java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.sun.faces.config.ConfigureListener

I am working on learning Java, Spring and Eclipse. I am working through the tutorial Spring – How to do dependency injection in your session listener now and trying to get the example to run on Tomcat 7. When I run it from Eclipse, I get this error:

Jun 25, 2022 11:51:14 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext listenerStart
SEVERE: Error configuring application listener of class com.sun.faces.config.ConfigureListener
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.sun.faces.config.ConfigureListener
	at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoaderBase.loadClass(WebappClassLoaderBase.java:1892)
	at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoaderBase.loadClass(WebappClassLoaderBase.java:1735)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.loadClass(DefaultInstanceManager.java:495)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.loadClassMaybePrivileged(DefaultInstanceManager.java:477)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.newInstance(DefaultInstanceManager.java:113)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:5026)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5633)
	at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:145)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1700)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1690)
	at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264)
	at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1128)
	at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:628)
	at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:829)

I found the same issue on the Stackoverflow question: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.sun.faces.config.ConfigureListener

I had the same error, but found the solution to our problem, I’m guessing you are using maven and tomcat 7. I deployed in Glassfish 4 and worked perfectly, so for me it seems stranger.

Solution:

Fix your pom.xml to work in Tomcat 7.

1. javaee-api should have scope: provided.
2. Add jstl-api dependency 1.2 to your pom.xml, scope: compile.

Example:

<!-- Tomcat 7 Deploy -->
<dependency>
    <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp.jstl</groupId>
    <artifactId>jstl-api</artifactId>
    <version>1.2</version>
    <scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<!-- JavaEE -->
<dependency>
    <groupId>javax</groupId>
    <artifactId>javaee-api</artifactId>
    <version>6.0</version>
    <scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>

Explanation:

You are adding JEE 6:

<dependency>
    <groupId>javax</groupId>
    <artifactId>javaee-api</artifactId>
    <version>6.0</version>
    <scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>

And you got the error:

Dec 08, 2013 9:54:37 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext listenerStart
SEVERE: Error configuring application listener of class com.sun.faces.config.ConfigureListener
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.sun.faces.config.ConfigureListener
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1702)
...

Somehow adding javaee-api.jar to WEB-INF/lib tries to search or load jsf configuration file, even if we are not using it. Then changing the scope to provided, I started to get a new error for missing JSTL library.

    Dec 09, 2013 1:23:49 AM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve invoke
SEVERE: Servlet.service() for servlet [controllerServlet] in context with path [/util-webapp] threw exception [Handler processing failed; nested exception is java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/servlet/jsp/jstl/core/Config] with root cause
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: javax.servlet.jsp.jstl.core.Config
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1702)
    at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1547)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.support.JstlUtils.exposeLocalizationContext(JstlUtils.java:97)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView.exposeHelpers(JstlView.java:135)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceView.renderMergedOutputModel(InternalResourceView.java:211)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.view.AbstractView.render(AbstractView.java:263)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.render(DispatcherServlet.java:1208)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.processDispatchResult(DispatcherServlet.java:992)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:939)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:856)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:936)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet(FrameworkServlet.java:827)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:621)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.service(FrameworkServlet.java:812)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:728)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:305)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
    at org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:51)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:222)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:123)
    at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:502)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:171)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:100)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:953)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:118)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:408)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1041)
    at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:603)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:310)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1110)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:603)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722)

So I ended adding the jstl-api library.

I meet the same problem, just change the dependency scope to provided to resolve it!

<dependency>
    <groupId>javax</groupId>
    <artifactId>javaee-api</artifactId>
    <version>6.0</version>
    <scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>