The error below is generated on application load when a spring bean does not specify the class attribute. Spring beans do not need to specify the class attribute as it can use the attribute parent to inherit other spring beans.

Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.drools.container.spring.namespace.KnowledgeSessionDefinitionParser.parseInternal(KnowledgeSessionDefinitionParser.java:287)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.AbstractBeanDefinitionParser.parse(AbstractBeanDefinitionParser.java:59)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.NamespaceHandlerSupport.parse(NamespaceHandlerSupport.java:73)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.parseCustomElement(BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.java:1335)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.parseCustomElement(BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.java:1325)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.parseBeanDefinitions(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:136)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.registerBeanDefinitions(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:93)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.registerBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:493)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.doLoadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:390)

The equals comparison on 287 should be reversed to avoidthe null pointer exception but it should also take the class of the parent into account if it has been defined.