Null Point Exception

[Rob Hope]

I have created the Java project on this site
http://www.mkyong.com/struts2/struts-2-hibernate-integration-example/

But I receive a NPE when trying to submit an entry to the database from the line below - can anyone figureout why?
Session session = sessionFactory.openSession();

WARNING Message: Caught an exception while evaluating expression 'customerList.size() > 0' against value stack
java.lang.NullPointerException: target is null for method size
at ognl.OgnlRuntime.callMethod(OgnlRuntime.java:1327)
at ognl.ASTMethod.getValueBody(ASTMethod.java:90)
at ognl.SimpleNode.evaluateGetValueBody(SimpleNode.java:212)
at ognl.SimpleNode.getValue(SimpleNode.java:258)
at ognl.ASTChain.getValueBody(ASTChain.java:141)
at ognl.SimpleNode.evaluateGetValueBody(SimpleNode.java:212)
at ognl.SimpleNode.getValue(SimpleNode.java:258)
at ognl.ASTGreater.getValueBody(ASTGreater.java:50)
at ognl.SimpleNode.evaluateGetValueBody(SimpleNode.java:212)
at ognl.SimpleNode.getValue(SimpleNode.java:258)
at ognl.Ognl.getValue(Ognl.java:494)
at com.opensymphony.xwork2.ognl.OgnlUtil.getValue(OgnlUtil.java:206)
at com.opensymphony.xwork2.ognl.OgnlValueStack.findValue(OgnlValueStack.java:276)
at org.apache.struts2.components.Component.findValue(Component.java:382)
at org.apache.struts2.components.If.start(If.java:86)
at org.apache.struts2.views.jsp.ComponentTagSupport.doStartTag(ComponentTagSupport.java:53)
at org.apache.jsp.pages.customer_jsp._jspx_meth_s_005fif_005f0(customer_jsp.java:223)
at org.apache.jsp.pages.customer_jsp._jspService(customer_jsp.java:88)
at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:98)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:371)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:308)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:259)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:269)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:188)
at org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.ng.filter.StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter.doFilter(StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter.java:88)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:215)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:188)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:213)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:172)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:127)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:117)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:108)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:174)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:879)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11BaseProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11BaseProtocol.java:665)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.PoolTcpEndpoint.processSocket(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:528)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.runIt(LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.java:81)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:689)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)

[Greg Charles]

It looks to me like you have a page eith the expression language (EL) expression: customerList > 0, but the customer list evaluates to null. I don't have experience with OGNL, but normally you can write: not empty customerList, which will be false if customerList is null or has no elements.

[Mohana Rao Sv]

<s:if test = %{customerList.size() > 0}>

</s:if>

Is valid according to OGNL make sure customerList is not null. or else check for null before checking above one.

[Rob Hope]

The customer list will always be null before any data has been added for the 1st time.
But I thought my action included a check for null values that resets the form, please have a look below

package com.mkyong.customer.action;

public class CustomerAction extends ActionSupport 
	implements ModelDriven{
 
	Customer customer = new Customer();
	List<Customer> customerList = new ArrayList<Customer>();
 
	public String execute() throws Exception {
		return SUCCESS;
	}
 
	public Object getModel() {
		return customer;
	}
 
	public List<Customer> getCustomerList() {
		return customerList;
	}
 
	public void setCustomerList(List<Customer> customerList) {
		this.customerList = customerList;
	}
 
	//save customer
	public String addCustomer() throws Exception{
 
		//get hibernate session from the servlet context
		SessionFactory sessionFactory = 
	         (SessionFactory) ServletActionContext.getServletContext()
                     .getAttribute(HibernateListener.KEY_NAME);
 
		Session session = sessionFactory.openSession();
 
		//save it
		customer.setcreatedDate(new Date());
 
		session.beginTransaction();
		session.save(customer);
		session.getTransaction().commit();
 
		//reload the customer list
		customerList = null;
		customerList = session.createQuery("from Customer").list();
 
		return SUCCESS;
 
	}
 
	public Customer getCustomer() {
		return customer;
	}

	public void setCustomer(Customer customer) {
		this.customer = customer;
	}

	//list all customers
	public String listCustomer() throws Exception{
 
		//get hibernate session from the servlet context
		SessionFactory sessionFactory = 
	         (SessionFactory) ServletActionContext.getServletContext()
                     .getAttribute(HibernateListener.KEY_NAME);
 
		Session session = sessionFactory.openSession();
 
		customerList = session.createQuery("from Customer").list();
 
		return SUCCESS;
 
	}	
}

[Rob Hope]

I suspect its related to my created method for setting the customerlist?


public void setCustomerList(List<Customer> customerList) {
this.customerList = customerList;

[Greg Charles]

Well, it's certainly because you're setting customerList to null. That shouldn't be hard to track down or compensate for. Did you try "not empty customerList" in your EL as I suggested last week?

[Rob Hope]

wasn't completely sure what & where in the class this should be placed in
Its more than just this one method I assume?

<s:if test = %{customerList.size() > 0}>

</s:if>

[Rob Hope]

I can not use <s:if test="customerList.size() > 0">
within my .jsp form for adding data because obviously a first time user will not have entered any data so it will always be null

I need a way to allowing my class to return a null value to prevent the error below

WARNING: Caught an exception while evaluating expression 'customerList.size() > 0' against value stack

[Greg Charles]

Rob Hope wrote:I can not use <s:if test="customerList.size() > 0">
within my .jsp form for adding data because obviously a first time user will not have entered any data so it will always be null

I need a way to allowing my class to return a null value to prevent the error below

WARNING: Caught an exception while evaluating expression 'customerList.size() > 0' against value stack

Could you try: <s:if test="%{not empty customerList}"> ?

That's how I would do it. However, you are setting customerList to an empty, but non-null, ArrayList at construction time. You could also change the setCustomerList() method to set the value to a new empty list if given a null parameter. That would mean, customerList.size() would never give you an NPE.