Struts 2 - Exception starting filter struts2 - struts2

Question

I just started with this Struts 2 HelloWorld Tutorial [1] and exactly followed the steps explained in this tutorial but there is a problem with starting the filters. Here is the console output:
[1] https://www.tutorialspoint.com/struts_2/struts_examples.htm
Jun 06, 2017 4:53:35 PM org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener init
INFORMATION: The APR based Apache Tomcat Native library which allows optimal performance in production environments was not found on the java.library.path: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_112\bin;C:\WINDOWS\Sun\Java\bin;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:/Program Files/Java/jre1.8.0_131/bin/server;C:/Program Files/Java/jre1.8.0_131/bin;C:/Program Files/Java/jre1.8.0_131/lib/amd64;C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVClient\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Shared;C:\Program Files\eclipse;;.
Jun 06, 2017 4:53:35 PM org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.SetPropertiesRule begin
WARNUNG: [SetPropertiesRule]{Server/Service/Engine/Host/Context} Setting property 'source' to 'org.eclipse.jst.jee.server:HelloWorldStruts2' did not find a matching property.
Jun 06, 2017 4:53:36 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init
INFORMATION: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["http-bio-18080"]
Jun 06, 2017 4:53:36 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina load
INFORMATION: Initialization processed in 428 ms
Jun 06, 2017 4:53:36 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService startInternal
INFORMATION: Starting service Catalina
Jun 06, 2017 4:53:36 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine startInternal
INFORMATION: Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/7.0.52
Jun 06, 2017 4:53:39 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.TaglibUriRule body
INFORMATION: TLD skipped. URI: /struts-tags is already defined
Jun 06, 2017 4:53:39 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFORMATION: No Spring WebApplicationInitializer types detected on classpath
SLF4J: Failed to load class "org.slf4j.impl.StaticLoggerBinder".
SLF4J: Defaulting to no-operation (NOP) logger implementation
SLF4J: See http://www.slf4j.org/codes.html#StaticLoggerBinder for further details.
ERROR StatusLogger Log4j2 could not find a logging implementation. Please add log4j-core to the classpath. Using SimpleLogger to log to the console...
Jun 06, 2017 4:53:39 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext filterStart
SCHWERWIEGEND: Exception starting filter struts2
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException - Class: com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerImpl$ConstructorInjector
File: ContainerImpl.java
Method: construct
Line: 427 - com/opensymphony/xwork2/inject/ContainerImpl.java:427:-1
at org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.Dispatcher.init(Dispatcher.java:450)
at org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.ng.InitOperations.initDispatcher(InitOperations.java:74)
at org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.ng.filter.StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter.init(StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter.java:51)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterConfig.initFilter(ApplicationFilterConfig.java:279)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterConfig.getFilter(ApplicationFilterConfig.java:260)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterConfig.<init>(ApplicationFilterConfig.java:105)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.filterStart(StandardContext.java:4809)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5485)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1559)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1549)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
at com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerImpl$ConstructorInjector.construct(ContainerImpl.java:427)
at com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerBuilder$5.create(ContainerBuilder.java:218)
at com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.Scope$2$1.create(Scope.java:52)
at com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerBuilder$3.create(ContainerBuilder.java:91)
at com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerBuilder$7.call(ContainerBuilder.java:571)
at com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerBuilder$7.call(ContainerBuilder.java:568)
at com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerImpl.callInContext(ContainerImpl.java:560)
at com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerBuilder.create(ContainerBuilder.java:568)
at com.opensymphony.xwork2.config.impl.DefaultConfiguration.createBootstrapContainer(DefaultConfiguration.java:278)
at com.opensymphony.xwork2.config.impl.DefaultConfiguration.reloadContainer(DefaultConfiguration.java:160)
at com.opensymphony.xwork2.config.ConfigurationManager.getConfiguration(ConfigurationManager.java:67)
at org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.Dispatcher.init_PreloadConfiguration(Dispatcher.java:390)
at org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.Dispatcher.init(Dispatcher.java:437)
... 14 more
Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:62)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:423)
at com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerImpl$ConstructorInjector.construct(ContainerImpl.java:410)
... 26 more
Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: org.apache.commons.lang3.text.StrSubstitutor.setValueDelimiter(Ljava/lang/String;)Lorg/apache/commons/lang3/text/StrSubstitutor;
at com.opensymphony.xwork2.config.providers.EnvsValueSubstitutor.<init>(EnvsValueSubstitutor.java:32)
... 31 more
Jun 06, 2017 4:53:39 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext startInternal
SCHWERWIEGEND: Error filterStart
Jun 06, 2017 4:53:39 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext startInternal
SCHWERWIEGEND: Context [/HelloWorldStruts2] startup failed due to previous errors
Jun 06, 2017 4:53:39 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol start
INFORMATION: Starting ProtocolHandler ["http-bio-18080"]
Jun 06, 2017 4:53:39 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start
INFORMATION: Server startup in 3183 ms
I think there is no need to paste my code here as it is exactly the code as stated in the tutorial link above. Except I replaced
<filter-class>
org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.FilterDispatcher
</filter-class>
with
<filter-class>
org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.ng.filter.StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter
</filter-class>
as proposed in this answer, which did not resolve the issue: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.FilterDispatcher
I am using struts 2.3.4, but tried it also with struts 2.2 and 2.5 - neither works.

Answer 1

I found the flaw: I have left the struts 2.5 jars in the "Deployment Assembly", since some other post proposed this when it showed some other exception. I removed them and booom.. now it works. Thanks, Aleksandr!