Help building an object, setting it in a session variable and casting

Question

Hi all,
I have a problem that I hope you can help me with. The application I am working on has a simple MVC design architecture. The problem occurs when a request is made from the application to the controller servlet. The controller servlet looks at the request type and delegates the processing to the appropriate action and model classes. The model class returns an object of a specific class type that is put into the session variable. This session variable is then cast to the appropriate class type in the jsp that renders that class. The problem is that this particular class type has an array of another class type. The array is filled in the class constructor, but is null when returned to the controller.
At run time when accessing the array I get a NullPointerException error. I can't seem to figure this one out. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Here's the code:
Controller DoPost method. The 'Action' objects are defined and initialized in the init() method.
        public void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
        throws ServletException, IOException{
                try {
                        HttpSession session = request.getSession();
                        MemberProfileTbl memProf = (MemberProfileTbl)session.getAttribute("Member");
                        RequestDispatcher rd;
                        if (!validateUser(memProf, session)){
                                session.setAttribute("LoginStatus", "Session Expired");
                                rd = getServletContext().getRequestDispatcher("/LoginFail.jsp");
                                rd.forward(request, response);
                                return;
                        String act = getAction(request);
                        Action action = (Action)actions.get(act);
                        Object result = null;
                        try {
                                result = action.perform(request, memProf);
                        }catch (NullPointerException npx) {
                                npx.printStackTrace();
                        session.setAttribute("currObject", result);
                        rd = getServletContext().getRequestDispatcher("/test/MemberConsole.jsp");
                        rd.forward(request, response);
                catch (Exception ex){
                        ex.printStackTrace();
Action class:
        package accolo.actions;
        import javax.servlet.http.*;
        import accolo.model .*;
        import accolo.view.*;
        import accolo.db.MemberProfileTbl;
        public class ChangeMainView extends Action {
                public String getName() {return "changeMainView";}
                public Object perform(HttpServletRequest request, MemberProfileTbl memProf)
                        throws Exception, ClassNotFoundException, InstantiationException, IllegalAccessException{
                        Object result;
                        HMMainView hmMain = new HMMainView(memProf.email);
                       result = hmMain;
                       return result;
HMMainView.java class
public class HMMainView
        private HMMainViewJob[] jobs;
        public String test;
        public HMMainView(String email)
           HMJobsBean hmJobsBean = new HMJobsBean();
           JobTblDao jobTblDao = new JobTblDao();
           test = "test in constructor";
           try{
             JobTbl[]  hmJobs = jobTblDao.getHMOpenJobs(email);
             for(int j = 0; j < hmJobs.length; j++){
                        this.jobs[j].jobTitle = hmJobs[j].optionalTitle;
                        this.jobs[j].city = hmJobs[j].city;
                        this.jobs[j].state = hmJobsBean.getState(hmJobs[j].zipCode);
                        Hashtable counts = hmJobsBean.getJSCountsByStatus(hmJobs[j].jobId);
                        this.jobs[j].unranked = (String)counts.get("CANUNRANKED");
                        this.jobs[j].interviews = (String)counts.get("HMRI");
                        this.jobs[j].ranked = (String)counts.get("CANRANKED");
                        long closed = Long.parseLong((String)counts.get("HMRNI"));
                        closed += Long.parseLong((String)counts.get("HMCH"));
                        closed += Long.parseLong((String)counts.get("HMNH"));
                        this.jobs[j].closed = Long.toString(closed);
            }catch(Exception ex){
                ex.printStackTrace();
        public HMMainViewJob[] getJobs(){ return jobs; }
HMMainViewJob.java class
package accolo.model;
public class HMMainViewJob
        public long jobId;
        public String jobTitle;
        public String status_id;
        public String city;
        public String state;
        public String unranked;
        public String interviews;
        public String ranked;
        public String closed;
        public HMMainViewJob()
Snippet of JSP that uses the code
  Object result = session.getAttribute("currObject");
  if (result != null){
    String className = result.getClass().getName();
    if (className.equals("accolo.model.HMMainView")){
           header = "HM/HMConsoleHeader.jsp";
           subNav = "HM/HMConsoleSubNav.jsp";
           user = "HM/HMConsoleUser.jsp";
           left = "HM/HMConsoleLeft.jsp";
//           body = "HM/HMConsoleHome.jsp";
           HMMainView hmMain = (HMMainView) result;
           HMMainViewJob[] jobs = hmMain.getJobs();
          for (int i = 0; i < jobs.length; i++){
%>
                Jobs: <%=jobs.jobTitle%>
<%

Answer 1

I have not run this through a debugger yet. I don't have immediate access to a debugger to run it through, most of the development is simply done in vi. I was hoping any problem in the code would jump out at someone. I've been staring at it too long.
I'll try to get a debugger set up.
Thanks