:610) org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:537) org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1085) org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:658) org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11NioProtocol.java:222) org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1556) org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(NioEndpoint.java:1513) java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source) java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source) org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61) java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source) root cause

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: IOException parsing XML document from ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/notices-servlet.xml]; nested exception is java.io.FileNotFoundException: Could not open ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/notices-servlet.xml] org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:341) org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:302) org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:174) org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:209) org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:180) org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:125) org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:94) org.springframework.context.support.AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.refreshBeanFactory(AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.java:130) org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.obtainFreshBeanFactory(AbstractApplicationContext.java:537) org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:451) org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.configureAndRefreshWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:651) org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:599) org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:665) org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:518) org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initServletBean(FrameworkServlet.java:459) org.springframework.web.servlet.HttpServletBean.init(HttpServletBean.java:136) javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:158) org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:501) org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:79) org.apache.catalina.valves.AbstractAccessLogValve.invoke(AbstractAccessLogValve.java:610) org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:537) org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1085) org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:658) org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11NioProtocol.java:222) org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1556) org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(NioEndpoint.java:1513) java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source) java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source) org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61) java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source) root cause

java.io.FileNotFoundException: Could not open ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/notices-servlet.xml] org.springframework.web.context.support.ServletContextResource.getInputStream(ServletContextResource.java:140) org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:328) org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:302) org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:174) org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:209) org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:180) org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:125) org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:94) org.springframework.context.support.AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.refreshBeanFactory(AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.java:130) org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.obtainFreshBeanFactory(AbstractApplicationContext.java:537) org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:451) org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.configureAndRefreshWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:651) org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:599) org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:665) org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:518) org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initServletBean(FrameworkServlet.java:459) org.springframework.web.servlet.HttpServletBean.init(HttpServletBean.java:136) javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:158) org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:501) org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:79) org.apache.catalina.valves.AbstractAccessLogValve.invoke(AbstractAccessLogValve.java:610) org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:537) org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1085) org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:658) org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11NioProtocol.java:222) org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1556) org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(NioEndpoint.java:1513) java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source) java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source) org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61) java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Here is my web.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5">
  <display-name>WebMVC</display-name>
  <welcome-file-list>
    <welcome-file>index.html</welcome-file>
    <welcome-file>index.htm</welcome-file>
    <welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
    <welcome-file>default.html</welcome-file>
    <welcome-file>default.htm</welcome-file>
    <welcome-file>default.jsp</welcome-file>
  </welcome-file-list>
  <servlet>
    <description></description>
    <display-name>notices</display-name>
    <servlet-name>notices</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
  </servlet>
  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>notices</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>
</web-app>

Here is the notices-servlet.xml file:

<?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.xsd">
</beans>

Here is the the HelloWorld.jsp :

<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
    pageEncoding="ISO-8859-1"%>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
    <head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
    <title>Insert title here</title>
</head>
<body>
    Hello World!
</body>

I've tried almost every Spring MVC HTTP error 500 solution out there. But they are not solving the error I'm getting. What is causing the error, and how can I solve it?

Where is your notices-servlet.xml file located? From this: FileNotFoundException: Could not open ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/notices-servlet.xml it seems like it's not in WEB-INF where it should be. — Bohuslav Burghardt
My bad. Placing the notices-servlet.xml file in WEB-INF fixed the problem. Thanks a lot. — Ashzabin Wadud

Tanvir Hossain Khan Tanvir Hossain Khan · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-10T09:11:35

I guess the problem is with the notices-servlet.xml file. Check the "WEB-INF" folder for the ServletContext resource. Try again running the project after putting the notices-servlet.xml in the "WEB-INF" folder. Hope that will do!

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Spring MVC HTTP Error 500 : Servlet.init() for servlet notices threw exception

1 Answers