[servlets] java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: HttpServletRequest

I just got tomcat 7.0.27. I have kept the time to start tomcat 45sec. Also it was running fine with older version on tomcat. but running it I get the following error :

SEVERE: A child container failed during start
java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/VotingApp]]
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerGet(FutureTask.java:222)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.get(FutureTask.java:83)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.startInternal(ContainerBase.java:1128)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.startInternal(StandardHost.java:782)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1566)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1556)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:303)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:680)
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/VotingApp]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:154)
    ... 7 more
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: HttpServletRequest
    at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredMethods(Class.java:2427)
    at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods(Class.java:1791)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.WebAnnotationSet.getDeclaredMethods(WebAnnotationSet.java:470)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.WebAnnotationSet.loadMethodsAnnotation(WebAnnotationSet.java:275)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.WebAnnotationSet.loadApplicationServletAnnotations(WebAnnotationSet.java:137)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.WebAnnotationSet.loadApplicationAnnotations(WebAnnotationSet.java:66)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.applicationAnnotationsConfig(ContextConfig.java:381)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.configureStart(ContextConfig.java:858)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.lifecycleEvent(ContextConfig.java:345)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:119)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleBase.java:90)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5161)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    ... 7 more
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: HttpServletRequest
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1711)
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1556)
    ... 21 more
May 11, 2012 10:09:21 AM org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase startInternal
SEVERE: A child container failed during start
java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost]]
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerGet(FutureTask.java:222)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.get(FutureTask.java:83)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.startInternal(ContainerBase.java:1128)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.startInternal(StandardEngine.java:302)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.startInternal(StandardService.java:443)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.startInternal(StandardServer.java:732)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:675)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:322)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:450)
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:154)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1566)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1556)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:303)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:680)
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: A child container failed during start
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.startInternal(ContainerBase.java:1136)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.startInternal(StandardHost.java:782)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    ... 7 more
May 11, 2012 10:09:21 AM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start
SEVERE: Catalina.start: 
org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardServer[8005]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:154)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:675)
    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:322)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:450)
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardService[Catalina]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:154)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.startInternal(StandardServer.java:732)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    ... 7 more
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:154)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.startInternal(StandardService.java:443)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    ... 9 more
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: A child container failed during start
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.startInternal(ContainerBase.java:1136)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.startInternal(StandardEngine.java:302)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    ... 11 more
May 11, 2012 10:09:21 AM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start
INFO: Server startup in 561 ms

How do I resolve the error. I have looked into some similar posts but did not find it useful.

I came across the same problem when using eclipse-jee. I found the reason of this problem is that I had two or more duplicate @WebServlet("/yourServlet") definition in my web-app,so solution is to eliminate duplicates

If any project that you were using and now closed in workspace might lead to this issue, try deleting context from server folder inside eclipse or open the projects.

I have just deleted the declaration of the servlet in the web.xml file and it works for me.

Good luck

I had this issue too, and all I did to get rid of it was to delete the existing Server (in my case Tomcat) configurations from project and eclipse workspace.

This issue in my case occurred when I played around with my Maven settings and finally screwed them too. But eventually I fixed my Maven issues to realize the tomcat server wont start and failed to load the application context(s) of various apps involved in my project. That's when I decided to drop the existing server configurations.

I then added the Apache Server once again all over afresh. Then followed with my project specific setting/additions. And it finally worked like a charm.

add following in your pom.xml .it works for me.

     <dependency>
        <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
        <version>1.2</version>
     </dependency>

Thanks guys. All above failed except this that deleted all content from the file C:\Users\debasish\workspace\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.wst.server.core then creating server again.

But delete server first before deleting those file contents.

1 Right click on "your project" in Eclipse EE Project Explorer 2 Click on Properties 3 Click on Targeted Runtimes 4 Checkbox of the version you are currently working with 5 Apply and close

This should do the trick.

I had the same problem, and the cause was the missing of commons-logging-1.2.jar

I add it to the lib folder, then my Apache Tomcat 7 server executed without problems.

I did not have a servlet-api.jar in the application's WEB-INF/lib directory (or any other jar there). The problem was that in WEB-INF/web.xml I had this...

    ...
    <servlet>
      <servlet-name>MyServlet</servlet-name>
      <servlet-class>com.bizooka.net.MyServlet</servlet-class>
    </servlet>
    <servlet-mapping>
      <servlet-name>MyServlet</servlet-name>
      <url-pattern>/MyServlet</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>
    ...

...according to a tutorial. Removing that still allowed the servlet to function, and did not get the error.

you should add servler-api.jar file in WEB-INF/lib folder

The same error i got

Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: A child container failed during start

I deleted the project from eclipse work space , deleted .settings folder of project and re imported to the eclipse. Did the trick for me.

This one is for all the Maven users out there, using their dependencies for the classpath and not copying them into /WEB-INF/lib: just add this (which copies the dependency libraries) before </plugin>

<plugin>
    <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
        <executions>
            <execution>
                <phase>process-sources</phase>
                <goals>
                    <goal>copy-dependencies</goal>
                </goals>
                <configuration>
                    <outputDirectory>WebContent/WEB-INF/lib</outputDirectory>
                </configuration>
            </execution>
        </executions>
    </plugin>

So the problem is connected with the metadata errors of elcipse. Go to the metadata folder where this configuration is saved. For me one of the erorrs was that:

SEVERE: Error starting static Resources java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Document base C:\Users\Cannibal\workspace\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.wst.server.core\tmp0\wtpwebapps\FoodQuantityService does not exist or is not a readable directory

So go there is in the workspace of your eclipse it is different for all and delete all its content . My services was named FoodQuantityService so I deleted all files in org.eclipse.wst.server.core but before that delete your server configuration from Eclipse

Then create new configuration File->New->Other->Server select Tomcat and then projects which you want to be published. Start the server and everything will be ok.

Make sure you import the right annotation, because I had the same problem as you.

javax.servlet.annotation.*

Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: HttpServletRequest

The above problem can be because the javax library is not found.

I solved the same problem with:
Right click on the project in Eclipse ? Properties ? Java Build Path ? Libraries ? Add library... ? Server Runtime ? Apache Tomcat

I do have same problem when i was trying out with first Spring MVC webapp . What i had done was downloaded the jar files given from the link(Download spring framework). Among the jars on the zip extracted folder,the jar files I was expected to use were

• org.springframework.asm-3.0.1.RELEASE-A.jar

• org.springframework.beans-3.0.1.RELEASE-A.jar

• org.springframework.context-3.0.1.RELEASE-A.jar

• org.springframework.core-3.0.1.RELEASE-A.jar

• org.springframework.expression-3.0.1.RELEASE-A.jar

• org.springframework.web.servlet-3.0.1.RELEASE-A.jar

• org.springframework.web-3.0.1.RELEASE-A.jar

But as I get the Error, looking out for solution, I figured out that I also need the following jar too.

• commons-logging-1.0.4.jar

• jstl-1.2.jar

Then I searched and downloaded the two jar files separately and include them in /WEB-INF/lib folder. And finally I was able to get my webapp running using the Tomcat server. :)