diff --git a/portal/src/main/java/org/cbioportal/WebAppConfig.java b/portal/src/main/java/org/cbioportal/WebAppConfig.java
index d7653e2b3ec..23ff797092e 100644
--- a/portal/src/main/java/org/cbioportal/WebAppConfig.java
+++ b/portal/src/main/java/org/cbioportal/WebAppConfig.java
@@ -1,10 +1,12 @@
 package org.cbioportal;
 
 import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
+import org.springframework.context.annotation.EnableAspectJAutoProxy;
 import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.ResourceHandlerRegistry;
 import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurer;
 
 @Configuration
+@EnableAspectJAutoProxy // TODO no idea what this does; is this logging aspect still usefull?
 public class WebAppConfig implements WebMvcConfigurer {
 
     @Override
diff --git a/web/src/main/java/org/cbioportal/logging/LoggingAspect.java b/web/src/main/java/org/cbioportal/logging/LoggingAspect.java
index ce0ae946a73..dcfe3200abe 100644
--- a/web/src/main/java/org/cbioportal/logging/LoggingAspect.java
+++ b/web/src/main/java/org/cbioportal/logging/LoggingAspect.java
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
 
+
+// TODO is this logging aspect still usefull?
 @Aspect
 @Component
 public class LoggingAspect {
diff --git a/web/src/main/java/org/cbioportal/logging/SentryClientFactory.java b/web/src/main/java/org/cbioportal/logging/SentryClientFactory.java
index 62e99735298..545156634a8 100644
--- a/web/src/main/java/org/cbioportal/logging/SentryClientFactory.java
+++ b/web/src/main/java/org/cbioportal/logging/SentryClientFactory.java
@@ -1,11 +1,14 @@
 package org.cbioportal.logging;
 
-import io.sentry.*;
+import io.sentry.DefaultSentryClientFactory;
+import io.sentry.SentryClient;
 import io.sentry.dsn.Dsn;
 import io.sentry.event.helper.ContextBuilderHelper;
 import io.sentry.event.helper.ForwardedAddressResolver;
 import io.sentry.event.helper.HttpEventBuilderHelper;
+import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
 
+@Component
 public class SentryClientFactory extends DefaultSentryClientFactory {
     @Override
     public SentryClient createSentryClient(Dsn dsn) {
diff --git a/web/src/main/java/org/cbioportal/url_shortener/URLShortenerController.java b/web/src/main/java/org/cbioportal/url_shortener/URLShortenerController.java
index 023017a33ca..d266cedd7ce 100644
--- a/web/src/main/java/org/cbioportal/url_shortener/URLShortenerController.java
+++ b/web/src/main/java/org/cbioportal/url_shortener/URLShortenerController.java
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestParam;
 import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;
 
-//@RestController
+@RestController
 public class URLShortenerController {
 
     @Value("${bitly.access.token}")
diff --git a/web/src/main/resources/applicationContext-logging.xml b/web/src/main/resources/applicationContext-logging.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index b0a840aad9f..00000000000
--- a/web/src/main/resources/applicationContext-logging.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,16 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-
-<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
-       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
-       xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
-       xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop"
-       xsi:schemaLocation="
-     http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context.xsd
-     http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
-     http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop.xsd">
-    
-    <context:component-scan base-package="org.cbioportal.logging" />
-    <context:component-scan base-package="org.cbioportal.persistence" />
-    <context:component-scan base-package="org.cbioportal.service" />
-    <aop:aspectj-autoproxy/>
-</beans>
diff --git a/web/src/main/resources/applicationContext-proxy.xml b/web/src/main/resources/applicationContext-proxy.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index cdb7d4334d1..00000000000
--- a/web/src/main/resources/applicationContext-proxy.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,30 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-
-<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
-       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
-       xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
-       xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
-       xsi:schemaLocation="
-     http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context.xsd
-     http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
-     http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc.xsd">
-
-    <bean id="propertyPlaceholderConfigurer" class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">
-        <property name="systemPropertiesModeName" value="SYSTEM_PROPERTIES_MODE_OVERRIDE" />
-        <property name="searchSystemEnvironment" value="true" />
-        <property name="ignoreResourceNotFound" value="true" />
-        <property name="ignoreUnresolvablePlaceholders" value="true" />
-        <property name="locations">
-            <list>
-                <value>classpath:portal.properties</value>
-                <value>file:///${PORTAL_HOME}/portal.properties</value>
-                <value>classpath:maven.properties</value>
-                <value>classpath:git.properties</value>
-            </list>
-        </property>
-    </bean>
-
-    <context:component-scan base-package="org.cbioportal.proxy" />
-
-    <mvc:annotation-driven/>
-</beans>
diff --git a/web/src/main/resources/applicationContext-url-shortener.xml b/web/src/main/resources/applicationContext-url-shortener.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index f92bcfcb70c..00000000000
--- a/web/src/main/resources/applicationContext-url-shortener.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,29 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-
-<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
-       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
-       xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
-       xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
-       xsi:schemaLocation="
-     http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context.xsd
-     http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
-     http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc.xsd">
-
-    <bean id="propertyPlaceholderConfigurer" class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer">
-        <property name="systemPropertiesModeName" value="SYSTEM_PROPERTIES_MODE_OVERRIDE" />
-        <property name="searchSystemEnvironment" value="true" />
-        <property name="ignoreResourceNotFound" value="true" />
-        <property name="ignoreUnresolvablePlaceholders" value="true" />
-        <property name="locations">
-            <list>
-                <value>classpath:portal.properties</value>
-                <value>file:///${PORTAL_HOME}/portal.properties</value>
-                <value>classpath:maven.properties</value>
-            </list>
-        </property>
-    </bean>
-    
-    <context:component-scan base-package="org.cbioportal.url_shortener" />
-
-    <mvc:annotation-driven/>
-</beans>