Question

I am getting a Missing artifact org.springframework.security:spring-security-parent:jar:3.0.7.RELEASE:compile error in the pom.xml when I add the maven dependency for Spring Security but when I remove that dependency the error disappears. Could someone help me understand that why is it happening and how should I add Spring Security 3 added in my application using maven? Thanks.

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">

     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
     <groupId>com.think</groupId>
     <artifactId>think</artifactId>
     <packaging>war</packaging>
     <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>  
     <name>think Maven Webapp</name>
     <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>

    <properties>
        <java-version>1.6</java-version>
        <org.springframework-version>3.1.0.RELEASE</org.springframework-version>
        <org.aspectj-version>1.6.10</org.aspectj-version>
        <org.slf4j-version>1.6.1</org.slf4j-version>

        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    </properties>

     <dependencies> 
        <!-- Spring -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework-version}</version>
            <exclusions>
                <!-- Exclude Commons Logging in favor of SLF4j -->
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
                    <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
                 </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework-version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Spring Security -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-security-parent</artifactId>
            <version>3.0.7.RELEASE</version>
        </dependency>


        <!-- AspectJ -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
            <artifactId>aspectjrt</artifactId>
            <version>${org.aspectj-version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Logging -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
            <version>${org.slf4j-version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>jcl-over-slf4j</artifactId>
            <version>${org.slf4j-version}</version>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
            <version>${org.slf4j-version}</version>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>log4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.16</version>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>

        <!-- JSR 330 - @Inject -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.inject</groupId>
            <artifactId>javax.inject</artifactId>
            <version>1</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Servlet -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.5</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
            <artifactId>jsp-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.1</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp.jstl</groupId>
            <artifactId>jstl-api</artifactId>
            <version>1.2</version>
        </dependency>       
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.glassfish.web</groupId>
            <artifactId>jstl-impl</artifactId>
            <version>1.2</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Jackson JSON Processor -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId>
            <artifactId>jackson-mapper-asl</artifactId>
            <version>1.8.1</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Rome Atom+RSS -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>net.java.dev.rome</groupId>
            <artifactId>rome</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.0</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- JSR 303 with Hibernate Validator -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.validation</groupId>
            <artifactId>validation-api</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.0.GA</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
            <version>4.1.0.Final</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Joda Time Library -->  
        <dependency>
            <groupId>joda-time</groupId>
            <artifactId>joda-time</artifactId>
            <version>1.6.2</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- File Upload -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>commons-fileupload</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-fileupload</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.2</version>
        </dependency>   
        <dependency>
            <groupId>commons-io</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-io</artifactId>
            <version>2.0.1</version>
        </dependency>   

        <!-- JUnit -->
           <dependency>
             <groupId>junit</groupId>
             <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
             <version>4.8</version>
             <scope>test</scope>
           </dependency>    

        <!-- JSR 250 - @PostConstruct, @PreDestroy and @Resource  -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.annotation</groupId>
            <artifactId>jsr250-api</artifactId>
            <version>1.0</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- java-image-scaling -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.mortennobel</groupId>
            <artifactId>java-image-scaling</artifactId>
            <version>0.8.5</version>
        </dependency>       
     </dependencies>


    <repositories>  
        <!-- For testing against latest Spring snapshots -->
        <repository>
            <id>org.springframework.maven.snapshot</id>
            <name>Spring Maven Snapshot Repository</name>
            <url>http://maven.springframework.org/snapshot</url>
            <releases><enabled>false</enabled></releases>
            <snapshots><enabled>true</enabled></snapshots>
        </repository>
        <!-- For developing against latest Spring milestones -->
        <repository>
            <id>org.springframework.maven.milestone</id>
            <name>Spring Maven Milestone Repository</name>
            <url>http://maven.springframework.org/milestone</url>
            <snapshots><enabled>false</enabled></snapshots>
        </repository>
    </repositories>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.3.2</version>                
                <configuration>
                    <source>${java-version}</source>
                    <target>${java-version}</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>install</id>
                        <phase>install</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>sources</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>

            <plugin>
              <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
              <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
              <configuration>
                <webResources>
                  <resource>
                    <directory>${build.sourceDirectory}</directory>
                    <targetPath>src</targetPath>
                  </resource>
                </webResources>
              </configuration>
            </plugin>

            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                <artifactId>aspectj-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <!-- Have to use version 1.2 since version 1.3 does not appear to work with ITDs -->
                <version>1.2</version>
                <dependencies>
                    <!-- You must use Maven 2.0.9 or above or these are ignored (see MNG-2972) -->
                    <dependency>
                        <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
                        <artifactId>aspectjrt</artifactId>
                        <version>${org.aspectj-version}</version>
                    </dependency>
                    <dependency>
                        <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
                        <artifactId>aspectjtools</artifactId>
                        <version>${org.aspectj-version}</version>
                    </dependency>

            </dependencies>

                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>compile</goal>
                            <goal>test-compile</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
                <configuration>
                    <outxml>true</outxml>
                    <source>${java-version}</source>
                    <target>${java-version}</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                <artifactId>tomcat-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.1</version>
            </plugin>   

        </plugins>

    </build>

</project>

Answer 1

This dependency exists, however it is a parent of a multi-module project with pom packaging. You should be importing concrete artifacts that reference this module internally:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-security-core</artifactId>
    <version>3.0.7.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-security-web</artifactId>
    <version>3.0.7.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>

The spring-security-parent pom artifact will be transitively downloaded for you.