Spring MVC with Tiles 3 NullPointerException

Question

I've tried everything and it is quite possible that I have problem with some basic understanding of my problem. I try to run Tiles 3 with Spring MVC, here is my project files:

web.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app version="2.5" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee
http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd">

<listener>
    <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
</listener>

<servlet>
    <servlet-name>appServlet</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>/WEB-INF/lib/spring-servlet.xml</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>appServlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

</web-app>

spring-servlet.xml

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"  
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"  
xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p"  
xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"  
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans  
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd  
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/context  
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

<bean id="tilesViewResolver"
      class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles3.TilesViewResolver">
        <property name="order" value="0" /> <!-- you need to tell spring to use this resolver first, hence order=0 -->
</bean>

<bean id="viewResolver"
        class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
        <property name="order" value="1" /><!-- this resolver will be used if the view can't be resolved by tiles resolver  hence order=1-->
        <property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/" />
        <property name="suffix" value=".jsp" />
</bean>

<bean id="tilesConfigurer"  
    class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles3.TilesConfigurer">  
    <property name="definitions" value="/WEB-INF/lib/tiles.xml" /> 
</bean>  
</beans>

tiles.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE tiles-definitions PUBLIC
  "-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Tiles Configuration 3.0//EN" 
  "http://tiles.apache.org/dtds/tiles-config_3_0.dtd">
<tiles-definitions>
<definition name="home" template="/WEB-INF/jsp/home.jsp">
    <put-attribute name="header" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/header.jsp" />
</definition>
</tiles-definitions>

home.jsp

<%@ taglib uri="http://tiles.apache.org/tags-tiles" prefix="tiles" %>

<tiles:insertDefinition name="home" />

<tiles:insertAttribute name="header" />

HomeController.java

import java.util.Map;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpSession;

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.EnableAutoConfiguration;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;

@Controller
@EnableAutoConfiguration
public class HomeController {

@RequestMapping("/")
String home_login(Map<String, Object> model, HttpSession session) {
    return "home";
}

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    SpringApplication.run(HomeController.class, args);
}
}

Stack trace:

2015-08-11 16:02:40.840  INFO 1324 --- [           main] c.p.noodle.controller.HomeController     : Started HomeController in 2.513 seconds (JVM running for 2.818)
2015-08-11 16:02:48.436  INFO 1324 --- [nio-8081-exec-1] o.a.c.c.C.[Tomcat].[localhost].[/]       : Initializing Spring FrameworkServlet 'dispatcherServlet'
2015-08-11 16:02:48.436  INFO 1324 --- [nio-8081-exec-1] o.s.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet        : FrameworkServlet 'dispatcherServlet': initialization started
2015-08-11 16:02:48.452  INFO 1324 --- [nio-8081-exec-1] o.s.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet        : FrameworkServlet 'dispatcherServlet': initialization completed in 16 ms
2015-08-11 16:02:48.936 ERROR 1324 --- [nio-8081-exec-1] o.a.c.c.C.[.[localhost].[/].[jsp]        : Servlet.service() for servlet jsp threw exception

java.lang.NullPointerException: null
at org.apache.tiles.access.TilesAccess.getContainer(TilesAccess.java:124)
at org.apache.tiles.access.TilesAccess.getContainer(TilesAccess.java:107)
at org.apache.tiles.access.TilesAccess.getCurrentContainer(TilesAccess.java:174)
at org.apache.tiles.template.InsertDefinitionModel.execute(InsertDefinitionModel.java:95)
at org.apache.tiles.jsp.taglib.InsertDefinitionTag.doTag(InsertDefinitionTag.java:254)
at org.apache.jsp.WEB_002dINF.jsp.home_jsp._jspx_meth_tiles_005finsertDefinition_005f0(home_jsp.java:134)
at org.apache.jsp.WEB_002dINF.jsp.home_jsp._jspService(home_jsp.java:98)
at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:70)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:438)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:396)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:340)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:291)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:52)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:101)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:101)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.invoke(ApplicationDispatcher.java:721)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.processRequest(ApplicationDispatcher.java:466)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.doForward(ApplicationDispatcher.java:391)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.forward(ApplicationDispatcher.java:318)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceView.renderMergedOutputModel(InternalResourceView.java:168)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.view.AbstractView.render(AbstractView.java:303)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.render(DispatcherServlet.java:1244)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.processDispatchResult(DispatcherServlet.java:1027)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:971)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:893)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:967)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet(FrameworkServlet.java:858)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:622)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.service(FrameworkServlet.java:843)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:291)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:52)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.springframework.web.filter.HiddenHttpMethodFilter.doFilterInternal(HiddenHttpMethodFilter.java:77)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:107)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.springframework.web.filter.CharacterEncodingFilter.doFilterInternal(CharacterEncodingFilter.java:85)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:107)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:219)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:106)
at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:502)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:142)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:79)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:88)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:518)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1091)
at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:668)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1521)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(NioEndpoint.java:1478)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

