Class.forName() throws null exception in servlet

Question

Hi, just wondering if anyone having this similar problem:
when i try to load a class using Class.forName() method inside a servlet, it throws null exception.
1) The exception thrown is neither ClassNotFoundException nor any other Error, it's "null" exception.
2) There's nothing wrong with the code, in fact, the same code has been testing in swing before, works perfectly.
3) I have include all necessary jars/classes into the path, even if i haven't, it should throw ClassNotFoundException instead, not "null" exception.

Answer 1

I have tried to detect any possible nullable variable, and it is able to run until line 15. The exception thrown is actually null only... not NullPointerException... which is why i have confused...
the message i received is "PlugInException: null".
The code is at follow:
* Load plugin
* @return ArrayList of plugins
* @exception PlugInException PlugInException
01 public ArrayList loadPlugin()
02 throws PlugInException
03 {
04 PlugIn plugin;
05 ArrayList plugins = new ArrayList();
06
07 for (int i = 0; i < configLoader.getPluginTotal(); i++)
08 {
09 try
10 {
11 if (debugger > 0)
12 {
13 System.out.print("Loading " configLoader.getPluginClass(i) "...");
14 }
15 if (Class.forName(configLoader.getPluginClass(i)) == null)
16 {
17 if (debugger > 0)
18 {
19 System.out.print(" not found");
20 }
21 }
22 else
23 {
24 if (debugger > 0)
25 {
26 System.out.println(" done");
27 }
28 plugin = (PlugIn)(Class.forName(configLoader.getPluginClass(i)).newInstance());
29 plugin.setContainer(container);
30 plugins.add(plugin);
31 }
32 }
33 catch (Exception e)
34 {
35 throw new PlugInException("PlugIn Exception: " + e.toString());
36 }
37 }
38
39 return plugins;
40 }