Error creating bean with name '_filterChainProxy': Initialization of bean failed; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException

Question

applicationContext.xml:

<bean id="defaultEntryPoint" class="com.spsetia.companyapp.company.services.CustomAuthenticationEntryPoint">
    <property name="securityConfiguration" ref="securityConfiguration" />
    <!-- Default filter chain proxy -->
    <property name="proxy" ref="_filterChainProxy" />
</bean>

web.xml:

<context-param>
    <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
    <param-value>/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml
    </param-value>
  </context-param>
 <filter>
    <filter-name>redirect</filter-name>
    <filter-class>org.apache.tapestry.RedirectFilter</filter-class>
  </filter>
 <filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>redirect</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
  </filter-mapping>
 <listener>
    <listener-class>
      org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
    </listener-class>
  </listener>
 <filter>
  <filter-name>_filterChainProxy</filter-name>
  <filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy</filter-class>
</filter>

<filter-mapping>
  <filter-name>_filterChainProxy</filter-name>
  <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
<listener>
    <listener-class>org.springframework.security.ui.session.HttpSessionEventPublisher</listener-class>
</listener>
  <servlet>
    <servlet-name>app</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>
      org.apache.tapestry.ApplicationServlet
    </servlet-class>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
  </servlet>

But I get this error:

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name '_filterChainList': Cannot resolve reference to bean '_exceptionTranslationFilter' while setting bean property 'filters' with key [2]; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name '_exceptionTranslationFilter': Initialization of bean failed; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'defaultEntryPoint' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml]: Cannot resolve reference to bean '_filterChainProxy' while setting bean property 'proxy'; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name '_filterChainProxy': Initialization of bean failed; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException

What do I do wrong?

Answer 1

It looks like you must be using SpringSecurity 2.0.x or 2.5.x. The class FilterChainProxyPostProcessor doesn't seem to exist in the 3.0.x codebase.

After digging around a bit, I found the code where your exception seems to originat:

public Object postProcessBeforeInitialization(Object bean, String beanName) 
throws BeansException {
    if(!BeanIds.FILTER_CHAIN_PROXY.equals(beanName)) {
        return bean;
    }

    FilterChainProxy filterChainProxy = (FilterChainProxy) bean;
    FilterChainList filterList = 
        (FilterChainList) beanFactory.getBean(BeanIds.FILTER_LIST);

    List filters = new ArrayList(filterList.getFilters());
    Collections.sort(filters, new OrderComparator());

My diagnosis is that the NPE is thrown on the line that creates the ArrayList, and that it is due to filterList.getFilters() returning null . Chasing back, the cause would appear to be that the "_filterChainList" bean has not been correctly initialized.

I don't know how or where it should be initialized ...

Answer 2

FilterChainList filterList = (FilterChainList) 
    beanFactory.getBean(BeanIds.FILTER_LIST);

List filters = new ArrayList(filterList.getFilters());

These lines are the problem. This means that a bean named _filterChainList (the value of the above constant) must have a set of filters defined for it.