Question

I inherited a Struts 1 app consisting of about eight separate packages all compiled into the same app. I’ve been tasked with rewriting its ant build script. Previously it was copying all the config files separately into the /usr/local/tomcat/shared/classes dir, but our ops team has asked us to streamline things so the build script just creates a war file that can be dropped into tomcat.

I get an error when my ConfigurationManager class tries to load its config file. This file, config.xml, is currently being copied into WEB-INF before it’s warred up with the rest of the app. So when I look at the exploded war (ROOT) I do find /usr/local/tomcat/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/config.xml. Here is the relevant portion of ConfigurationManager:

private static final String BASE_CONFIG_FILE = "WEB-INF/config.xml";

private void loadConfigFiles() throws RCConfigurationException {
    try {
        log.error("classpath: " + System.getProperty("java.class.path"));

        ConfigurationFactory factory = new ConfigurationFactory();
        URL configURL = getClass().getResource(BASE_CONFIG_FILE);
        factory.setConfigurationURL(configURL);
        config = factory.getConfiguration();

    } catch (ConfigurationException e) {
        log.error("Exception loading configuration files.", e);
        throw new RCConfigurationException("Exception loading configuration files", e);
    }
}

The log.error() call outputs this:

13:16:10,561 ERROR ConfigurationManager:75 - classpath: /usr/local/tomcat/bin/bootstrap.jar

My localhost.2013-01-29.log shows this:

SEVERE: Exception starting filter GlobalRootManager
java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
    at com.rc.util.config.ConfigurationManager.getInstance(ConfigurationManager.java:66)
    at com.rc.commonbusinesswebapp.servlet.filter.GlobalRootManager.init(GlobalRootManager.java:42)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterConfig.getFilter(ApplicationFilterConfig.java:295)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterConfig.setFilterDef(ApplicationFilterConfig.java:422)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterConfig.<init>(ApplicationFilterConfig.java:115)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.filterStart(StandardContext.java:4072)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4726)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:799)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:779)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:601)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWAR(HostConfig.java:943)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWARs(HostConfig.java:778)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployApps(HostConfig.java:504)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.start(HostConfig.java:1317)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.lifecycleEvent(HostConfig.java:324)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:142)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1065)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:840)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1057)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:463)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:525)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:754)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:595)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:289)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:414)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
    at org.apache.commons.configuration.ConfigurationFactory.setConfigurationURL(ConfigurationFactory.java:220)
    at com.rc.util.config.ConfigurationManager.loadConfigFiles(ConfigurationManager.java:79)
    at com.rc.util.config.ConfigurationManager.<init>(ConfigurationManager.java:55)
    at com.rc.util.config.ConfigurationManager.<init>(ConfigurationManager.java:26)
    at com.rc.util.config.ConfigurationManager$LazyHolder.<clinit>(ConfigurationManager.java:37)
    ... 29 more

I am spinning my wheels so I hope someone here can help me. Thanks.

Answer 1

WEB-INF is not on a web app’s classpath.

WEB-INF/classes is; one option would be to locate the file at the root of the classpath if you want to load the config file as a classpath resource.