Spring Boot - java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextInitializer

Question

I am trying to deploy a simple Spring Boot web app to Pivotal Cloud foundry, but I get the below error in my logs when i perform a cf push

java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextInitializer

Here is my pom.xml

    <parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>1.4.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <relativePath /> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
</parent>

<properties>
    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    <java.version>1.7</java.version>
</properties>

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-webmvc-portlet</artifactId>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

<repositories>
    <repository>
        <id>spring-snapshots</id>
        <name>Spring Snapshots</name>
        <url>https://repo.spring.io/snapshot</url>
        <snapshots>
            <enabled>true</enabled>
        </snapshots>
    </repository>
    <repository>
        <id>spring-milestones</id>
        <name>Spring Milestones</name>
        <url>https://repo.spring.io/milestone</url>
        <snapshots>
            <enabled>false</enabled>
        </snapshots>
    </repository>
</repositories>
<pluginRepositories>
    <pluginRepository>
        <id>spring-snapshots</id>
        <name>Spring Snapshots</name>
        <url>https://repo.spring.io/snapshot</url>
        <snapshots>
            <enabled>true</enabled>
        </snapshots>
    </pluginRepository>
    <pluginRepository>
        <id>spring-milestones</id>
        <name>Spring Milestones</name>
        <url>https://repo.spring.io/milestone</url>
        <snapshots>
            <enabled>false</enabled>
        </snapshots>
    </pluginRepository>
</pluginRepositories>

The same app gets deployed in my local host and I have no issues building the war. Any thoughts on this ?

Looks like you may want to try deploying without tomcat and using a fat jar. A little confused by the portlet dependency. Is it a portlet? — code
This is a current limitation of CloudFoundry's Java buildpack. It doesn't yet support Spring Boot 1.4 due to a change in the layout of Spring Boot's executable jars: github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/wiki/…. Using Spring Boot 1.3.3.RELEASE will avoid the problem for the time being. — Andy Wilkinson

curlingdude curlingdude · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-15T18:21:46

As Andy Wilkinson pointed out, this is an issue in a mismatch between Spring Boot 1.4 and the java_buildpack. It can be solved by explicitly mentioning the URL to the java_buildpack:

$ cf push -b https://github.com/cloudfoundry/java-buildpack.git …

Spring Boot - java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.springframework.context.ApplicationContextInitializer

2 Answers