Spring cannot find class, although the class exists - eclipse

Question

I am working on a Maven project and I am getting error as class not found. I am posting the error log and the class in question. Kindly have a look. Thank you.
Error Log :
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping#0': Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.CannotLoadBeanClassException: Cannot find class [com.journaldev.spring.dao.PersonDAOImpl] for bean with name 'personDAO' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/spring/appServlet/servlet-context.xml]; nested exception is java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.journaldev.spring.dao.PersonDAOImpl
Related cause: org.springframework.beans.factory.CannotLoadBeanClassException: Cannot find class [com.journaldev.spring.dao.PersonDAOImpl] for bean with name 'personDAO' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/spring/appServlet/servlet-context.xml]; nested exception is java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.journaldev.spring.dao.PersonDAOImpl
Related cause: org.springframework.beans.factory.CannotLoadBeanClassException: Cannot find class [com.journaldev.spring.service.PersonServiceImpl] for bean with name 'personService' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/spring/appServlet/servlet-context.xml]; nested exception is java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.journaldev.spring.service.PersonServiceImpl
Servlet-Context.xml, file where I have bean definitions.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans:beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:beans="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context" xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-4.0.xsd">
<!-- DispatcherServlet Context: defines this servlet's request-processing
infrastructure -->
<!-- Enables the Spring MVC #Controller programming model -->
<annotation-driven />
<!-- Handles HTTP GET requests for /resources/** by efficiently serving
up static resources in the ${webappRoot}/resources directory -->
<resources mapping="/resources/**" location="/resources/" />
<!-- Resolves views selected for rendering by #Controllers to .jsp resources
in the /WEB-INF/views directory -->
<beans:bean
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
<beans:property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/views/" />
<beans:property name="suffix" value=".jsp" />
</beans:bean>
<beans:bean id="dataSource" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource"
destroy-method="close">
<beans:property name="driverClassName" value="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver" />
<beans:property name="url"
value="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/TestDB" />
<beans:property name="username" value="root" />
<beans:property name="password" value="akshay2787" />
</beans:bean>
<!-- Hibernate 4 SessionFactory Bean definition -->
<beans:bean id="hibernate4AnnotatedSessionFactory"
class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate4.LocalSessionFactoryBean">
<beans:property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource" />
<beans:property name="annotatedClasses">
<beans:list>
<beans:value>com.journaldev.spring.model.Person</beans:value>
</beans:list>
</beans:property>
<beans:property name="hibernateProperties">
<beans:props>
<beans:prop key="hibernate.dialect">org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLDialect
</beans:prop>
<beans:prop key="hibernate.show_sql">true</beans:prop>
</beans:props>
</beans:property>
</beans:bean>
<beans:bean id="personDAO" class="com.journaldev.spring.dao.PersonDAOImpl">
<beans:property name="sessionFactory" ref="hibernate4AnnotatedSessionFactory" />
</beans:bean>
<beans:bean id="personService" class="com.journaldev.spring.service.PersonServiceImpl">
<beans:property name="personDAO" ref="personDAO"></beans:property>
</beans:bean>
<context:component-scan base-package="com.journaldev.spring" />
<tx:annotation-driven transaction-manager="transactionManager"/>
<beans:bean id="transactionManager" class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate4.HibernateTransactionManager">
<beans:property name="sessionFactory" ref="hibernate4AnnotatedSessionFactory" />
</beans:bean>
</beans:beans>
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>mvcdispatcher</groupId>
<artifactId>mvcdispatcher</artifactId>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<name>mvcdispatcher</name>
<description>mvcdispatcher</description>
<properties>
<java-version>1.7</java-version>
<org.springframework-version>4.0.6.RELEASE</org.springframework-version>
<org.aspectj-version>1.7.4</org.aspectj-version>
<org.slf4j-version>1.7.5</org.slf4j-version>
<hibernate.version>4.3.6.Final</hibernate.version>
</properties>
<dependencies>
<!-- Spring -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework-version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-tx</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework-version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework-version}</version>
</dependency>
<!-- Hibernate -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
<version>${hibernate.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-entitymanager</artifactId>
<version>${hibernate.version}</version>
</dependency>
<!-- Apache Commons DBCP -->
<dependency>
<groupId>commons-dbcp</groupId>
<artifactId>commons-dbcp</artifactId>
<version>1.4</version>
</dependency>
<!-- Spring ORM -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-orm</artifactId>
<version>${org.springframework-version}</version>
</dependency>
<!-- AspectJ -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
<artifactId>aspectjrt</artifactId>
<version>${org.aspectj-version}</version>
</dependency>
<!-- Logging -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
<artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
<version>${org.slf4j-version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
<artifactId>jcl-over-slf4j</artifactId>
<version>${org.slf4j-version}</version>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
<artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
<version>${org.slf4j-version}</version>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>log4j</groupId>
<artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
<version>1.2.15</version>
<exclusions>
<exclusion>
<groupId>javax.mail</groupId>
<artifactId>mail</artifactId>
</exclusion>
<exclusion>
<groupId>javax.jms</groupId>
<artifactId>jms</artifactId>
</exclusion>
<exclusion>
<groupId>com.sun.jdmk</groupId>
<artifactId>jmxtools</artifactId>
</exclusion>
<exclusion>
<groupId>com.sun.jmx</groupId>
<artifactId>jmxri</artifactId>
</exclusion>
</exclusions>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
<!-- #Inject -->
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.inject</groupId>
<artifactId>javax.inject</artifactId>
<version>1</version>
</dependency>
<!-- Servlet -->
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
<artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
<version>2.5</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
<artifactId>jsp-api</artifactId>
<version>2.1</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
<artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
<version>1.2</version>
</dependency>
<!-- Test -->
<dependency>
<groupId>junit</groupId>
<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
<version>4.7</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
<artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
<version>1.2</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-eclipse-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.9</version>
<configuration>
<additionalProjectnatures>
<projectnature>org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.springnature</projectnature>
</additionalProjectnatures>
<additionalBuildcommands>
<buildcommand>org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.springbuilder</buildcommand>
</additionalBuildcommands>
<downloadSources>true</downloadSources>
<downloadJavadocs>true</downloadJavadocs>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.5.1</version>
<configuration>
<source>1.6</source>
<target>1.6</target>
<compilerArgument>-Xlint:all</compilerArgument>
<showWarnings>true</showWarnings>
<showDeprecation>true</showDeprecation>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.2.1</version>
<configuration>
<mainClass>org.test.int1.Main</mainClass>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
<finalName>${project.artifactId}</finalName>
</build>
</project>
Sometime back this error disappeared when I restarted eclipse, but I got a new error as Hibernate cannot instantiate connection. Now it is back to this, god only knows what Eclipse has in mind. Also, I tried changing the string in servlet-context.xml to check other paths, Eclipse doesn't show me error only with the above absolute path(which is correct) as I can see the files staring at me.

Answer 1

Eclipse can have strange behaviors with Maven projects, sometimes. If you are using M2E, you can try to update the project: right-click on your project in your Package explorer, select Maven, the Update project. And then rebuild your project.
Updating your project will change the Eclipse settings of the project in order to synchronize them with the content of the pom.xml.