PM07249; 6.1.0.27: nullpointerexception error may occur in a jax-rpc application

Download Description

PM07249 resolves the following problem:

ERROR DESCRIPTION:
A NullPointerException error may occur when a JAX-RPC application receives a message from a web service.

Example error:

[2/5/10 16:51:23:076 GMT+05:30] 0000003f Connection E

com.ibm.ws.webservices.engine.client.Connection invoke
WSWS3227E:
Error: Exception: java.lang.NullPointerException
at
com.ibm.ws.webservices.engine.utils.MCUtils.interceptDeserializa
tionException(MCUtils.java:181)
at
com.ibm.ws.webservices.engine.xmlsoap.ext.RequestResponse.deseri
alize(RequestResponse.java:439)
at ...


This error only occurs if the response message does not contain any elements within the SOAPBody. For example:

<soapenv:Envelope
xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/&quot;
<soapenv:Body>
<p:myOperation xmlns:p="urn"sample">
<value>Hello</value>
</p:myOperation>
</soapenv:Envelope>

LOCAL FIX:
No local fix avail at this time

PROBLEM SUMMARY

USERS AFFECTED:
IBM WebSphere Application Server V6.1 and V7.0 users of JAX-RPC

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:
A NullPointerException may occur when a JAX-RPC application receives a message that contains no elements in the SOAP Body.

RECOMMENDATION:
None

A JAX-RPC client application invokes a two-way document literal wrapped operation of a remote web service. Here is an example outgoing message:

<soapenv:Envelope
xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/&quot;
<soapenv:Body>
<p:myOperation xmlns:p="urn"sample">
<value>Hello</value>
</p:myOperation>
</soapenv:Envelope>

The JAX-RPC client runtime expects a response that contains a myOperationResponse object (even if the web service does not pass back any data). Instead the response contains a SOAP Body without any contents. For example:

<soapenv:Envelope
xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/&quot;
<soapenv:Body/>
</soapenv:Envelope>

This incoming message is unexpected and results in a NullPointerException error.

PROBLEM CONCLUSION:
The JAX-RPC client runtime is changed to correctly process the incoming message.

If the incoming message contains no elements in the SOAP Body and output data was expected, then the client runtime will now issue an informative error.

If the incoming message contains no elements in the SOAP Body and output data was not expected, then the client runtime will tolerate the incoming message and proceed without error.

The fix for this APAR is currently targeted for inclusion in
fix packs 6.1.0.33 and 7.0.0.11. Please refer to the
Recommended Updates page for delivery information:
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=180&uid=swg27004980