The biggest pain of using spring is its heavy use of classloaders...
This is something that happens with me when I try to use custom version of jackson:
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter': Instantiation of bean failed; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.BeanInstantiationException: Failed to instantiate [org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter]: Constructor threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/fasterxml/jackson/core/util/DefaultIndenter
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.instantiateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1116)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBeanInstance(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1060)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:513)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:483)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:306)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:230)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:302)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:197)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:759)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:866)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:542)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.configureAndRefreshWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:668)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:634)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:682)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:553)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initServletBean(FrameworkServlet.java:494)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.HttpServletBean.init(HttpServletBean.java:136)
at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:244)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder.initServlet(ServletHolder.java:532)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder.getServlet(ServletHolder.java:415)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder.handle(ServletHolder.java:657)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1507)
at com.truward.brikar.server.tracking.RequestVectorAwareFilter.doFilterInternal(RequestVectorAwareFilter.java:64)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:107)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1478)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy.doFilterInternal(FilterChainProxy.java:208)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:177)
at org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy.invokeDelegate(DelegatingFilterProxy.java:346)
at org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy.doFilter(DelegatingFilterProxy.java:262)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1478)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler.doHandle(ServletHandler.java:499)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.session.SessionHandler.doHandle(SessionHandler.java:229)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandler.doHandle(ContextHandler.java:1086)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler.doScope(ServletHandler.java:427)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.session.SessionHandler.doScope(SessionHandler.java:193)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandler.doScope(ContextHandler.java:1020)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ScopedHandler.handle(ScopedHandler.java:135)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.HandlerCollection.handle(HandlerCollection.java:154)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.HandlerWrapper.handle(HandlerWrapper.java:116)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.Server.handle(Server.java:370)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.AbstractHttpConnection.handleRequest(AbstractHttpConnection.java:494)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.AbstractHttpConnection.headerComplete(AbstractHttpConnection.java:973)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.AbstractHttpConnection$RequestHandler.headerComplete(AbstractHttpConnection.java:1035)
at org.eclipse.jetty.http.HttpParser.parseNext(HttpParser.java:641)
at org.eclipse.jetty.http.HttpParser.parseAvailable(HttpParser.java:231)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.AsyncHttpConnection.handle(AsyncHttpConnection.java:82)
at org.eclipse.jetty.io.nio.SelectChannelEndPoint.handle(SelectChannelEndPoint.java:696)
at org.eclipse.jetty.io.nio.SelectChannelEndPoint$1.run(SelectChannelEndPoint.java:53)
at org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.QueuedThreadPool.runJob(QueuedThreadPool.java:608)
at org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.QueuedThreadPool$3.run(QueuedThreadPool.java:543)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.BeanInstantiationException: Failed to instantiate [org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter]: Constructor threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/fasterxml/jackson/core/util/DefaultIndenter
at org.springframework.beans.BeanUtils.instantiateClass(BeanUtils.java:154)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.SimpleInstantiationStrategy.instantiate(SimpleInstantiationStrategy.java:89)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.instantiateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1108)
... 50 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/fasterxml/jackson/core/util/DefaultIndenter
at org.springframework.http.converter.json.AbstractJackson2HttpMessageConverter.init(AbstractJackson2HttpMessageConverter.java:97)
at org.springframework.http.converter.json.AbstractJackson2HttpMessageConverter.<init>(AbstractJackson2HttpMessageConverter.java:90)
at org.springframework.http.converter.json.MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter.<init>(MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter.java:66)
at org.springframework.http.converter.json.MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter.<init>(MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter.java:57)
at org.springframework.http.converter.support.AllEncompassingFormHttpMessageConverter.<init>(AllEncompassingFormHttpMessageConverter.java:61)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.<init>(RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.java:182)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:62)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:408)
at org.springframework.beans.BeanUtils.instantiateClass(BeanUtils.java:142)
... 52 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.fasterxml.jackson.core.util.DefaultIndenter
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:372)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:361)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:360)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:308)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
... 63 common frames omitted
And there is no way to prevent it due to hard coded converters code in RequestMappingHandlerAdapter and consequently in AllEncompassingFormHttpMessageConverter. Very sad :(