SpringPersistenceUnitInfo :: AbstractMethodError - spring

Question

I have an application using Spring 3.0.5, JPA2 and Hibernate 3.6.7. Maven's handling my dependency management. Here's a pom excerpt:
<properties>
<spring.version>3.0.5.RELEASE</spring.version>
</properties>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
<version>${spring.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
<version>${spring.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
<version>${spring.version}</version>
</dependency>
...
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-hibernate3</artifactId>
<version>2.0.8</version>
<scope>compile</scope>
<exclusions>
<exclusion>
<groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate</artifactId>
</exclusion>
</exclusions>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-entitymanager</artifactId>
<version>3.6.7.Final</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
<version>3.6.7.Final</version>
<scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-jpa</artifactId>
<version>2.0.8</version>
<scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hibernate.java-persistence</groupId>
<artifactId>jpa-api</artifactId>
<version>2.0-cr-1</version>
<scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>
...
The application builds just fine, however, when trying to load it, the Tomcat container complains about the following:
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'entityManagerFactory' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml]: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.AbstractMethodError: org.springframework.orm.jpa.persistenceunit.SpringPersistenceUnitInfo.getValidationMode()Ljavax/persistence/ValidationMode;
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1420)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:519)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:456)
Any thoughts on what could be causing this? All the dependencies appear to be intact.
Thanks.

Answer 1

You are mixing artifacts from Spring 2.x and 3.x.
Replace old versions of spring-hibernate3 and spring-jpa with
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-orm</artifactId>
<version>${spring.version}</version>
<scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>

Answer 2

I had exactly the same problem. I was hibernate validator (4.2), tomcat 6 and spring 3.0.6. But I also upgraded hibernate from 3.2 to 3.6, but I forgot to remove the hibernate-entitymanager.jar (which is an old hibernate jar) from the classpath.

Answer 3

I had a very similar problem with Hibernate 4.x, Spring 3.x, JPA 2.x, and CXF 2.7.5. I removed the reference to the spring-jpa artifact in my maven POM file, and inserted your recommended snippet. Worked magic! I no longer see the exception. Thanks!