Dear experts,

I am porting an application from JBoss 4 to JBoss AS 7 This application uses cxf with spring. Our client's requirement is that we will not change (or add) modules for jboss. In the jboss cxf module, there is an optional dependency to spring, but by default there is no spring module. I was wondering if I am obliged to add a spring module or if I can add the spring jars to my project's lib directory. If I don't create a spring module and add the spring jars to the application lib directory, I get the following error:

09:19:44,203 WARN  [org.jboss.modules] (MSC service thread 1-1) Failed to define class org.apache.cxf.transport.servlet.CXFServlet in Module "org.apache.cxf.impl:main" from local module loader @1f06dc3 (finder: local module finder @1b64e6a (roots: C:\dev\jboss-eap-6.1\modules,C:\dev\jboss-eap-6.1\modules\system\layers\base)): java.lang.LinkageError: Failed to link org/apache/cxf/transport/servlet/CXFServlet (Module "org.apache.cxf.impl:main" from local module loader @1f06dc3 (finder: local module finder @1b64e6a (roots: C:\dev\jboss-eap-6.1\modules,C:\dev\jboss-eap-6.1\modules\system\layers\base)))

  at org.jboss.modules.ModuleClassLoader.defineClass(ModuleClassLoader.java:427) [jboss-modules.jar:1.2.0.Final-redhat-1]

  at org.jboss.modules.ModuleClassLoader.loadClassLocal(ModuleClassLoader.java:260) [jboss-modules.jar:1.2.0.Final-redhat-1]

  at org.jboss.modules.ModuleClassLoader$1.loadClassLocal(ModuleClassLoader.java:75) [jboss-modules.jar:1.2.0.Final-redhat-1]

  at org.jboss.modules.Module.loadModuleClass(Module.java:526) [jboss-modules.jar:1.2.0.Final-redhat-1]

  at org.jboss.modules.ModuleClassLoader.findClass(ModuleClassLoader.java:188) [jboss-modules.jar:1.2.0.Final-redhat-1]

  at org.jboss.modules.ConcurrentClassLoader.performLoadClassUnchecked(ConcurrentClassLoader.java:444) [jboss-modules.jar:1.2.0.Final-redhat-1]

  at org.jboss.modules.ConcurrentClassLoader.performLoadClassChecked(ConcurrentClassLoader.java:432) [jboss-modules.jar:1.2.0.Final-redhat-1]

  at org.jboss.modules.ConcurrentClassLoader.performLoadClassChecked(ConcurrentClassLoader.java:399) [jboss-modules.jar:1.2.0.Final-redhat-1]

  at org.jboss.modules.ConcurrentClassLoader.performLoadClassChecked(ConcurrentClassLoader.java:399) [jboss-modules.jar:1.2.0.Final-redhat-1]

  at org.jboss.modules.ConcurrentClassLoader.performLoadClass(ConcurrentClassLoader.java:374) [jboss-modules.jar:1.2.0.Final-redhat-1]

  at org.jboss.modules.ConcurrentClassLoader.loadClass(ConcurrentClassLoader.java:119) [jboss-modules.jar:1.2.0.Final-redhat-1]

  at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:316) [rt.jar:1.6.0_17]

  at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method) [rt.jar:1.6.0_17]

  at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:247) [rt.jar:1.6.0_17]

  at org.jboss.as.server.deployment.reflect.DeploymentClassIndex.classIndex(DeploymentClassIndex.java:54)

  at org.jboss.as.ee.component.deployers.InterceptorAnnotationProcessor.processComponentConfig(InterceptorAnnotationProcessor.java:85) [jboss-as-ee-7.2.0.Final-redhat-8.jar:7.2.0.Final-redhat-8]

  at org.jboss.as.ee.component.deployers.InterceptorAnnotationProcessor.deploy(InterceptorAnnotationProcessor.java:77) [jboss-as-ee-7.2.0.Final-redhat-8.jar:7.2.0.Final-redhat-8]

  at org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitPhaseService.start(DeploymentUnitPhaseService.java:120)

  at org.jboss.msc.service.ServiceControllerImpl$StartTask.startService(ServiceControllerImpl.java:1811)

  at org.jboss.msc.service.ServiceControllerImpl$StartTask.run(ServiceControllerImpl.java:1746)

  at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886) [rt.jar:1.6.0_17]

  at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908) [rt.jar:1.6.0_17]

  at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619) [rt.jar:1.6.0_17]

Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/springframework/context/ApplicationListener

  at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method) [rt.jar:1.6.0_17]

  at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:616) [rt.jar:1.6.0_17]

  at org.jboss.modules.ModuleClassLoader.doDefineOrLoadClass(ModuleClassLoader.java:344) [jboss-modules.jar:1.2.0.Final-redhat-1]

  at org.jboss.modules.ModuleClassLoader.defineClass(ModuleClassLoader.java:422) [jboss-modules.jar:1.2.0.Final-redhat-1]

  ... 22 more

Is it possible to use cxf as a module and the spring jars in the application lib directory?