Spring application Context initialization failed, BeanCreationException - Error Setting Property due to NullPointerException Util:Set property

Question

Having a problem that I'm not really sure where to start looking with.

Background:

Multi-module app - main Web app module and a module for each provider, using overlays to overwrite provider-specifics at a file level. Problem occurring in one of the provider modules. The provider modules use pretty similar applicationContext.xml's. Problem is only occurring on Production environment, and on one co-workers machine - for only one of the provider overlay modules - built from same git master branch. Dev/Test/Prod machine = linux, co-workers machine = iMac, everyone else's machines = Windows.

Problem occurs at WebLogic startup, when the offending Bean is being initialized. The bean is wired with Set properties that are defined in the same applicationContext.xml in terms of util:set elements. The various modules define the same auth_filter bean with the same Set properties (albeit that providers may have a couple of different URIs for the lists)

Bean Definition:

<bean id="auth_filter" class="xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.AuthFilter"><!--offending bean-->
    <property name="sessionProfile" ref="sessionProfile"/>
    <property name="allowedURIs" ref="allowedURIs"/><!--offending set-->
    <property name="protectedURIs" ref="protectedURIs"/><!--offending set-->
    <property name="allowedAlwaysURIs" ref="allowedAlwaysURIs"/><!--offending set-->
</bean>

the offending sets are defined as follows (just one for brevity - others follow suite):

<util:set id="allowedURIs">
    <value>/</value> <!--this is here because '/j_spring_security_check' presents as this in AuthFilter-->
    <value></value> <!-- for dashboard -->
    <value>/login(/.*)*</value>
    <value>/resources(/.*)*</value>
    <value>/register(/.*)*</value>
    <value>/forgotPassword(/.*)*</value>
    <value>/community(/.*)*</value>
    .
    .
    .
    </util:set>

When WebLogic starts, the other modules start fine, also seen as excluding the offending module from the build shows no issues in the others. This module gives the following exception (again truncated for brevity, can include if required):

    [2013/07/19 08:46:40] [ERROR] org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader@308 -> Context initialization failed
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'auth_filter' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml]: Error setting property values; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.PropertyBatchUpdateException; nested PropertyAccessExceptions (3) are:
PropertyAccessException 1: org.springframework.beans.MethodInvocationException: Property 'allowedURIs' threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException
PropertyAccessException 2: org.springframework.beans.MethodInvocationException: Property 'protectedURIs' threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException
PropertyAccessException 3: org.springframework.beans.MethodInvocationException: Property 'allowedAlwaysURIs' threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.applyPropertyValues(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1396)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.populateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1118)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:517)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:456)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:294)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:225)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:291)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:193)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:585)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:913)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:464)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.configureAndRefreshWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:385)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:284)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:111)
.
.
.

Again, this error has only shown to be occurring on the Production environment, and 1 other co-workers machines. Any advice as to where to begin looking would be hugely appreciated

Ganesh Hoolageri Ganesh Hoolageri · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-19T10:04:24

Compare versions of Weblogic and jre of the environment with your dev test setup. Check if spring versions are same.

Spring application Context initialization failed, BeanCreationException - Error Setting Property due to NullPointerException Util:Set property

1 Answers