The detailed stacktrace :

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/commons/logging/LogFactory
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.<init>(AbstractApplicationContext.java:161)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.<init>(AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.java:90)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractRefreshableConfigApplicationContext.<init>(AbstractRefreshableConfigApplicationContext.java:59)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractXmlApplicationContext.<init>(AbstractXmlApplicationContext.java:61)
at org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.<init>(ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.java:136)
at org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.<init>(ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.java:83)
at com.tocea.codewatch.platform.service.local.LocalCodewatch.init(LocalCodewatch.java:116)
at com.tocea.codewatch.platform.service.local.LocalCodewatch.<init>(LocalCodewatch.java:50)
at com.tocea.codewatch.platform.front.test.FakeAuditTest.setUp(FakeAuditTest.java:54)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:616)
at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod$1.runReflectiveCall(FrameworkMethod.java:45)
at org.junit.internal.runners.model.ReflectiveCallable.run(ReflectiveCallable.java:15)
at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod.invokeExplosively(FrameworkMethod.java:42)
at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.RunBefores.evaluate(RunBefores.java:27)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runLeaf(ParentRunner.java:263)
at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:68)
at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:47)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.run(ParentRunner.java:231)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$1.schedule(ParentRunner.java:60)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runChildren(ParentRunner.java:229)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.access$000(ParentRunner.java:50)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$2.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:222)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:300)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit4.runner.JUnit4TestReference.run(JUnit4TestReference.java:50)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.TestExecution.run(TestExecution.java:38)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunner.java:467)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunner.java:683)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.run(RemoteTestRunner.java:390)
at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.main(RemoteTestRunner.java:197)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:217)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:205)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:321)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:294)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:266)
... 32 more

The suspected class is

/**
...
 */
public abstract class AbstractApplicationContext extends DefaultResourceLoader
        implements ConfigurableApplicationContext, DisposableBean {

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
    /** Logger used by this class. Available to subclasses. */
    protected final Log logger = LogFactory.getLog(getClass());
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

After inspecting the dependencies of our project with <code>mvn dependency:dependency-list</code>.

[INFO] \- org.springframework:spring-context:jar:3.1.1.RELEASE:compile
[INFO]    +- org.springframework:spring-aop:jar:3.1.1.RELEASE:compile
[INFO]    |  \- aopalliance:aopalliance:jar:1.0:compile
[INFO]    +- org.springframework:spring-beans:jar:3.1.1.RELEASE:compile
[INFO]    +- org.springframework:spring-core:jar:3.1.1.RELEASE:compile
[INFO]    +- org.springframework:spring-expression:jar:3.1.1.RELEASE:compile
[INFO]    \- org.springframework:spring-asm:jar:3.1.1.RELEASE:com

Curiously, the class AbstractApplicationContext inside org.springframework:spring-context does not depend from Apache commons logging of Apache.

The correction is rather simple : add the following lines to your <strong>pom.xml</strong> :

<dependency>
    <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
    <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
    <version>1.1</version>
</dependency>

• Former occurence of this error : blog
• Spring Web site
• Apache Commons Logging web site