InstantiationException for controllers in Play Framework after upgrading IntelliJ

Question

I keep getting an InstantiationException for my home controller with the following error:

[InstantiationException: project.ui.controllers.HomeController]

case project_ui_controllers_HomeController_index37(params) => {
   call { 
        invokeHandler(play.api.Play.maybeApplication.map(_.global).getOrElse(play.api.DefaultGlobal).getControllerInstance(classOf[project.ui.controllers.HomeController]).index(), HandlerDef(this, "project.ui.controllers.HomeController", "index", Nil,"GET", """""", Routes.prefix + """"""))
   }
}

Here is the log output:

play.api.Application$$anon$1: Execution exception[[InstantiationException:     project.ui.controllers.HomeController]]
at play.api.Application$class.handleError(Application.scala:293) ~[play_2.10.jar:2.2.3]
at play.api.DefaultApplication.handleError(Application.scala:399) [play_2.10.jar:2.2.3]
at play.core.server.netty.PlayDefaultUpstreamHandler$$anonfun$3$$anonfun$applyOrElse$3.apply(PlayDefaultUpstreamHandler.scala:264) [play_2.10.jar:2.2.3]
at play.core.server.netty.PlayDefaultUpstreamHandler$$anonfun$3$$anonfun$applyOrElse$3.apply(PlayDefaultUpstreamHandler.scala:264) [play_2.10.jar:2.2.3]
at scala.Option.map(Option.scala:145) [scala-library.jar:na]
at play.core.server.netty.PlayDefaultUpstreamHandler$$anonfun$3.applyOrElse(PlayDefaultUpstreamHandler.scala:264) [play_2.10.jar:2.2.3]
at play.core.server.netty.PlayDefaultUpstreamHandler$$anonfun$3.applyOrElse(PlayDefaultUpstreamHandler.scala:260) [play_2.10.jar:2.2.3]
at scala.concurrent.Future$$anonfun$recoverWith$1.apply(Future.scala:344) [scala-library.jar:na]
at scala.concurrent.Future$$anonfun$recoverWith$1.apply(Future.scala:343) [scala-library.jar:na]
at scala.concurrent.impl.CallbackRunnable.run(Promise.scala:32) [scala-library.jar:na]
at play.api.libs.iteratee.Execution$$anon$1.execute(Execution.scala:43) [play-iteratees_2.10.jar:2.2.3]
at scala.concurrent.impl.CallbackRunnable.executeWithValue(Promise.scala:40) [scala-library.jar:na]
at scala.concurrent.impl.Promise$DefaultPromise.tryComplete(Promise.scala:248) [scala-library.jar:na]
at scala.concurrent.Promise$class.complete(Promise.scala:55) [scala-library.jar:na]
at scala.concurrent.impl.Promise$DefaultPromise.complete(Promise.scala:153) [scala-library.jar:na]
at scala.concurrent.Future$$anonfun$map$1.apply(Future.scala:235) [scala-library.jar:na]
at scala.concurrent.Future$$anonfun$map$1.apply(Future.scala:235) [scala-library.jar:na]
at scala.concurrent.impl.CallbackRunnable.run(Promise.scala:32) [scala-library.jar:na]
at scala.concurrent.forkjoin.ForkJoinTask$AdaptedRunnableAction.exec(ForkJoinTask.java:1361) [scala-library.jar:na]
at scala.concurrent.forkjoin.ForkJoinTask.doExec(ForkJoinTask.java:260) [scala-library.jar:na]
at scala.concurrent.forkjoin.ForkJoinPool$WorkQueue.runTask(ForkJoinPool.java:1339) [scala-library.jar:na]
at scala.concurrent.forkjoin.ForkJoinPool.runWorker(ForkJoinPool.java:1979) [scala-library.jar:na]
at scala.concurrent.forkjoin.ForkJoinWorkerThread.run(ForkJoinWorkerThread.java:107) [scala-library.jar:na]
Caused by: java.lang.InstantiationException: project.ui.controllers.HomeController
at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:359) ~[na:1.7.0_55]
at play.api.GlobalSettings$class.getControllerInstance(GlobalSettings.scala:181) ~[play_2.10.jar:2.2.3]
at play.api.DefaultGlobal$.getControllerInstance(GlobalSettings.scala:189) ~[play_2.10.jar:2.2.3]
at Routes$$anonfun$routes$1$$anonfun$applyOrElse$38$$anonfun$apply$110.apply(routes_routing.scala:496) ~[na:na]
at Routes$$anonfun$routes$1$$anonfun$applyOrElse$38$$anonfun$apply$110.apply(routes_routing.scala:496) ~[na:na]
at play.core.Router$HandlerInvoker$$anon$7$$anon$2.invocation(Router.scala:183) ~[play_2.10.jar:2.2.3]
at play.core.Router$Routes$$anon$1.invocation(Router.scala:377) ~[play_2.10.jar:2.2.3]
at play.core.j.JavaAction$$anon$1.call(JavaAction.scala:56) ~[play_2.10.jar:2.2.3]
at play.core.j.JavaAction$$anon$3.apply(JavaAction.scala:91) ~[play_2.10.jar:2.2.3]
at play.core.j.JavaAction$$anon$3.apply(JavaAction.scala:90) ~[play_2.10.jar:2.2.3]
at play.core.j.FPromiseHelper$$anonfun$flatMap$1.apply(FPromiseHelper.scala:82) ~[play_2.10.jar:2.2.3]
at play.core.j.FPromiseHelper$$anonfun$flatMap$1.apply(FPromiseHelper.scala:82) ~[play_2.10.jar:2.2.3]
at scala.concurrent.Future$$anonfun$flatMap$1.apply(Future.scala:251) ~[scala-library.jar:na]
at scala.concurrent.Future$$anonfun$flatMap$1.apply(Future.scala:249) ~[scala-library.jar:na]
at scala.concurrent.impl.CallbackRunnable.run(Promise.scala:32) [scala-library.jar:na]
at play.core.j.HttpExecutionContext$$anon$2.run(HttpExecutionContext.scala:37) ~[play_2.10.jar:2.2.3]
at akka.dispatch.TaskInvocation.run(AbstractDispatcher.scala:42) ~[akka-actor_2.10.jar:2.2.0]
at akka.dispatch.ForkJoinExecutorConfigurator$AkkaForkJoinTask.exec(AbstractDispatcher.scala:386) ~[akka-actor_2.10.jar:2.2.0]
... 4 common frames omitted

I also find it interesting that i have no problem with this once i move the same code to production.

The route in conf/routes

GET / @project.ui.controllers.HomeController.index()

Guice Injector Global.java:

public class Global extends GlobalSettings {

private static final Injector INJECTOR = createInjector();

@Override
public void onStart(Application app) {
    super.onStart(app);
    new DatabaseSeeder().seed();
}

@Override
public <A> A getControllerInstance(Class<A> controllerClass) throws Exception {
    return INJECTOR.getInstance(controllerClass);
}

private static Injector createInjector() {
    return Guice.createInjector(new BusinessLayerModule(), new DataLayerModule(), new UtilitiesModule());
}
}

Answer 1

This was a problem with IntelliJ 13.1 not picking up the proper location for environment variables, and in turn, not being able to initialize Guice via Global.Java (for me, the location of Global.Java is defined in application.conf).

Prior to using IntelliJ 13.1, I had been able to specify an environment variable via a relative path:

config.file - application.dev.conf

Now, I have to use an absolute path:

config.file - /home/user/Enviroment/projects/project/conf/application.dev.conf