Spring/Java error: namespace element 'annotation-config' ... on JDK 1.5 and higher

Question

I have Spring/Java App that is compiled with Compiler compliance level 1.5.

I have a new Linux setup where I downloaded Apache Tomcat 8.0.8.

I downloaded JDK 8u5.

I set the path in bash as follows:

PATH=$PATH:$HOME/jdk1.8.0_05/bin
export PATH

Java -version reports:

java version "1.8.0_05"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_05-b13)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.5-b02, mixed mode)

And set in setnenv.sh (for Tomcat):

JDK_HOME=/home/userid/jdk1.8.0_05

When I deploy my WAR file I get below error. I think Tomcat doesn't seem to use the Java I installed. I have followed the setup instructions. PS: I also tried JRE instead of JDK and same issue.

22-May-2014 11:34:54.070 INFO [http-nio-8080-exec-4] org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext.log Initializing Spring root WebApplicationContext
22-May-2014 11:34:54.512 SEVERE [http-nio-8080-exec-4] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart Exception sending context initialized event to listener instance of class org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
 org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Unexpected exception parsing XML document from file [/home/userid/apache-tomcat-8.0.8/webapps/myApplication-QA/WEB-INF/classes/config/spring/securityContext.xml]; nested exception is **java.lang.IllegalStateException: Context namespace element 'annotation-config' and its parser class [org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigBeanDefinitionParser] are only available on JDK 1.5 and higher**
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.doLoadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:420)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:342)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:310)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:143)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:178)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:149)
    at org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:124)
    at org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:92)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.refreshBeanFactory(AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.java:123)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.obtainFreshBeanFactory(AbstractApplicationContext.java:423)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:353)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.createWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:255)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:199)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:45)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:4750)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5170)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.manager.ManagerServlet.start(ManagerServlet.java:1270)
    at org.apache.catalina.manager.HTMLManagerServlet.start(HTMLManagerServlet.java:673)
    at org.apache.catalina.manager.HTMLManagerServlet.doPost(HTMLManagerServlet.java:221)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:644)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:725)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:301)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at org.apache.catalina.filters.CsrfPreventionFilter.doFilter(CsrfPreventionFilter.java:213)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:52)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at org.apache.catalina.filters.SetCharacterEncodingFilter.doFilter(SetCharacterEncodingFilter.java:108)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:219)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:106)
    at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:615)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:136)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:78)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.AbstractAccessLogValve.invoke(AbstractAccessLogValve.java:610)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:88)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:526)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1033)
    at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:652)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11NioProtocol.java:222)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1566)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(NioEndpoint.java:1523)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Context namespace element 'annotation-config' and its parser class [org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigBeanDefinitionParser] are only available on JDK 1.5 and higher
    at org.springframework.context.config.ContextNamespaceHandler$1.parse(ContextNamespaceHandler.java:65)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.NamespaceHandlerSupport.parse(NamespaceHandlerSupport.java:69)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.parseCustomElement(BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.java:1253)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.parseCustomElement(BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.java:1243)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.parseBeanDefinitions(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:135)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.registerBeanDefinitions(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:92)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.registerBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:507)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.doLoadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:398)
    ... 49 more

22-May-2014 11:34:54.518 INFO [http-nio-8080-exec-4] org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext.log Closing Spring root WebApplicationContext

Answer 1

The class that's throwing the exception is using this code to check for Java version:

static {
        javaVersion = System.getProperty("java.version");
        // version String should look like "1.4.2_10"
        if (javaVersion.indexOf("1.7.") != -1) {
            majorJavaVersion = JAVA_17;
        }
        else if (javaVersion.indexOf("1.6.") != -1) {
            majorJavaVersion = JAVA_16;
        }
        else if (javaVersion.indexOf("1.5.") != -1) {
            majorJavaVersion = JAVA_15;
        }
        else {
            // else leave 1.4 as default (it's either 1.4 or unknown)
            majorJavaVersion = JAVA_14;
        }
    }

So, when Spring 2.5 was first released, the code didn't assume it will be run in a Java version that's later than 1.7. For Java 8 and beyond, the code above will assume default 1.4 version. Because of this, the annotations part will complain.

I think you either need to upgrade your Spring version or use Java 7. Spring 2.5 has been EOLed for quite some time now, anyway.