error integrating Spring MVC and Tiles

[olia]

Hi all,
trying to get a new app up and running using SpringMVC and Tiles. Get an NPE on startup (stack below). I will post my config files, if anyone's interested, but it seems like my problem is pretty basic -- like I'm missing some jar or some config for the JspFactory class. When I look at the code that throws the NPE, it's this:

public ExpressionFactory getExpressionFactory() {
return JspFactory.getDefaultFactory().getJspApplicationCo ntext(
servletContext).getExpressionFactory();
}

Any advice?
Thank you in advance,
Olia

[tomcat:launch] java.lang.NullPointerException

[tomcat:launch]         at org.apache.tiles.el.JspExpressionFactoryFactory.getExpressionFactory(JspExpressionFactoryFactory.java:61)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.apache.tiles.el.ELAttributeEvaluator.init(ELAttributeEvaluator.java:106)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.apache.tiles.factory.TilesContainerFactory.storeContainerDependencies(TilesContainerFactory.java:459)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.apache.tiles.factory.TilesContainerFactory.initializeContainer(TilesContainerFactory.java:378)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.apache.tiles.factory.TilesContainerFactory.createTilesContainer(TilesContainerFactory.java:293)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.apache.tiles.factory.TilesContainerFactory.createContainer(TilesContainerFactory.java:237)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.apache.tiles.startup.AbstractTilesInitializer.createContainer(AbstractTilesInitializer.java:124)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.apache.tiles.startup.AbstractTilesInitializer.initialize(AbstractTilesInitializer.java:70)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesConfigurer.afterPropertiesSet(TilesConfigurer.java:203)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.invokeInitMethods(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1460)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1398)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:512)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:450)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:290)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:222)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:287)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:189)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:557)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:842)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:416)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:443)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:459)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:340)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initServletBean(FrameworkServlet.java:307)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.springframework.web.servlet.HttpServletBean.init(HttpServletBean.java:127)

[tomcat:launch]         at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:241)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1173)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:993)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:4187)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4496)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1045)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:785)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1045)

[tomcat:launch]         at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:443)

[

[olia]

Ah, figured it out. Turns out it's a Tomcat 6 thing. You need to pre-load Jasper. Here is what solved it for me:

add a listener (if you don't already have one).
Config in web.xml to enable:

<listener>
<listener-class>imdb.webserverUtil.BaseTomcatListener</listener-class>
</listener>



Listener code:

package imdb.webserverUtil;

import javax.servlet.ServletContextEvent;
import javax.servlet.ServletContextListener;


public class BaseTomcatListener implements ServletContextListener {

	public void contextDestroyed(ServletContextEvent sce) {
	}

	public void contextInitialized(ServletContextEvent sce) {
		try {	
			Class.forName("org.apache.jasper.compiler.JspRuntimeContext");
		} catch (Exception e) {
			System.out.println(e.toString());
		}
	}
}

[skram]

The way you integrate Spring MVC and Tiles seems very obstrusive. In my implementation, I just had to provide the TilesViewResolver (the new one) and the accompanying xml config. The controllers only reference the String names you declared in the xml.