[Solved] java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class org.hibernate.validator.engine.ConfigurationImpl

If you are working on spring MVC web application and you are trying to use JSR-303 validation annotations then you might face this exception. Exception stack trace looks like this.

SEVERE: Allocate exception for servlet spring
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class org.hibernate.validator.engine.ConfigurationImpl
	at org.hibernate.validator.HibernateValidator.createGenericConfiguration(HibernateValidator.java:43)
	at javax.validation.Validation$GenericBootstrapImpl.configure(Validation.java:269)
	at javax.validation.Validation.buildDefaultValidatorFactory(Validation.java:111)
	at com.howtodoinjava.demo.controller.EmployeeController.<init>(EmployeeController.java:35)
	at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
	at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(Unknown Source)
	at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(Unknown Source)
	at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Unknown Source)
	at org.springframework.beans.BeanUtils.instantiateClass(BeanUtils.java:147)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.SimpleInstantiationStrategy.instantiate(SimpleInstantiationStrategy.java:89)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.instantiateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1086)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBeanInstance(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1038)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:504)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:476)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:303)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:230)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:299)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:194)
	at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:762)
	at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:757)
	at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:480)
	at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.configureAndRefreshWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:663)
	at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:629)
	at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:677)
	at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:548)
	at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initServletBean(FrameworkServlet.java:489)
	at org.springframework.web.servlet.HttpServletBean.init(HttpServletBean.java:136)
	at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:160)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.initServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1267)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1186)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.allocate(StandardWrapper.java:858)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:136)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:123)
	at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:472)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:171)
	at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:99)
	at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:936)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:118)
	at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:407)
	at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1004)
	at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:589)
	at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:310)
	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)
	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Solution

This problem is due to incorrect version of “hibernate-validator” dependency. You need to try other versions of this dependency to solve this issue. In my example, following combination works perfectly.

<dependency>
	<groupId>javax.validation</groupId>
	<artifactId>validation-api</artifactId>
	<version>1.0.0.GA</version>
</dependency>

<dependency>
	<groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
	<artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
	<version>4.3.1.Final</version>
</dependency>

My spring MVC example application uses below pom.xml for our reference.

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
	xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
	<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
	<groupId>com.howtodoinjava.demo</groupId>
	<artifactId>springmvcexample</artifactId>
	<packaging>war</packaging>
	<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
	<name>springmvcexample Maven Webapp</name>
	<url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
	<dependencies>
	
		<dependency>
			<groupId>junit</groupId>
			<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
			<version>4.12</version>
			<scope>test</scope>
		</dependency>
		
		<!-- Spring MVC support -->
		
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
			<version>4.1.4.RELEASE</version>
		</dependency>

		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
			<version>4.1.4.RELEASE</version>
		</dependency>
		
		<!-- Tag libs support for view layer -->
		<dependency>
			<groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
			<artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
			<version>1.2</version>
			<scope>runtime</scope>
		</dependency>
		
		<dependency>
			<groupId>taglibs</groupId>
			<artifactId>standard</artifactId>
			<version>1.1.2</version>
			<scope>runtime</scope>
		</dependency>
		
		<!-- JSR 303 Dependencies -->
		
		<dependency>
			<groupId>javax.validation</groupId>
			<artifactId>validation-api</artifactId>
			<version>1.0.0.GA</version>
		</dependency>
		
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
			<artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
			<version>4.3.1.Final</version>
		</dependency>

	</dependencies>
	
	<build>
		<finalName>springmvcexample</finalName>
	</build>
</project>

Happy Learning !!

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