Adding @Aspect throws BeanCreationException

I am trying to use AOP in Spring. When I am using old DTD methods in XML, things are working fine. But when I am trying to use AspectJ notations, I am facing some issues. I downloaded the JAR files for aspectj from here. I added them to the build path and the code containing @Aspect annotations compiled successfully. But during runtime, nothing is getting executed. Even the beans which are using XML based configuration for aspects, are not getting created. It is throwing some BeanCreationException. The full error log is as follows:

WARNING: Exception encountered during context initialization - cancelling refresh attempt: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'emp1' defined in class path resource [Beans.xml]: BeanPostProcessor before instantiation of bean failed; nested exception is java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/aspectj/weaver/reflect/ReflectionWorld$ReflectionWorldException
Exception in thread "main" org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'emp1' defined in class path resource [Beans.xml]: BeanPostProcessor before instantiation of bean failed; nested exception is java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/aspectj/weaver/reflect/ReflectionWorld$ReflectionWorldException
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:512)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.lambda$doGetBean$0(AbstractBeanFactory.java:323)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:222)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:321)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:202)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:879)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:878)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:550)
    at org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.<init>(ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.java:144)
    at org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.<init>(ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.java:85)
    at com.demo.Tester.main(Tester.java:11)
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/aspectj/weaver/reflect/ReflectionWorld$ReflectionWorldException
    at org.springframework.aop.aspectj.annotation.ReflectiveAspectJAdvisorFactory.getPointcut(ReflectiveAspectJAdvisorFactory.java:210)
    at org.springframework.aop.aspectj.annotation.ReflectiveAspectJAdvisorFactory.getAdvisor(ReflectiveAspectJAdvisorFactory.java:192)
    at org.springframework.aop.aspectj.annotation.ReflectiveAspectJAdvisorFactory.getAdvisors(ReflectiveAspectJAdvisorFactory.java:126)
    at org.springframework.aop.aspectj.annotation.BeanFactoryAspectJAdvisorsBuilder.buildAspectJAdvisors(BeanFactoryAspectJAdvisorsBuilder.java:110)
    at org.springframework.aop.aspectj.annotation.AnnotationAwareAspectJAutoProxyCreator.findCandidateAdvisors(AnnotationAwareAspectJAutoProxyCreator.java:95)
    at org.springframework.aop.aspectj.autoproxy.AspectJAwareAdvisorAutoProxyCreator.shouldSkip(AspectJAwareAdvisorAutoProxyCreator.java:101)
    at org.springframework.aop.framework.autoproxy.AbstractAutoProxyCreator.postProcessBeforeInstantiation(AbstractAutoProxyCreator.java:251)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.applyBeanPostProcessorsBeforeInstantiation(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1141)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.resolveBeforeInstantiation(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1114)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:506) ... 10 more
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.aspectj.weaver.reflect.ReflectionWorld$ReflectionWorldException
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
    at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)

Can someone help me out in finding out what is the error? I am understanding that the JVM is unable to find out the @Aspect annotation somehow, but why is it happening even after adding the JAR file?

Answer

You have a strange web site for downloading JARs there. I recommend not to download dependency JARs manually but to use a build tool like Maven to take care of that for you. Anyway, if you want to make your life as a developer harder, you can do it manually. You can search for and download dependencies here:

https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.aspectj/aspectjweaver

Just search, select the version you need and then download.

The reason for your problem is that, guessing by your link URL, you downloaded the AspectJ runtime library aspectjrt.jar, but that one is the smallest one there is and meant to be used with ApsectJ compile-time weaving. You are using Spring AOP, which depends on the AspectJ load-time weaving library aspectjweaver.jar. Put that one on your classpath, then your error should go away. BTW, the weaver library contains a superset of the runtime classes, so you do not need the runtime anymore in this case.

I also recommend to read some more documentation. The Spring manual tells you to use the weaver, not the runtime, see chapter Enabling @AspectJ Support.

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Answer