NullPointerException using Apache Tomcat

356164

I have attempted to run OHW in Apache Tomcat, JBoss-Jetty, Websphere 4.0, and I always get the same result.

java.lang.NullPointerException
at oracle.help.OHW._initializeOHW(Unknown Source)
at oracle.help.OHW.doGet(Unknown Source)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:740)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:853)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:247)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:243)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:566)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:472)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:943)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:190)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:566)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.CertificatesValve.invoke(CertificatesValve.java:246)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:564)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:472)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:943)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.invoke(StandardContext.java:2347)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:180)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:566)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorDispatcherValve.invoke(ErrorDispatcherValve.java:170)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:564)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:170)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:564)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:468)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:564)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:472)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:943)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:174)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:566)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:472)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:943)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.http.HttpProcessor.process(HttpProcessor.java:1027)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.http.HttpProcessor.run(HttpProcessor.java:1125)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:536)


Here is my ohwconfig.xml file
<helpConfiguration>
<branding>
<brandingText text="HIC Help" />
</branding>
<books combineBooks="false" useLabelInfo="true">
<helpSet jar="shakespeare.jar" location="shakespeare.hs" />
</books>
</helpConfiguration>

Which is defined as the initialization paramater in my web.xml
<param-name>configFileName</param-name>
<param-value>/helpsets/ohwconfig.xml</param-value>

Can anyone offer any assistance?

Thanks, Adam

jrstephe-Oracle

You could get this sort of error if OHW could not
find your helpsets. Does the JAR file you created
work in the preconfigured OC4J instance that we
provide? Is shakespeare.jar located in the same
directory as your ohwconfig.xml? Is shakespeare.hs
at the top-level of the JAR file (you can verify this
by opening up the JAR file in a program like Winzip)?

Another thing you could try is to specify an absolute
path to the location of your ohwconfig.xml file in
the web.xml (i.e. http://yourserver.com/ohw/helpsets/ohwconfig.xml)
to make sure that it is getting found. Or try keeping like
you have it now and removing the "/" before helpsets.

We've run OHW 1.1 in Tomcat 4.x so, it's probably a matter
of configuration. Let me know if you try the above, and
aren't able to get it to work.