2015-08-11 16:02:48.940 ERROR 1324 --- [nio-8081-exec-1] o.a.c.c.C.[.[.[/].[dispatcherServlet]    : Servlet.service() for servlet [dispatcherServlet] in context with path [] threw exception [An exception occurred processing JSP page /WEB-INF/jsp/home.jsp at line 3

1: <%@ taglib uri="http://tiles.apache.org/tags-tiles" prefix="tiles" %>
2:  
3:  <tiles:insertDefinition name="home" />
4: 
5:    <tiles:insertAttribute name="header" />


Stacktrace:] with root cause

java.lang.NullPointerException: null
at org.apache.tiles.access.TilesAccess.getContainer(TilesAccess.java:124)
at org.apache.tiles.access.TilesAccess.getContainer(TilesAccess.java:107)
at org.apache.tiles.access.TilesAccess.getCurrentContainer(TilesAccess.java:174)
at org.apache.tiles.template.InsertDefinitionModel.execute(InsertDefinitionModel.java:95)
at org.apache.tiles.jsp.taglib.InsertDefinitionTag.doTag(InsertDefinitionTag.java:254)
at org.apache.jsp.WEB_002dINF.jsp.home_jsp._jspx_meth_tiles_005finsertDefinition_005f0(home_jsp.java:134)
at org.apache.jsp.WEB_002dINF.jsp.home_jsp._jspService(home_jsp.java:98)
at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:70)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:438)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:396)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:340)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:291)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:52)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:101)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:101)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.invoke(ApplicationDispatcher.java:721)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.processRequest(ApplicationDispatcher.java:466)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.doForward(ApplicationDispatcher.java:391)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.forward(ApplicationDispatcher.java:318)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceView.renderMergedOutputModel(InternalResourceView.java:168)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.view.AbstractView.render(AbstractView.java:303)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.render(DispatcherServlet.java:1244)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.processDispatchResult(DispatcherServlet.java:1027)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:971)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:893)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:967)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet(FrameworkServlet.java:858)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:622)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.service(FrameworkServlet.java:843)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:291)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:52)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.springframework.web.filter.HiddenHttpMethodFilter.doFilterInternal(HiddenHttpMethodFilter.java:77)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:107)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.springframework.web.filter.CharacterEncodingFilter.doFilterInternal(CharacterEncodingFilter.java:85)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:107)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:219)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:106)
at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:502)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:142)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:79)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:88)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:518)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1091)
at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:668)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1521)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(NioEndpoint.java:1478)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Every help will be appreciated!

Edit: I forget to mention that I'm running it with Spring Boot.

Answer 1

Seems like you're missing the tiles initializer in your web.xml file. You can refer to this documentation here for a few ready-made configuration initializer.

try add this in your web.xml file.

<listener>
    <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
    <listener-class>org.apache.tiles.extras.complete.CompleteAutoloadTilesListener</listener-class>
</listener>

Answer 2

The root cause is that org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles3.TilesConfigurer bean hasn't bean instantiated.

The problem is that web.xml doesn't take a part in configuration of your application. Therefore the spring-servlet.xml configuration is never loaded and bean definitions inside are not instantiated.

Spring Boot creates dispatcherServlet with default configuration (because you are using @EnableAutoConfiguration) and doesn't load application context by default.

To load application context you can use @ImportResource annotation.

@ImportResource("classpath:/WEB-INF/lib/spring-servlet.xml")

Or you can define a dispatcherServlet manually inside HomeController by adding a @Bean of type Servlet or ServletRegistrationBean (see here and here). It will override dispatcherServlet autoconfiguration.