Deleting requirements from a RequisitePro project within Rational Software Architect results in NullPointerException error

Symptom

Steps to reproduce:

1. Create an IBM Rational Requisite Pro project in RequisitePro
2. Create two FEAT requirements, called FEAT1 and FEAT2
3. Create two STRQ requirements, called STRQ1 and STRQ2
4. Open the FEAT/STRQ traceability matrix
5. Create links between FEAT1 & STRQ1, FEAT1 & STRQ2 and FEAT2 & STRQ2
6. Open the RequisitePro project in Rational Software Architect's Requirements perspective
7. Select the two FEAT requirements
8. Right-click and select Delete
9. Select the two STRQ requirements
10. Right-click and select Delete

Expected Result:: Both STRQ requirements are deleted.

Actual Result:: The STRQ requirements are not deleted and a NullPointerException error message is displayed in a dialog box:

Problem Occurred: "Delete" did not complete normally. Please see the log for more information. java.lang.NullPointerException

image

The following output is written to the .log file of the workspace's .metadata directory:


!ENTRY org.eclipse.ui 4 0 2011-09-09 16:15:25.668
!MESSAGE Unhandled event loop exception
!STACK 0
java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.ibm.xtools.reqpro.ui.internal.actions.DeleteNamedElementAction.run(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.jface.action.Action.runWithEvent(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.jface.action.ActionContributionItem.handleWidgetSelection(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.jface.action.ActionContributionItem.access$2(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.jface.action.ActionContributionItem$5.handleEvent(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.EventTable.sendEvent(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.sendEvent(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.runDeferredEvents(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.readAndDispatch(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.runEventLoop(Unknown Source)

 at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.runUI(Unknown Source)

 at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.access$4(Unknown Source)

 at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench$7.run(Unknown Source)

 at org.eclipse.core.databinding.observable.Realm.runWithDefault(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.createAndRunWorkbench(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.ui.PlatformUI.createAndRunWorkbench(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ide.application.IDEApplication.start(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.app.EclipseAppHandle.run(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.runApplication(Unknown Source)
at
org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.start(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.invokeFramework(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.basicRun(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.run(Unknown Source)

You can recreate the problem on any type of requirements, as long as these requirements are linked in a traceability matrix. The deletion order of the types of requirements must depend on the direction of the link between the requirements in the traceability matrix.

The problem is reproducible only if two FEAT requirements are linked to an STRQ.