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How to resolve Error assembling WAR webxml attribute is required exception when building springboot wars

Cowrie
Cowrie
Dev @ Bswen

1. The purpose of this post

When building a Spring Boot application as a WAR file, you might encounter the following exception:

Terminal window
[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-war-plugin:2.2:war (default-war) on project sbjt1: Error assembling WAR: webxml attribute is required (or pre-existing WEB-INF/web.xml if executing in update mode) -> [Help 1]

This post will guide you on how to resolve this issue.

2. Environments

  • Spring Boot

3. The solution

3.1 The original pom.xml

Before resolving the issue, let’s look at the original pom.xml:

pom.xml
<build>
    <finalName>${artifactId}</finalName>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>repackage</goal>
                    </goals>
                    <configuration>
                        <classifier>exec</classifier>
                    </configuration>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

3.2 The correct pom.xml

To resolve the issue, you need to add the maven-war-plugin to your pom.xml:

pom.xml
<build>
    <finalName>${artifactId}</finalName>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>repackage</goal>
                    </goals>
                    <configuration>
                        <classifier>exec</classifier>
                    </configuration>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>


        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>3.0.0</version>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>
pom.xml
<plugin>
  <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>2.6</version>
  <configuration>
    <failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
  </configuration>
</plugin>

4. Summary

When building a Spring Boot application as a WAR file, the “webxml attribute is required” error often occurs due to missing or incorrect configuration in the pom.xml file. By adding the maven-war-plugin and ensuring its version is compatible, you can resolve this issue. Always verify the plugin version and configuration to avoid similar errors in the future.

Final Words + More Resources

My intention with this article was to help others who might be considering solving such a problem. So I hope that’s been the case here. If you still have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask me by email: Email me

Here are also the most important links from this article along with some further resources that will help you in this scope:

Oh, and if you found these resources useful, don’t forget to support me by starring the repo on GitHub!

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