Problem: You are getting java.lang.ClassNotFoundException exception complaining that Spring's DispatcherServlet class is not available in the classpath. This error is coming while running a Spring MVC based Java application from Eclipse and Tomcat as Server (running inside Eclipse IDE itself). You have either included spring framework JAR files manually by yourself or you are using Maven to download and manage dependent JAR files. Here is the stack trace of this error :
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1678)
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1523)
at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.loadClass(DefaultInstanceManager.java:525)
at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.loadClassMaybePrivileged(DefaultInstanceManager.java:507)
at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.newInstance(DefaultInstanceManager.java:126)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1099)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:1043)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:4957
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1678)
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1523)
at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.loadClass(DefaultInstanceManager.java:525)
at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.loadClassMaybePrivileged(DefaultInstanceManager.java:507)
at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.newInstance(DefaultInstanceManager.java:126)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1099)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:1043)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:4957