Importing Spring beans from other Maven modules

I currently have the following maven modules for my app: rules, persistence, server, each of which contain an applicationContext.xml file importing from each other, (ie. server imports rulesAC which imports persistenceAC, all AC files are located in {correspondingModule}/src/main/resources). While my IDE (Intellij), integration test and maven package all build and pass fine upon attempting to start my server I am greeted with:

org.apache.maven.lifecycle.LifecycleExecutionException: An exception occured while executing the Java class. null
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoals(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:719)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeStandaloneGoal(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:569)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoal(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:539)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoalAndHandleFailures(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:387)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeTaskSegments(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:348)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.execute(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:180)
    at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:328)
    at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.execute(DefaultMaven.java:138)
    at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.main(MavenCli.java:362)
    at org.apache.maven.cli.compat.CompatibleMain.main(CompatibleMain.java:60)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.launchEnhanced(Launcher.java:315)
    at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:255)
    at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.mainWithExitCode(Launcher.java:430)
    at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:375)
Caused by: org.apache.maven.plugin.MojoExecutionException: An exception occured while executing the Java class. null
    at org.codehaus.mojo.exec.ExecJavaMojo.execute(ExecJavaMojo.java:338)
    at org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultPluginManager.executeMojo(DefaultPluginManager.java:490)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoals(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:694)
    ... 17 more
Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at org.codehaus.mojo.exec.ExecJavaMojo$1.run(ExecJavaMojo.java:283)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'abService' defined in class path resource [applicationContext.xml]: Cannot resolve reference to bean 'foo' while setting constructor argument; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.NoSuchBeanDefinitionException: No bean named 'foo' is defined
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionValueResolver.resolveReference(BeanDefinitionValueResolver.java:328)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionValueResolver.resolveValueIfNecessary(BeanDefinitionValueResolver.java:106开发者_StackOverflow社区)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.ConstructorResolver.resolveConstructorArguments(ConstructorResolver.java:616)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.ConstructorResolver.autowireConstructor(ConstructorResolver.java:148)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.autowireConstructor(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1003)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBeanInstance(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:907)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:485)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:456)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:291)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:222)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:288)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:190)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:580)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:895)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:425)
    at org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.<init>(ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.java:139)
    at org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.<init>(ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.java:83)
    at com.boku.risk.service.server.Server.main(Server.java:30)
    ... 6 more
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.NoSuchBeanDefinitionException: No bean named 'foo' is defined
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.getBeanDefinition(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:527)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getMergedLocalBeanDefinition(AbstractBeanFactory.java:1083)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:274)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:190)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionValueResolver.resolveReference(BeanDefinitionValueResolver.java:322)
    ... 23 more

The 'foo' bean that cannot be found is from the persistenceAC.xml. The way I am importing each of the child ACs is:

<import resource="classpath*:rulesAC.xml"/>

I've also tryed every variation of this import ("classpath:rulesAC.xml", "classpath*:/rulesAC.xml", "classpath:/rulesAC.xml") thinking this was the issue but it appears not to be.

While I believe this to be some sort of classpath issue I have tryed everything I know and have attempted to search for solutions without much luck. Thanks in advance for your help and if there is anything else that would be of help, please notify.

Note* The server module contains dependencies on the rules module and on the persistence module.

All the variations of the import that you listed should work. In fact, if they didn't, you'd get an IOException when Spring tries to load the file. The lack of such indicates that either the file exists and is being loaded, or that the file that contains the import isn't being loaded. Look for INFO-level logs showing which XML files Spring is loading and what singleton beans are loaded in each ApplicationContext. This will guide you toward the configuration error. The logs look like:

Loading XML bean definitions from <description of resource>
Pre-instantiating singletons in <type of application context> <list of singleton beans>