Java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org / apache / xerces / jaxp / DocumentBuilderFactoryImpl in tomcat 7

I tried searching for a question but haven't found links for this answer yet.

The problem we are facing is

java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org/apache/xerces/jaxp/DocumentBuilderFactoryImpl
at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:344)
at javax.xml.parsers.FactoryFinder.getProviderClass(FactoryFinder.java:124)
at javax.xml.parsers.FactoryFinder.newInstance(FactoryFinder.java:188)
at javax.xml.parsers.FactoryFinder.newInstance(FactoryFinder.java:152)
at javax.xml.parsers.FactoryFinder.find(FactoryFinder.java:232)
at javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance(DocumentBuilderFactory.java:120)
at org.apache.jasper.xmlparser.ParserUtils.parseXMLDocument(ParserUtils.java:115)
at org.apache.jasper.xmlparser.ParserUtils.parseXMLDocument(ParserUtils.java:181)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.TagLibraryInfoImpl.parseTLD(TagLibraryInfoImpl.java:231)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.TagLibraryInfoImpl.<init>(TagLibraryInfoImpl.java:171)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.parseTaglibDirective(Parser.java:410)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.parseDirective(Parser.java:475)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.parseElements(Parser.java:1410)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.parse(Parser.java:138)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.ParserController.doParse(ParserController.java:242)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.ParserController.parse(ParserController.java:102)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Compiler.generateJava(Compiler.java:199)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Compiler.compile(Compiler.java:374)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Compiler.compile(Compiler.java:354)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Compiler.compile(Compiler.java:341)
at org.apache.jasper.JspCompilationContext.compile(JspCompilationContext.java:657)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:357)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:395)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:339)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:727)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:303)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:208)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.invoke(ApplicationDispatcher.java:748)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.doInclude(ApplicationDispatcher.java:604)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.include(ApplicationDispatcher.java:543)
at org.apache.jasper.runtime.JspRuntimeLibrary.include(JspRuntimeLibrary.java:954)

      

        
        
        
      

    

This problem doesn't seem to be able to load xercesImpl.jar, or at least can't find the file. xercesImpl.jar is already present in / WEB -INF / lib, but it can't find it on tomcat 7.

In tomcat 8 this works fine. Any pointers on what can be done or where the likely problem is, other than moving the lib in the tomcat lib folder.

thank

Amit