[PDFBOX-2965] NPE in PDAcroForm.getField() if the /Fields entry is missing

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 1.8.10, 2.0.0
• Fix Version/s: 1.8.11, 2.0.0
• Component/s: AcroForm
• Assignee: Maruan Sahyoun
• Reporter: Maruan Sahyoun
• Created: 08/Sep/15 17:33
• Updated: 18/Jan/16 12:01
• Resolved: 09/Sep/15 06:50

Description

Form the users mailing list

I get a lot of weird documents. When I try to set a particular field value, some of them throw NullPointerExceptions from line PDAcroForm.getField(), line 291:

287: COSArray fields =
288: (COSArray) acroForm.getDictionaryObject(
289: COSName.getPDFName("Fields"));
290:
291: for (int i = 0; i < fields.size() && retval == null; i++)
292:{

To avoid this, at first I was calling PDAcroForm.getFields() and checking that to see if that was NULL but I realized that it would usually create a new fields array to return which seemed wasteful.

Is the most efficient way to avoid this to first call:
COSArray fields = (COSArray) acroForm.getDictionaryObject( COSName.getPDFName("Fields"));
myself and check if that is NULL?

Secondary Question:
The method PDAcroForm.getFields() does a not-NULL check of fields before calling fields.size().
Is there a reason that this check is not performed in getField()?