J2EE application is not working due to a java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError

OS: Windows XP
Programs: Netbeans 4.1

I am following the course schedule at http://www.javapassion.com/j2ee/HW3New.html and I've hit a roadblock that just is not going away.  Basically, I have the J2EE 1.4 tutorial code and inside \examples\web\bookstore1 there is a bookstore application that uses the App Server along with a Pointbase database.  I followed the class instructions carefully and was able to create the project and deploy the project.  All worked fine.  No need to touch anything.  Now, I am going back to that application and it is not working.  The log files tell me the following in chronological order:

-----1
Message ID:
      
WebModule[/bookstore1]Exception sending context initialized event to listener instance of class listeners.ContextListener java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError
Complete Message

exception/OrderException
      at listeners.ContextListener.contextInitialized(Unknown Source)
      at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:4010)
      at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4525)
      at com.sun.enterprise.web.WebModule.start(WebModule.java:241)
      at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1086)
      at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:833)
      at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1086)
      at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:483)
      at org.apache.catalina.startup.Embedded.start(Embedded.java:894)
      at com.sun.enterprise.web.WebContainer.start(WebContainer.java:688)
      at com.sun.enterprise.web.PEWebContainer.startInstance(PEWebContainer.java:507)
      at com.sun.enterprise.web.PEWebContainerLifecycle.onStartup(PEWebContainerLifecycle.java:54)
      at com.sun.enterprise.server.ApplicationServer.onStartup(ApplicationServer.java:300)
      at com.sun.enterprise.server.PEMain.run(PEMain.java:294)
      at com.sun.enterprise.server.PEMain.main(PEMain.java:220)

-----2
Message ID:
      
Complete Message

Error listenerStart

Diagnostic Causes

----3
Message ID:
      
Complete Message

Context startup failed due to previous errors

Diagnostic Causes


I know that I probably did something wrong but I do not remember what.  So, I just re-deployed the app according to the instructions and I get the same message.  To reiterate I just did the following:
1. downloaded and unzipped j2ee-1_4-doc-tutorial_5.zip
2. restarted the app server through netbeans
3. restarted the PointBase server through netbeans
4. the application deployment instructions for examples\web\bookstore
-asant build
-asant package-bookstore
-asant create-db_common
-asant create-jdbc-resource_common (this step failed with the following error: JdbcResource already exists: cannot add duplicate. This is OK, it just illustrates that the resource is already available)
5. the application deployment instructions for examples\web\bookstore1
-asant build
-asant create-bookstore-war
-asant deploy-war

When I visit http://localhost:8080/bookstore1/bookstore I get the error page 'HTTP Status 404 - Servlet BookStoreServlet is not available'
At this point, the log file tells me that 'Servlet CatalogServlet is currently unavailable.'  The message that I posted above occurs only once right before I see in the log files that the server started up successfully.  For reference, this is part of the log file:

62       INFO       Application server startup complete. (details)       javax.enterprise.system.core       Jul 19, 2005 11:29:20.947       _ThreadID=10;
61       INFO       Status of System JMX Connector: Active = [true] (details)       javax.enterprise.system.tools.admin       Jul 19, 2005 11:29:20.869       _ThreadID=10;
60       INFO       Here is the JMXServiceURL for the JMXConnectorServer: [service:jmx:rmi:///jndi/rmi://ITS-2016.net.la...
(details)       javax.enterprise.system.tools.admin       Jul 19, 2005 11:29:20.869       _ThreadID=10;
59       INFO       Starting Sun-Java-System/Application-Server-PE HTTP/1.1 on 4848 (details)       javax.enter....system.container.web       Jul 19, 2005 11:29:20.416       _ThreadID=10;
58       INFO       Initializing Sun-Java-System/Application-Server-PE HTTP/1.1 on 4848 (details)       javax.enter....system.container.web       Jul 19, 2005 11:29:20.416       _ThreadID=10;
57       INFO       Starting Sun-Java-System/Application-Server-PE HTTP/1.1 on 8181 (details)       javax.enter....system.container.web       Jul 19, 2005 11:29:20.307       _ThreadID=10;
56       INFO       Initializing Sun-Java-System/Application-Server-PE HTTP/1.1 on 8181 (details)       javax.enter....system.container.web       Jul 19, 2005 11:29:20.307       _ThreadID=10;
55       INFO       Starting Sun-Java-System/Application-Server-PE HTTP/1.1 on 8080 (details)       javax.enter....system.container.web       Jul 19, 2005 11:29:20.166       _ThreadID=10;
54       INFO       Initializing Sun-Java-System/Application-Server-PE HTTP/1.1 on 8080 (details)       javax.enter....system.container.web       Jul 19, 2005 11:29:20.151       _ThreadID=10;
53       INFO       contextInitialized() (details)       javax.enter....system.container.web       Jul 19, 2005 11:29:19.260       _ThreadID=10;
52       INFO       contextInitialized() (details)       javax.enter....system.container.web       Jul 19, 2005 11:29:19.260       _ThreadID=10;
51       SEVERE       Context startup failed due to previous errors (details)       tomcat.server./bookstore1.Context       Jul 19, 2005 11:29:17.728       _ThreadID=10;
50       SEVERE       Error listenerStart (details)       tomcat.server./bookstore1.Context       Jul 19, 2005 11:29:17.728       _ThreadID=10;
49       SEVERE       exception/OrderException
at listeners.ContextListener.contextInitialized(Unknown Source)
at org.ap...
(details)

Can anyone provide a solution to this or another method of troubleshooting because I've run out of suggestions?