Error in portlet:getException/ tag?

Question

Hi all,
In wlportal4.0, I followed the docs to create the myportal example. I got the
following Null Pointer Exception:
java.lang.NullPointerException:
at com.bea.portal.appflow.servlets.jsp.taglib.GetExceptionTag.doStartTag
(GetExceptionTag.java:70)
at jsp_servlet._portlets._portlet3.__welcome._jspService(__welcome.java:
114)
It seems that the tag <portlet:getException/> is throwing a Null Pointer Exception.
Has any body experienced this, and what did you do to fix it?
Regards,
Darren

Answer 1

Hi Darren,
Sorry for the frustration this caused. The GetExceptionTag was not designed to work
outside of webflow. Here is the code:
WebflowResponse webflowResponse =
portalSession.getContentForPortlet(getPageIdentifier(request),
getPortletIdentifier(request));
Exception exception = webflowResponse.exception();
You got your NullPointerException because webflowResponse was null. Check this out at
http://edocs.bea.com/wlp/docs40/portal/jspref.htm#1023890 :
"The <portlet:getException> tag is used to retrieve the exception or message thrown by
a webflow processor."
I'll make an enhancement request to engineering so that future versions of this tag
will throw a more meaningful error message. It is easy to miss a single line in the
docs and it would be nice if the exception allowed you to self-diagnose the problem.
Darren wrote:
After some research, I managed to work out that I did not specify a webflow for
the portlet within the ECC. (I think the example did not explain this).
However, I don't think that a Null Pointer exception should be thrown by a tag-lib!
Seems like poor BEA coding to me!
"darren" <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi all,
In wlportal4.0, I followed the docs to create the myportal example. I
got the
following Null Pointer Exception:
java.lang.NullPointerException:
at com.bea.portal.appflow.servlets.jsp.taglib.GetExceptionTag.doStartTag
(GetExceptionTag.java:70)
at jsp_servlet._portlets._portlet3.__welcome._jspService(__welcome.java:
114)
It seems that the tag <portlet:getException/> is throwing a Null Pointer
Exception.
Has any body experienced this, and what did you do to fix it?
Regards,
Darren
Ture Hoefner
BEA Systems, Inc.
4001 Discovery Drive
Suite 340
Boulder, CO 80303
www.bea.com
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