CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javajsp
Terman
Terman

Reputation: 983

Why did Servlet.service() for servlet jsp throw this exception?

I get the following error, what could be the problem?

My context descriptor:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5">
   <servlet>
    <servlet-name>UploadServlet</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>controller.UploadServlet</servlet-class>
  </servlet>
   <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>UploadServlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/UploadServlet</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>
  <welcome-file-list>
    <welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
  </welcome-file-list>
</web-app>

SEVERE: Servlet.service() for servlet jsp threw exception
java.lang.NullPointerException
    at org.apache.jsp.index_jsp._jspInit(index_jsp.java:22)
    at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.init(HttpJspBase.java:52)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.getServlet(JspServletWrapper.java:159)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:329)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:342)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:267)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:290)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:128)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:293)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:849)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:583)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:454)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Feb 23, 2010 11:35:28 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve invoke
SEVERE: Servlet.service() for servlet jsp threw exception
java.lang.NullPointerException
    at org.apache.jsp.index_jsp._jspInit(index_jsp.java:22)
    at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.init(HttpJspBase.java:52)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.getServlet(JspServletWrapper.java:159)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:329)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:342)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:267)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:290)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:128)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:293)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:849)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:583)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:454)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Upvotes: 32

Views: 318049

Answers (6)

Chuda Mainali
Chuda Mainali

Reputation: 13

  1. Make sure your internet is stable and accessible.

  2. Check your build path's order and Export order in JRE, source code, server Runtime, Web App Libraries, and EAR libraries.

  3. Sometime add all your jars from WEB-INF/lib to your build path libraries.

Upvotes: 0

pkm1986
pkm1986

Reputation: 305

I tried my best to follow the answers given above. But I have below reason for the same.

Note: This is for maven+eclipse+tomcat deployment and issue faced especially with spring mvc.

1- If you are including servlet and jsp dependency please mark them provided in scope.

<dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
        <version>3.1.0</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
        <artifactId>javax.servlet.jsp-api</artifactId>
        <version>2.3.1</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>

  1. Possibly you might be including jstl as dependency. So, jsp-api.jar and servlet-api.jar will be included along. So, require to exclude the servlet-api and jsp-api being deployed as required lib in target or in "WEB-INF/lib" as given below.

    <dependency>
    <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp.jstl</groupId>
    <artifactId>jstl-api</artifactId>
    <version>1.2</version>
    <exclusions>
        <exclusion>
            <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        </exclusion>
        <exclusion>
            <artifactId>jsp-api</artifactId>
            <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
        </exclusion>
    </exclusions>
</dependency>

Upvotes: 2

bnguyen82
bnguyen82

Reputation: 6248

If your project is Maven-based, remember to set scope to provided for such dependencies as servlet-api, jsp-api. Otherwise, these jars will be exported to WEB-INF/lib and hence contaminate with those in Tomcat server. That causes painful problems.

<dependency>
  <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
  <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
  <version>2.5</version>
  <scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
  <artifactId>jsp-api</artifactId>
  <version>2.1</version>
  <scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>

Upvotes: 16

Ricket
Ricket

Reputation: 34087

I had this error; it happened somewhat spontaneously, and the page would halt in the browser in the middle of an HTML tag (not a section of code). It was baffling!

Turns out, I let a variable go out of scope and the garbage collector swept it away and then I tried to use it. Thus the seemingly-random timing.

To give a more concrete example... Inside a method, I had something like:

Foo[] foos = new Foo[20];
// fill up the "foos" array...
return Arrays.asList(foos); // this returns type List<Foo>

Now in my JSP page, I called that method and used the List object returned by it. The List object is backed by that "foos" array; but, the array went out of scope when I returned from the method (since it is a local variable). So shortly after returning, the garbage collector swept away the "foos" array, and my access to the List caused a NullPointerException since its underlying array was now wiped away.

I actually wondered, as I wrote the above method, whether that would happen.

The even deeper underlying problem was premature optimization. I wanted a list, but I knew I would have exactly 20 elements, so I figured I'd try to be more efficient than new ArrayList<Foo>(20) which only sets an initial size of 20 but can possibly be less efficient than the method I used. So of course, to fix it, I just created my ArrayList, filled it up, and returned it. No more strange error.

Upvotes: 6

axtavt
axtavt

Reputation: 242786

It can be caused by a classpath contamination. Check that you /WEB-INF/lib doesn't contain something like jsp-api-*.jar.

Upvotes: 39

brabster
brabster

Reputation: 43600

The problem is in your JSP, most likely you are calling a method on an object that is null at runtime.

It is happening in the _jspInit() call, which is a little more unusual... the problem code is probably a method declaration like <%! %>

Update: I've only reproduced this by overriding the _jspInit() method. Is that what you're doing? If so, it's not recommended - that's why it starts with an _.

Upvotes: 4

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