[CXF-2695] NullPointerException when reading a soap encoded struct with a nested element that's nil

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 2.2.6
• Fix Version/s: 2.2.8
• Component/s: Aegis Databinding
• Assignee: Daniel Kulp
• Reporter: Marinó A. Jónsson
• Created: 05/Mar/10 12:16
• Updated: 10/May/10 18:05
• Resolved: 08/Apr/10 03:29

Description

When reading a simple struct that has a nested (unqualified) element set to nil a NullPointerException is thrown:

java.lang.NullPointerException
	at org.apache.cxf.aegis.type.basic.BeanTypeInfo.isNillable(BeanTypeInfo.java:384)
	at org.apache.cxf.aegis.type.basic.BeanType.readObject(BeanType.java:165)

This should be easily replicated by using the following xml for the StructTypeTest.testSimpleStruct() test:

<b:shipping xmlns:b="urn:Bean" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    <street>1234 Riverside Drive</street>
    <city>Gainesville</city>
    <state>FL</state>
    <zip xsi:nil="true"/>
</b:shipping>

Apparently the problem stems from the fact that when the element is nil it's handled without involving the StructType (which takes care of "qualifying" the element name in other cases) - the unqualified name of the element is sent to the BeanTypeInfo.isNillable() method, which fails to find a Type for the name as a result.

I'm not sure how to solve this in a "clean" way - maybe extracting the "else" block that handles nil elements in BeanType.readObject to a seperate overridable method thereby giving StructType a chance to qualify the name before it's sent to the BeanTypeInfo.isNillable() method?