Tiles issue: Failed to load ApplicationContext whilst running JUnit test - spring

Question

I am trying to test Spring MVC controllers using JUnit.
Here is how I configure my context within the JUnit class:
#RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
#ContextConfiguration(locations = { "classpath:/META-INF/spring/applicationContext*.xml", "file:src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/spring/webmvc-config.xml" })
Then I autowire my controller as usual in the test:
#Autowired
private PliController pliController;
and I get the following error when I run the tests:
2012-12-05 12:56:02,921 [main] ERROR org.springframework.test.context.TestContextManager.prepareTestInstance - Caught exception while allowing TestExecutionListener [org.springframework.test.context.support.DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener#3c8db9] to prepare test instance [trc.suivi.core.security.AuthorizationTest#17c804b]
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Failed to load ApplicationContext
at org.springframework.test.context.TestContext.getApplicationContext(TestContext.java:157)
at org.springframework.test.context.support.DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener.injectDependencies(DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener.java:109)
at org.springframework.test.context.support.DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener.prepareTestInstance(DependencyInjectionTestExecutionListener.java:75)
at org.springframework.test.context.TestContextManager.prepareTestInstance(TestContextManager.java:321)
at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.createTest(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:211)
at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner$1.runReflectiveCall(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:288)
at org.junit.internal.runners.model.ReflectiveCallable.run(ReflectiveCallable.java:15)
at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.methodBlock(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:290)
at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:231)
at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:47)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.run(ParentRunner.java:231)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$1.schedule(ParentRunner.java:60)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runChildren(ParentRunner.java:229)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.access$000(ParentRunner.java:50)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$2.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:222)
at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.statements.RunBeforeTestClassCallbacks.evaluate(RunBeforeTestClassCallbacks.java:61)
at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.statements.RunAfterTestClassCallbacks.evaluate(RunAfterTestClassCallbacks.java:71)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:300)
at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.run(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:174)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit4.runner.JUnit4TestReference.run(JUnit4TestReference.java:50)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.TestExecution.run(TestExecution.java:38)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunner.java:467)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunner.java:683)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.run(RemoteTestRunner.java:390)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.main(RemoteTestRunner.java:197)
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'tilesConfigurer' defined in URL [file:src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/spring/webmvc-config.xml]: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1455)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:519)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:456)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:294)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:225)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:291)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:193)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:585)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:913)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:464)
at org.springframework.test.context.support.AbstractGenericContextLoader.loadContext(AbstractGenericContextLoader.java:103)
at org.springframework.test.context.support.AbstractGenericContextLoader.loadContext(AbstractGenericContextLoader.java:1)
at org.springframework.test.context.support.DelegatingSmartContextLoader.loadContext(DelegatingSmartContextLoader.java:228)
at org.springframework.test.context.TestContext.loadApplicationContext(TestContext.java:124)
at org.springframework.test.context.TestContext.getApplicationContext(TestContext.java:148)
... 24 more
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.SpringTilesApplicationContextFactory$SpringWildcardServletTilesApplicationContext.<init>(SpringTilesApplicationContextFactory.java:72)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.SpringTilesApplicationContextFactory.createApplicationContext(SpringTilesApplicationContextFactory.java:55)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesConfigurer.afterPropertiesSet(TilesConfigurer.java:335)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.invokeInitMethods(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1514)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1452)
... 38 more
Can anyone help?
EDIT 1: Note that this issue does not occur outside of the testing environment.
EDIT 2: Thanks to Biju, I managed to get it working: here is the relevant configuration:
private String contextLocWeb = "file:src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/spring/webmvc-config.xml";
private String contextLoc = "classpath:/META-INF/spring/applicationContext*.xml";
private String warDir = "src/main/webapp";
MockMvc mockMvc = MockMvcBuilders.xmlConfigSetup(contextLocWeb, contextLoc).configureWebAppRootDir(warDir, false).build();

Answer 1

The reason is that Tiles configuration requires the availability of a ServletContext, which is not present when running with JUNIT. The fix that I have used in the past is to use the new Spring-test-mvc(also available in Spring 3.2RC1) module for testing Spring Controllers and has good support for loading in the web context.

Answer 2

Have same issue, fixed with annotating the test class with #WebAppConfiguration
And adding below dependencies in classpath:
<dependency>
<groupId>junit</groupId>
<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
<version>4.12</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-test</artifactId>
<version>4.1.4.RELEASE</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
<artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
<version>3.0.1</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
<artifactId>jsp-api</artifactId>
<version>2.0</version>
</dependency>