Exception in thread "main" org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionStoreException

If you are trying to run a sample spring application first time you may face some problem.After ruuning your application If you get following error

Jul 09, 2015 10:37:28 PM org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader loadBeanDefinitions
INFO: Loading XML bean definitions from class path resource [applicationContext.xml]
Exception in thread "main" org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionStoreException: Line 1 in XML document from class path resource [applicationContext.xml] is invalid; nested exception is org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; lineNumber: 1; columnNumber: 7; The processing instruction target matching "[xX][mM][lL]" is not allowed.
 at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.doLoadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:396)
 at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:334)
 at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:302)
 at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanFactory.(XmlBeanFactory.java:73)
 at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanFactory.(XmlBeanFactory.java:61)
 at com.javatpoint.Test.main(Test.java:11)
Caused by: org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; lineNumber: 1; columnNumber: 7; The processing instruction target matching "[xX][mM][lL]" is not allowed.
 at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.util.ErrorHandlerWrapper.createSAXParseException(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.util.ErrorHandlerWrapper.fatalError(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLErrorReporter.reportError(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLErrorReporter.reportError(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLScanner.reportFatalError(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLScanner.scanPIData(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanPIData(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLScanner.scanPI(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentScannerImpl$PrologDriver.next(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentScannerImpl.next(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLNSDocumentScannerImpl.next(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanDocument(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XMLParser.parse(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.DOMParser.parse(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.DocumentBuilderImpl.parse(Unknown Source)
 at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultDocumentLoader.loadDocument(DefaultDocumentLoader.java:75)
 at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.doLoadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:388)
 ... 5 more

Oh! so much nasty lines in the error console, But don't worry you need not to read all the content in console.
Just find out the line which start with Caused by:
That line give you the potential information about the problem in your code.That will give you line number in
xml file which is throwing the above errors. 

In the above error console if you go to the line Caused by: You will see 
org.xml.sax.SAXParseException;
It means you have some extra spaces in your xml configuration file.You need to observe the undesired space in the following xml tags.

 

 

XML TAG
STATUS
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
Correct
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
Incorrect
< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
Incorrect
<? xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
Incorrect
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"? >
Incorrect





If you will see the above incorrect xml tags carefully, You will find that there is space between '<','?' and '>' which raise error in xml configuration file.

Solution:
In order to remove the above error you need to remove unnecessary spaces and correct the indentation.If you are copying xml file some where, do it very carefully. 






Courtsey: Saajan Singh [Computer Science Graduate from HBTI Kanpur]