Unable to locate Spring NamespaceHandler for XML schema namespace

Question

I'm getting the following error when I try to run a simple app (JPA + Hibernate + Maven). It works fine when I deploy a war file into an app server but it doesn't work from my IDE (Eclipse). Is it possible to run it without app server? If yes, what is a problem?

Exception in thread "main" org.springframework.beans.factory.parsing.BeanDefinitionParsingException: Configuration problem: Unable to locate Spring NamespaceHandler for XML schema namespace [http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence]

Offending resource: file [E:\persistence.xml]

at org.springframework.beans.factory.parsing.FailFastProblemReporter.error(FailFastProblemReporter.java:68)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.parsing.ReaderContext.error(ReaderContext.java:85)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.parsing.ReaderContext.error(ReaderContext.java:80)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.error(BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.java:281)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.parseCustomElement(BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.java:1294)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.parseCustomElement(BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.java:1287)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.parseBeanDefinitions(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:141)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.registerBeanDefinitions(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:92)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.registerBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:507)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.doLoadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:398)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:342)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:310)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:143)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:178)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:149)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:212)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractXmlApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractXmlApplicationContext.java:113)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractXmlApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractXmlApplicationContext.java:80)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.refreshBeanFactory(AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.java:123)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.obtainFreshBeanFactory(AbstractApplicationContext.java:422)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:352)
at org.springframework.context.support.FileSystemXmlApplicationContext.<init>(FileSystemXmlApplicationContext.java:140)
at org.springframework.context.support.FileSystemXmlApplicationContext.<init>(FileSystemXmlApplicationContext.java:94)
at Test.main(Test.java:12)

persistence.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<persistence xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence 
                    http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence/persistence_1_0.xsd"
version="1.0">
<persistence-unit name="acme" transaction-type="RESOURCE_LOCAL" />

Maven dependencies:

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring</artifactId>
        <version>2.5.6.SEC01</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
        <version>2.5.6.SEC01</version>
    </dependency>   
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate</artifactId>
        <version>3.2.6.ga</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate-entitymanager</artifactId>
        <version>3.3.1.ga</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.persistence</groupId>
        <artifactId>persistence-api</artifactId>
        <version>1.0</version>
    </dependency>

Answer 1

It seems to be you are trying to load persistence.xml as a Spring configuration file (probably, you added it to the file list when calling constructor of FileSystemXmlApplicationContext). You shouldn't do it, because persistence.xml is not a Spring configuration file.

It's a JPA configuration file, which should be placed into META-INF folder in your classpath.