JAX-WS Client throws NULL Pointer Exception in NW 7.1 SP3 and higher

Question

All,
My JAX-WS client is throwing an exception when attempting to create a client to connect to the calculation service. The exception is coming out of the core JAX-WS classes that are part of NetWeaver. (see exception below)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
     at com.sap.engine.services.webservices.espbase.client.jaxws.core.SAPServiceDelegate.createDispatchContextExistingPort(SAPServiceDelegate.java:440)
     at com.sap.engine.services.webservices.espbase.client.jaxws.core.SAPServiceDelegate.createDispatchContext(SAPServiceDelegate.java:475)
     at com.sap.engine.services.webservices.espbase.client.jaxws.core.SAPServiceDelegate.createDispatch(SAPServiceDelegate.java:492)
     at com.sap.engine.services.webservices.espbase.client.jaxws.core.SAPServiceDelegate.createDispatch(SAPServiceDelegate.java:484)
     at javax.xml.ws.Service.createDispatch(Service.java:166)
I have done some research and it appears that as of NetWeaver 7.1 SP3 SAP stopped using the SUN JAX-WS runtime and implemented their own SAP JAX-WS runtime. I also took the time to decompile the jar file that contained the SAPServiceDelegate class which is throwing the null pointer exception. (see method from SAPServiceDelegate below)
    private ClientConfigurationContext createDispatchContextExistingPort(QName portName, JAXBContext jaxbContext)
        BindingData bindingData;
        InterfaceMapping interfaceMap;
        InterfaceData interfaceData;
        bindingData = clientServiceCtx.getServiceData().getBindingData(portName);
        if(bindingData == null)
            throw new WebServiceException((new StringBuilder()).append("Binding data '").append(portName.toString()).append("' is missing!").toString());
        QName bindingQName = new QName(bindingData.getBindingNamespace(), bindingData.getBindingName());
        interfaceMap = getInterfaceMapping(bindingQName, clientServiceCtx);
        interfaceData = getInterfaceData(interfaceMap.getPortType());
        ClientConfigurationContext result = DynamicServiceImpl.createClientConfiguration(bindingData, interfaceData, interfaceMap, null, jaxbContext, getClass().getClassLoader(), clientServiceCtx, new SOAPTransportBinding(), false, 1);
        return result;
        WebserviceClientException x;
        x;
        throw new WebServiceException(x);
The exception is being throw on the line where the interfaceMap.getPortType() is being passed into the getInterfaceData method. I checked the getInterfaceMapping method which returns the interfaceMap (line above the line throwing the exception). This method returns NULL if an interface cannot be found. (see getInterfaceMapping method  below)
   public static InterfaceMapping getInterfaceMapping(QName bindingQName, ClientServiceContext context)
        InterfaceMapping interfaces[] = context.getMappingRules().getInterface();
        for(int i = 0; i < interfaces.length; i++)
            if(bindingQName.equals(interfaces<i>.getBindingQName()))
                return interfaces<i>;
        return null;
What appears to be happening is that the getInterfaceMapping method returns NULL then the next line in the createDispatchContextExistingPort method attempts to call the getPortType() method on a NULL and throws the Null Pointer Exception.
I have included the code we use to create a client below. It works fine on all the platforms we support with the exception of NetWeaver 7.1 SP3 and higher (I already checked SP5 as well)
      //Create URL for service WSDL
      URL serviceURL = new URL(null, wsEndpointWSDL);
      //create service qname
      QName serviceQName = new QName(targetNamespace, "WSService");
      //create port qname
      QName portQName = new QName(targetNamespace, "WSPortName");
      //create service
      Service service = Service.create(serviceURL, serviceQName);
      //create dispatch on port
      serviceDispatch = service.createDispatch(portQName, Source.class, Service.Mode.PAYLOAD);
What do I need to change in order to create a JAX-WS dispatch client on top of the SAP JAX-WS runtime?

Answer 1

Hi Guys,
I am getting the same error. Any resolution or updates on this.
Were you able to fix this error.
Thanks,
Yomesh