java - Tomcat doesn't find "org.junit.Assert" even though I have JUnit jars in my classpath

Question

I am having a problem that I already looked at it a lot but still didn't find a solution. I have a test case that when executed sends a message to the console. But even with the JUnit jars, it says like I don't have the jars in my project.

I have a Maven project configured with Spring MVC on Eclipse and I already added JUnit jar to the classpath manually using the wizard. I also put the dependency in the pom.xml.

Inside Maven dependencies I have another Junit jar, version 3.8.1. I thought it would be conflict between the jar added by the wizard (Version 4) and the jar from the dependency. But it is not.

I already tried to put version 4 on the dependency, already tried to use only the jar added by the wizard, or only the one from the dependency and nothing worked.

And I also have another project, it is a small one though, that the test case works on it. The small project doesn't have Spring, but is a Maven project and has exactly the same JUnit jars that I have in my bigger project.

When I try to execute the test case, this error displays on the console:

SEVERE: Servlet.service() for servlet [mvc-dispatcher] in context with path [/javaliproject] threw exception [Handler processing failed; nested exception is java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/junit/Assert] with root cause
        java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.junit.Assert
            at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoaderBase.loadClass(WebappClassLoaderBase.java:1333)
            at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoaderBase.loadClass(WebappClassLoaderBase.java:1167)
            at br.ufc.quixada.javaliproject.evaluationservice.teste.test(teste.java:17)
            at br.ufc.quixada.javaliproject.controller.RunnerController.run(RunnerController.java:30)
            at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
            at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
            at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
            at org.springframework.web.method.support.InvocableHandlerMethod.invoke(InvocableHandlerMethod.java:214)
            at org.springframework.web.method.support.InvocableHandlerMethod.invokeForRequest(InvocableHandlerMethod.java:132)
            at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.ServletInvocableHandlerMethod.invokeAndHandle(ServletInvocableHandlerMethod.java:104)
            at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.invokeHandleMethod(RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.java:749)
            at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.handleInternal(RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.java:690)
            at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.AbstractHandlerMethodAdapter.handle(AbstractHandlerMethodAdapter.java:83)
            at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:945)
            at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:876)
            at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:961)
            at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet(FrameworkServlet.java:852)
            at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:622)
            at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.service(FrameworkServlet.java:837)
            at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:291)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
            at org.springframework.web.filter.HiddenHttpMethodFilter.doFilterInternal(HiddenHttpMethodFilter.java:77)
            at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.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.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.springframework.web.filter.CharacterEncodingFilter.doFilterInternal(CharacterEncodingFilter.java:88)
            at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:108)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
            at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:330)
            at org.springframework.security.web.access.intercept.FilterSecurityInterceptor.invoke(FilterSecurityInterceptor.java:118)
            at org.springframework.security.web.access.intercept.FilterSecurityInterceptor.doFilter(FilterSecurityInterceptor.java:84)
            at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:342)
            at org.springframework.security.web.access.ExceptionTranslationFilter.doFilter(ExceptionTranslationFilter.java:113)
            at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:342)
            at org.springframework.security.web.session.SessionManagementFilter.doFilter(SessionManagementFilter.java:103)
            at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:342)
            at org.springframework.security.web.authentication.AnonymousAuthenticationFilter.doFilter(AnonymousAuthenticationFilter.java:113)
            at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:342)
            at org.springframework.security.web.servletapi.SecurityContextHolderAwareRequestFilter.doFilter(SecurityContextHolderAwareRequestFilter.java:154)
            at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:342)
            at org.springframework.security.web.savedrequest.RequestCacheAwareFilter.doFilter(RequestCacheAwareFilter.java:45)
            at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:342)
            at org.springframework.security.web.authentication.www.BasicAuthenticationFilter.doFilter(BasicAuthenticationFilter.java:150)
            at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:342)
            at org.springframework.security.web.authentication.AbstractAuthenticationProcessingFilter.doFilter(AbstractAuthenticationProcessingFilter.java:199)
            at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:342)
            at org.springframework.security.web.authentication.logout.LogoutFilter.doFilter(LogoutFilter.java:110)
            at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:342)
            at org.springframework.security.web.context.request.async.WebAsyncManagerIntegrationFilter.doFilterInternal(WebAsyncManagerIntegrationFilter.java:50)
            at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:108)
            at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:342)
            at org.springframework.security.web.context.SecurityContextPersistenceFilter.doFilter(SecurityContextPersistenceFilter.java:87)
            at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:342)
            at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy.doFilterInternal(FilterChainProxy.java:192)
            at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:160)
            at org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy.invokeDelegate(DelegatingFilterProxy.java:344)
            at org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy.doFilter(DelegatingFilterProxy.java:261)
            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:212)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:106)
            at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:502)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:141)
            at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:79)
            at org.apache.catalina.valves.AbstractAccessLogValve.invoke(AbstractAccessLogValve.java:616)
            at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:88)
            at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:518)
            at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1096)
            at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:674)
            at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1500)
            at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(NioEndpoint.java:1456)
            at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
            at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
            at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61)
            at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)

Does anybody know how can I fix this problem? The test case I was trying to run was this:

import static org.junit.Assert.*;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;

import org.junit.Test;

public class Runner {
    @Test
    public static String runClass() throws ClassNotFoundException, InstantiationException, IllegalAccessException, IOException, NoSuchMethodException, SecurityException, IllegalArgumentException, InvocationTargetException {

        int expected = 9;
        int obtained = 10;

        String assertionError = null;
        try {
            assertEquals(expected, obtained);
            System.out.println("This method is correct!");
        }
        catch (AssertionError ae) {
            assertionError = ae.toString();
            System.out.println(assertionError);
        }
        return "Executed!"; 
    }
}

Here is pom.xml:

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
 xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>javali</groupId&g

Answer 1

Your pom lists JUnit 3.81 but that version of JUnit doesn't have org.junit.Assert. You can use the most recent version of JUnit, but be aware that there were some changes made recently in JUnit that were not backwards compatible, so you might want to ask what version the test author(s) used.

Edit: Also, your pom.xml lists JUnit with scope "test" (i.e. as a dependency only for your tests), which is the right thing to do for most projects, but your project wants to use JUnit in the production code, so change it to a non-test dependency.

As Nizet said, the example test isn't a valid test.