Difference in JRE 1.6.0_14 Classic Plug-in & JRE 1.6.0_14 Next Gen Plug-in

Question

Using the "Next Gen Plug-in", when a method argument is passed as a "blank" from Javascript to Java, it is treated as NULL in Java, whereas if we use "Classic Plug-in", there is no change to the argument value and a blank argument is always treated as a blank in Java.
This "Next Gen Plug-in" is causing problem in our Application as "blank" value is treated as NULL when passed from javaScript to Java, thus throwing Null Pointer Exception.
Any idea to come out of this...

Answer 1

Our Application is standalone browser based (IE 6.0) application which communicates between JavascScript to Java using Applet. Below is the code snippet which gives problem when passing a blank value from java script to Java using Next Gen Plug-in -
JavaScript code -
var state = document.PrimaryInsured.DeliveryState.value;
The above code takes the value from a dropdown into variable 'state' and then calls the below Java method GetMaxJuvenileAge() with string parameter-
var juvenileAge = GetEALifeJavaUtils().GetMaxJuvenileAge(state);
Java code -
public int GetMaxJuvenileAge(String state)
if(state.equals("ABC"))
return 15;
else
return 16;
Now when variable state is blank (e.g. "") in javaScript and same is passed to java method then, java method take this value as blank when use 'Classic Plug-in' which is correct.
However when use 'Next Gen Plug-in' value comes in Java as null and we get null pointer exception in java.
We checked in javaScript that value is blank (not null) as state.length returns 0. So please help me in resolving this...