Null Pointer Exception - newbie

[openski]

Hello everybody,

I am currently learning spring ( version 2.0.3 ) and getting a null pointer exception.
I have the following bean definitions in an application context:

    
    <bean id="manager" class="business.Manager">
   
    <bean id="defaultController" class="controller.DefaultController">
        <property name="manager">
        	<ref bean="manager"/>
        </property>
    </bean>

    <bean id="firstController" class="controller.FirstController"/>

The DefaultController class has the getter and setters for the manager.
The FirstController class looks like :

public class FirstController extends DefaultControllor implements Controller {

public ModelAndView handleRequest ( 
   HttpServletRequest request, 
   HttpServletResponse response) {

   Manager mgr = getManager();
   mgr.myMethod();  

}
}

Now when I access the myMethod from Manager class, it throws a null pointer. Am quite sure am doing some stupid, any suggestions ?
Shouldn't the applicationContext intialize the manager object from the super class ?

thanks

[Andreas Senft]

You have actually two beans. One of type DefaultController with the manager set and one of class FirstController where the manager is not set.

I guess you wish to use one bean as template for the other, which might be done like this:

<bean id="manager" class="business.Manager">
   
    <bean id="defaultController" abstract="true">
        <property name="manager">
        	<ref bean="manager"/>
        </property>
    </bean>

    <bean id="firstController" parent"defaultController" class="controller.FirstController"/>

Now you have only one bean which derives attributes from its abstract parent.

[openski]

Andreas, thats exactly was my question.

Thank you