How can I test my Spring-Boot application without inheriting 'spring-boot-starter-parent' module?

java, spring, spring-boot

Solution

Actually, this error didn't come from a missing plugin as I thought, but from a bad spring version (3.x) instead of 4.0.6.RELEASE (at this day).

Changing version and adding to pom.xml this configuration works for me:

<project>
    <!-- ... -->
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

    <dependencyManagement>
        <dependencies>
            <dependency>
                <!-- Import dependency management from Spring Boot -->
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-dependencies</artifactId>
                <version>1.1.4.RELEASE</version>
                <type>pom</type>
                <scope>import</scope>
            </dependency>
        </dependencies>
    </dependencyManagement>
</project>

Problem

I have a quite simple application built on Spring Boot. But it doesn't inherit of spring-boot-starter-parent because of internal company politic. - How can I do to get my tests working with annotation SpringApplicationConfiguration? - More generally, is there a "checklist" to do to have Spring Boot working (compiling, test, packaging, ...) without inheriting spring-boot-starter-parent? My test class: ``` @RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class) @ContextConfiguration(loader = SpringApplicationContextLoader.class) @SpringApplicationConfiguration(classes = MyModule.class) public class MyModuleTest { /* ... */ } ``` If I run application with spring boot parent, it's work (but I can't). If I run test without parent, I have this error: ``` java.lang.IllegalStateException: Failed to load ApplicationContext at org.springframework.test.context.CacheAwareContextLoaderDelegate.loadContext(CacheAwareContextLoaderDelegate.java:99) at org.springframework.test.context.TestContext.getApplicationContext(TestContext.java:122) 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:312) 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:12) at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.methodBlock(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:284) at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:231) at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:88) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.run(ParentRunner.java:238) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$1.schedule(ParentRunner.java:63) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runChildren(ParentRunner.java:236) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.access$000(ParentRunner.java:53) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$2.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:229) 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:309) at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.run(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:174) at org.junit.runner.JUnitCore.run(JUnitCore.java:160) at com.intellij.junit4.JUnit4IdeaTestRunner.startRunnerWithArgs(JUnit4IdeaTestRunner.java:74) at com.intellij.rt.execution.junit.JUnitStarter.prepareStreamsAndStart(JUnitStarter.java:211) at com.intellij.rt.execution.junit.JUnitStarter.main(JUnitStarter.java:67) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57) at com.intellij.rt.execution.application.AppMain.main(AppMain.java:134) Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Cannot load an ApplicationContext with a NULL 'contextLoader'. Consider annotating your test class with @ContextConfiguration or @ContextHierarchy. at org.springframework.util.Assert.notNull(Assert.java:112) at org.springframework.test.context.CacheAwareContextLoaderDelegate.loadContextInternal(CacheAwareContextLoaderDelegate.java:57) at org.springframework.test.context.CacheAwareContextLoaderDelegate.loadContext(CacheAwareContextLoaderDelegate.java:91) ... 28 more ``` Thanks for your help

Original source