title: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/el/ELException
body: <p>I am working on a web application and I have been facing this issue for a while after looking at multiple post I still was unable to solve this issue. I'm using tomcat 7.0.23 which provides el-api which i believe is the jar thought to be missing. I have not included any jar files in the WEB-INF/lib folder at all I am adding all of my dependencies through pom.xml because of maven. I have attempted all of the possible quick fixes i could think of including maven clean/install server clean(multiple times), project clean, adding tomcat to the targeted runtimes. in my build path is tomcat, jdk1.6, and maven) </p>
  
  <p>The pom.xml and web.xml files that I am using are identical my other team members and they are currently working so i don't believe the issue is there. </p>
  
  <p>Here is the error I am getting when starting the server</p>
  
  <pre><code>SEVERE: Exception sending context initialized event to listener instance of class org.apache.myfaces.webapp.StartupServletContextListener 
  java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/el/ELException
  at org.apache.myfaces.webapp.AbstractFacesInitializer._createFacesContext(AbstractFacesInitializer.java:403)
  at org.apache.myfaces.webapp.AbstractFacesInitializer.initStartupFacesContext(AbstractFacesInitializer.java:376)
  at org.apache.myfaces.webapp.StartupServletContextListener.contextInitialized(StartupServletContextListener.java:105)
  at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:4765)
  at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5260)
  at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
  at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1525)
  at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1515)
  at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:303)
  at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
  at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
  at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
  at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)
  Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: javax.el.ELException
  at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:202)
  at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
  at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:190)
  at sun.misc.Launcher$ExtClassLoader.findClass(Launcher.java:229)
  at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:306)
  at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:247)
  ... 13 more
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>these are the dependices after a maven clean/ install</p>
  
  <pre><code>activation-1.1.jar
  antlr-2.7.7.jar
  aopalliance-1.0.jar
  asm-3.3.1.jar
  captcha-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
  cmu_time_awb-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
  cmu_us_kal-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
  cmudict04-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
  cmulex-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
  cmutimelex-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
  commons-beanutils-1.8.3.jar
  commons-cli-1.2.jar
  commons-codec-1.3.jar
  commons-collections-3.2.1.jar
  commons-digester-1.8.1.jar
  commons-el-1.0.jar
  commons-fileupload-1.2.1.jar
  commons-io-1.3.1.jar
  commons-lang-2.6.jar
  commons-logging-1.1.1.jar
  commons-pool-1.5.4.jar
  commons-validator-1.3.1.jar
  cxf-api-2.7.0.jar
  cxf-rt-bindings-soap-2.7.0.jar
  cxf-rt-bindings-xml-2.7.0.jar
  cxf-rt-core-2.7.0.jar
  cxf-rt-databinding-jaxb-2.7.0.jar
  cxf-rt-frontend-jaxrs-2.7.0.jar
  cxf-rt-frontend-jaxws-2.7.0.jar
  cxf-rt-frontend-simple-2.7.0.jar
  cxf-rt-transports-http-2.7.0.jar
  cxf-rt-ws-addr-2.7.0.jar
  cxf-rt-ws-policy-2.7.0.jar
  dom4j-1.6.1.jar
  ejb3-persistence-1.0.2.GA.jar
  en_us-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
  freemarker-2.3.9.jar    
  freetts-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
  freetts-jsapi10-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
  geronimo-javamail_1.4_spec-1.7.1.jar
  hibernate-annotations-3.4.0.GA.jar
  hibernate-commons-annotations-3.1.0.GA.jar
  hibernate-core-3.3.1.GA.jar
  javassist-3.4.GA.jar
  javax.ws.rs-api-2.0-m10.jar
  jaxb-impl-2.1.13.jar
  jcaptcha-1.0-mod-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
  jdom-1.1.jar
  jettison-1.0.jar
  jsf-facelets-1.1.6.jar
  jta-1.1.jar
  jtds-1.2.4.jar
  junit-4.7.jar
  jxl-2.6.12.jar
  log4j-1.2.17.jar
  mail-1.4.5.jar
  myfaces-api-2.1.0.jar
  myfaces-impl-2.1.0.jar
  neethi-3.0.2.jar
  oro-2.0.8.jar
  primefaces-3.3.jar
  slf4j-api-1.6.6.jar
  slf4j-log4j12-1.6.6.jar
  spring-aop-3.0.6.RELEASE.jar
  spring-asm-3.0.6.RELEASE.jar
  spring-batch-core-2.0.3.RELEASE.jar
  spring-batch-infrastructure-2.0.3.RELEASE.jar
  spring-beans-3.0.6.RELEASE.jar
  spring-context-3.0.6.RELEASE.jar
  spring-context-support-3.0.6.RELEASE.jar
  spring-core-3.0.6.RELEASE.jar
  spring-expression-3.0.6.RELEASE.jar
  spring-jdbc-3.0.6.RELEASE.jar
  spring-ldap-core-1.3.1.RELEASE.jar
  spring-ldap-core-tiger-1.3.1.RELEASE.jar
  spring-ldap-ldif-batch-1.3.1.RELEASE.jar
  spring-ldap-ldif-core-1.3.1.RELEASE.jar
  spring-ldap-odm-1.3.1.RELEASE.jar
  spring-orm-3.0.6.RELEASE.jar
  spring-test-3.0.6.RELEASE.jar
  spring-tx-3.0.6.RELEASE.jar
  spring-web-3.0.6.RELEASE.jar
  stax2-api-3.1.1.jar
  tomahawk-1.1.6.jar
  velocity-1.6.2.jar
  woodstox-core-asl-4.1.4.jar
  wsdl4j-1.6.2.jar
  xml-apis-1.0.b2.jar
  xml-resolver-1.2.jar
  xmlschema-core-2.0.3.jar
  xpp3_min-1.1.4c.jar
  xstream-1.3.jar
  </code></pre>