spring - nested exception is java.lang.IncompatibleClassChangeError: org/springframework/core/type/classreading/AnnotationMetadataReadingVisitor

Question

I am new to Spring, and I need to get a project to run successfully with Eclipse on JDK7. The project was previously running on JDK6.

I have all the source files, and jars that belonged to the original project in place. But when I try to run it, I get the following exception:

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Failed to read candidate component class: file [C:Userseworkspace.metadata.pluginsorg.eclipse.wst.server.coremp1wtpwebappsDMControlWEB-INFclassescom.........MyClass.class]; nested exception is java.lang.IncompatibleClassChangeError: org/springframework/core/type/classreading/AnnotationMetadataReadingVisitor

The only clue I have is that the first time I tried to run this, I got an error saying that I don't have the

org.springframework.core.io.support.SpringFactoriesLoader. 

I looked in my spring-core-3.1.2.RELEASE.jar and indeed the SpringFactoriesLoader wasn't there. Checking the current release, I found out that the missing class is indeed in the spring-core-3.2.2.RELEASE.jar.

So I changed the spring jars to the latest version. But now I get the exception in the title of this question.

Any idea?

The full stacktrace:

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Failed to read candidate component class: file [C:Userseworkspace.metadata.pluginsorg.eclipse.wst.server.coremp1wtpwebappsFTAdControlWEB-INFclassescomfashiontrafficadcontrolhealth
estwebservicesHealthWSImpl.class]; nested exception is java.lang.IncompatibleClassChangeError: org/springframework/core/type/classreading/AnnotationMetadataReadingVisitor
at org.springframework.context.annotation.ClassPathScanningCandidateComponentProvider.findCandidateComponents(ClassPathScanningCandidateComponentProvider.java:281)
at org.springframework.context.annotation.ClassPathBeanDefinitionScanner.doScan(ClassPathBeanDefinitionScanner.java:242)
at org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScanBeanDefinitionParser.parse(ComponentScanBeanDefinitionParser.java:84)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.NamespaceHandlerSupport.parse(NamespaceHandlerSupport.java:73)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.parseCustomElement(BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.java:1438)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.parseCustomElement(BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.java:1428)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.parseBeanDefinitions(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:185)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.doRegisterBeanDefinitions(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:139)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.registerBeanDefinitions(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:108)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.registerBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:493)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.doLoadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:390)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:334)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:302)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:174)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:209)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:180)
at org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:125)
at org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:94)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.refreshBeanFactory(AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.java:130)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.obtainFreshBeanFactory(AbstractApplicationContext.java:537)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:451)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.configureAndRefreshWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:631)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:588)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:645)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:508)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initServletBean(FrameworkServlet.java:449)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.HttpServletBean.init(HttpServletBean.java:133)
at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:242)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.initServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1190)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1103)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:1010)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:4957)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext$3.call(StandardContext.java:5284)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext$3.call(StandardContext.java:5279)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Caused by: java.lang.IncompatibleClassChangeError: org/springframework/core/type/classreading/AnnotationMetadataReadingVisitor
at org.springframework.core.type.classreading.SimpleMetadataReader.<init>(SimpleMetadataReader.java:63)
at org.springframework.core.type.classreading.SimpleMetadataReaderFactory.getMetadataReader(SimpleMetadataReaderFactory.java:80)
at org.springframework.core.type.classreading.CachingMetadataReaderFactory.getMetadataReader(CachingMetadataReaderFactory.java:102)
at org.springframework.context.annotation.ClassPathScanningCandidateComponentProvider.findCandidateComponents(ClassPathScanningCandidateComponentProvider.java:257)
... 38 more

Answer 1

@Eddy, it sounds like you have jars from Spring 3.1 and 3.2 on your classpath, which isn't always bad but sometimes they don't play nicely together.

I had the same error on my Spring 3.2.2 project when I added spring-hateoas 0.4 which pulled in spring-webmvc 3.1.x and all of it's Spring 3.1 dependencies.

I excluded the Spring 3.1 dependencies, and all was well. Hope that helps.