Spring BeanDefinitionStoreException

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1. Overview

In this article, we will discuss the Spring org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException – this is typically the responsibility of a BeanFactory when a bean definition is invalid, the loading of that bean is problematic. The article will discuss the most common causes of this exception along with the solution for each one.

1. Cause – java.io.FileNotFoundException

2.1. IOException parsing XML document from ServletContext resource

This usually happens in a Spring Web application, when a DispatcherServlet is set up in the web.xml for Spring MVC:

mvc
org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet

By default, Spring will look for a file called exactly springMvcServlet-servlet.xml in the /WEB-INF directory of the web application.

If this file doesn’t exist, then the following exception will be thrown:
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException:
IOException parsing XML document from ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/mvc-servlet.xml];
nested exception is java.io.FileNotFoundException:
Could not open ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/mvc-servlet.xml]

The solution is of course to make sure the mvc-servlet.xml file indeed exists under /WEB-INF; if it doesn’t, then a sample one can be created: