Seam exception handling failing

[zzzz8]

I've had a short history and issue in getting Seam exception handling working for me. It's important because I truly want to get this working since I would really want to handle exceptions the Seam way. I previously had issues that I thought might be due to Tiles eating the exceptions, so I switched to Facelets. Unfortunately, I'm seeing similar problems right now - i.e. the user is not redirected to the specified exception handling page.

My current configuration is JBoss AS 4.0.5, Seam 1.1 CR1, and Facelets 1.1.11.

Here is the stack trace I receive (the normal Tomcat stack trace) in the logs:

2006-11-25 14:15:11,406 ERROR [org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[jboss.web].[localhost].[/myapp].[Faces Servlet]] Servlet.service() for servlet Faces Servlet threw exception
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: exception invoking: retrieveStatus
 at org.jboss.seam.util.Reflections.invokeAndWrap(Reflections.java:112)
 at org.jboss.seam.Component.callComponentMethod(Component.java:1759)
 at org.jboss.seam.Component.getInstanceFromFactory(Component.java:1647)
 at org.jboss.seam.Component.getInstance(Component.java:1590)
 at org.jboss.seam.Component.getInstance(Component.java:1567)
 at org.jboss.seam.jsf.SeamVariableResolver.resolveVariable(SeamVariableResolver.java:45)
 at org.apache.myfaces.config.LastVariableResolverInChain.resolveVariable(LastVariableResolverInChain.java:42)
 at com.sun.facelets.el.LegacyELContext$LegacyELResolver.getValue(LegacyELContext.java:134)
 at com.sun.el.parser.AstIdentifier.getValue(AstIdentifier.java:65)
 at com.sun.el.ValueExpressionImpl.getValue(ValueExpressionImpl.java:192)
 at com.sun.facelets.el.TagValueExpression.getValue(TagValueExpression.java:71)
 at com.sun.facelets.el.LegacyValueBinding.getValue(LegacyValueBinding.java:56)
 at javax.faces.component.UIData.getValue(UIData.java:1019)
 at javax.faces.component.UIData.createDataModel(UIData.java:785)
 at javax.faces.component.UIData.getDataModel(UIData.java:765)
 at javax.faces.component.UIData.getRowCount(UIData.java:191)
 at org.apache.myfaces.shared_impl.renderkit.html.HtmlTableRendererBase.encodeInnerHtml(HtmlTableRendererBase.java:210)
 at org.apache.myfaces.shared_impl.renderkit.html.HtmlTableRendererBase.encodeChildren(HtmlTableRendererBase.java:123)
 at javax.faces.component.UIComponentBase.encodeChildren(UIComponentBase.java:524)
 at com.sun.facelets.tag.jsf.ComponentSupport.encodeRecursive(ComponentSupport.java:234)
 at com.sun.facelets.tag.jsf.ComponentSupport.encodeRecursive(ComponentSupport.java:239)
 at com.sun.facelets.tag.jsf.ComponentSupport.encodeRecursive(ComponentSupport.java:239)
 at com.sun.facelets.FaceletViewHandler.renderView(FaceletViewHandler.java:554)
 at org.apache.myfaces.lifecycle.LifecycleImpl.render(LifecycleImpl.java:384)
 at javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet.service(FacesServlet.java:138)
 at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:252)
 at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:173)
 at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamRedirectFilter.doFilter(SeamRedirectFilter.java:32)
 at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:202)
 at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:173)
 at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamExceptionFilter.doFilter(SeamExceptionFilter.java:46)
 at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:202)
 at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:173)
 at org.jboss.web.tomcat.filters.ReplyHeaderFilter.doFilter(ReplyHeaderFilter.java:96)
 at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:202)
 at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:173)
 at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:213)
 at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:178)
 at org.jboss.web.tomcat.security.SecurityAssociationValve.invoke(SecurityAssociationValve.java:175)
 at org.jboss.web.tomcat.security.JaccContextValve.invoke(JaccContextValve.java:74)
 at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:126)
 at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:105)
 at org.jboss.web.tomcat.tc5.jca.CachedConnectionValve.invoke(CachedConnectionValve.java:156)
 at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:107)
 at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:148)
 at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:869)
 at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11BaseProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11BaseProtocol.java:664)
 at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.PoolTcpEndpoint.processSocket(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:527)
 at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.MasterSlaveWorkerThread.run(MasterSlaveWorkerThread.java:112)
 at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)
Caused by: com.mycompany.connection.ConnectionException
 at com.mycompany.beans.status.StatusBean.retrieveStatus(StatusBean.java:78)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
 at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
 at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585)
 at org.jboss.aop.joinpoint.MethodInvocation.invokeNext(MethodInvocation.java:112)
 at org.jboss.ejb3.interceptor.InvocationContextImpl.proceed(InvocationContextImpl.java:166)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.EJBInvocationContext.proceed(EJBInvocationContext.java:37)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.SeamInvocationContext.proceed(SeamInvocationContext.java:55)
 at org.jboss.seam.interceptors.BijectionInterceptor.bijectTargetComponent(BijectionInterceptor.java:51)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
 at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
 at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585)
 at org.jboss.seam.util.Reflections.invoke(Reflections.java:18)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.Interceptor.aroundInvoke(Interceptor.java:169)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.SeamInvocationContext.proceed(SeamInvocationContext.java:64)
 at org.jboss.seam.interceptors.OutcomeInterceptor.interceptOutcome(OutcomeInterceptor.java:23)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
 at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
 at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585)
 at org.jboss.seam.util.Reflections.invoke(Reflections.java:18)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.Interceptor.aroundInvoke(Interceptor.java:169)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.SeamInvocationContext.proceed(SeamInvocationContext.java:64)
 at org.jboss.seam.interceptors.ConversationInterceptor.endOrBeginLongRunningConversation(ConversationInterceptor.java:51)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
 at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
 at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585)
 at org.jboss.seam.util.Reflections.invoke(Reflections.java:18)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.Interceptor.aroundInvoke(Interceptor.java:169)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.SeamInvocationContext.proceed(SeamInvocationContext.java:64)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.RootInterceptor.createSeamInvocationContext(RootInterceptor.java:144)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.RootInterceptor.invokeInContexts(RootInterceptor.java:129)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.RootInterceptor.invoke(RootInterceptor.java:102)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.SessionBeanInterceptor.aroundInvoke(SessionBeanInterceptor.java:49)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
 at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
 at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585)
 at org.jboss.ejb3.interceptor.InvocationContextImpl.proceed(InvocationContextImpl.java:118)
 at org.jboss.ejb3.interceptor.EJB3InterceptorsInterceptor.invoke(EJB3InterceptorsInterceptor.java:63)
 at org.jboss.aop.joinpoint.MethodInvocation.invokeNext(MethodInvocation.java:101)
 at org.jboss.ejb3.entity.TransactionScopedEntityManagerInterceptor.invoke(TransactionScopedEntityManagerInterceptor.java:54)
 at org.jboss.aop.joinpoint.MethodInvocation.invokeNext(MethodInvocation.java:101)
 at org.jboss.ejb3.AllowedOperationsInterceptor.invoke(AllowedOperationsInterceptor.java:47)
 at org.jboss.aop.joinpoint.MethodInvocation.invokeNext(MethodInvocation.java:101)
 at org.jboss.aspects.tx.TxPolicy.invokeInCallerTx(TxPolicy.java:126)
 at org.jboss.aspects.tx.TxInterceptor$Required.invoke(TxInterceptor.java:201)
 at org.jboss.aop.joinpoint.MethodInvocation.invokeNext(MethodInvocation.java:101)
 at org.jboss.aspects.tx.TxPropagationInterceptor.invoke(TxPropagationInterceptor.java:76)
 at org.jboss.aop.joinpoint.MethodInvocation.invokeNext(MethodInvocation.java:101)
 at org.jboss.ejb3.stateless.StatelessInstanceInterceptor.invoke(StatelessInstanceInterceptor.java:62)
 at org.jboss.aop.joinpoint.MethodInvocation.invokeNext(MethodInvocation.java:101)
 at org.jboss.aspects.security.AuthenticationInterceptor.invoke(AuthenticationInterceptor.java:77)
 at org.jboss.ejb3.security.Ejb3AuthenticationInterceptor.invoke(Ejb3AuthenticationInterceptor.java:131)
 at org.jboss.aop.joinpoint.MethodInvocation.invokeNext(MethodInvocation.java:101)
 at org.jboss.ejb3.ENCPropagationInterceptor.invoke(ENCPropagationInterceptor.java:47)
 at org.jboss.aop.joinpoint.MethodInvocation.invokeNext(MethodInvocation.java:101)
 at org.jboss.ejb3.asynchronous.AsynchronousInterceptor.invoke(AsynchronousInterceptor.java:106)
 at org.jboss.aop.joinpoint.MethodInvocation.invokeNext(MethodInvocation.java:101)
 at org.jboss.ejb3.stateless.StatelessContainer.localInvoke(StatelessContainer.java:211)
 at org.jboss.ejb3.stateless.StatelessLocalProxy.invoke(StatelessLocalProxy.java:79)
 at $Proxy522.retrieveStatus(Unknown Source)
 at com.mycompany.beans.status.StatusLocal$$FastClassByCGLIB$$72d42c54.invoke(<generated>)
 at net.sf.cglib.proxy.MethodProxy.invoke(MethodProxy.java:149)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.RootInvocationContext.proceed(RootInvocationContext.java:45)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.ClientSideInterceptor$1.proceed(ClientSideInterceptor.java:69)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.SeamInvocationContext.proceed(SeamInvocationContext.java:55)
 at org.jboss.seam.interceptors.ExceptionInterceptor.handleExceptions(ExceptionInterceptor.java:28)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
 at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
 at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585)
 at org.jboss.seam.util.Reflections.invoke(Reflections.java:18)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.Interceptor.aroundInvoke(Interceptor.java:169)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.SeamInvocationContext.proceed(SeamInvocationContext.java:64)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.RootInterceptor.createSeamInvocationContext(RootInterceptor.java:144)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.RootInterceptor.invokeInContexts(RootInterceptor.java:129)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.RootInterceptor.invoke(RootInterceptor.java:102)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.ClientSideInterceptor.interceptInvocation(ClientSideInterceptor.java:78)
 at org.jboss.seam.intercept.ClientSideInterceptor.intercept(ClientSideInterceptor.java:47)
 at com.mycompany.beans.status.StatusLocal$$EnhancerByCGLIB$$3d25fd73.retrieveStatus(<generated>)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
 at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
 at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585)
 at org.jboss.seam.util.Reflections.invoke(Reflections.java:18)
 at org.jboss.seam.util.Reflections.invokeAndWrap(Reflections.java:102)
 ... 49 more

Here's a snippet from my faces-config.xml:

<application>
 <view-handler>com.sun.facelets.FaceletViewHandler</view-handler>
</application>

<lifecycle>
 <phase-listener>
 org.jboss.seam.jsf.TransactionalSeamPhaseListener
 </phase-listener>
</lifecycle>

Here's a snippet from my web.xml:

<context-param>
 <param-name>javax.faces.DEFAULT_SUFFIX</param-name>
 <param-value>.xhtml</param-value>
</context-param>

<context-param>
 <param-name>javax.faces.STATE_SAVING_METHOD</param-name>
 <param-value>client</param-value>
</context-param>

<context-param>
 <param-name>facelets.DEVELOPMENT</param-name>
 <param-value>false</param-value>
</context-param>

<context-param>
 <param-name>facelets.LIBRARIES</param-name>
 <param-value>/WEB-INF/tomahawk.taglib.xml</param-value>
</context-param>

<filter>
 <filter-name>Seam Exception Filter</filter-name>
 <filter-class>
 org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamExceptionFilter
 </filter-class>
</filter>

<filter>
 <filter-name>Seam Redirect Filter</filter-name>
 <filter-class>
 org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamRedirectFilter
 </filter-class>
</filter>

<filter-mapping>
 <filter-name>Seam Exception Filter</filter-name>
 <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>

<filter-mapping>
 <filter-name>Seam Redirect Filter</filter-name>
 <url-pattern>*.faces</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>

<listener>
 <listener-class>org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamListener</listener-class>
</listener>

<listener>
 <listener-class>
 org.apache.myfaces.webapp.StartupServletContextListener
 </listener-class>
</listener>

<servlet>
 <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
 <servlet-class>javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet</servlet-class>
 <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
 <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
 <url-pattern>*.faces</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

Here's a snippet from my components.xml:

<component name="org.jboss.seam.core.init">
 <property name="debug">false</property>
 <property name="jndiPattern">myapp/#{ejbName}/local</property>
 </component>

Here's my exceptions.xml:

<exceptions>
 <exception
 class="com.mycompany.connection.ConnectionException">
 <redirect view-id="/ois.xhtml">
 Failure
 </redirect>
 <end-conversation />
 </exception>
 <exception>
 <redirect view-id="/ois.xhtml">Unexpected failure</redirect>
 <end-conversation />
 </exception>
</exceptions>

In terms of my code, I just simplified it (for testing) so that if the retrieveStatus method is called, it just throws an exception:

@Stateful
@Name("statusData")
public class StatusBean implements StatusLocal {
@DataModel("status")
private List status = null;

@Create
@Factory("status")
public final void retrieveStatus() throws ConnectionException {
throw new ConnectionException();
}

@Remove
@Destroy
public final void destroy() {

}
}

[gavin.king]

What happens if you remove the @Create annotation? Its pretty much just plain wrong to have @Create @Factory together.

Seam's exception handling kicks in when you invoke a component method, not during the instantiation cycle.

[zzzz8]

Hi Gavin,

Thanks for the tip and help. Unfortunately, I get the same stack trace when I remove the @Create annotation...

What's interesting (or maybe it's not that interesting) is that if I set the Facelets development property to true:

<context-param>
 <param-name>facelets.DEVELOPMENT</param-name>
 <param-value>true</param-value>
</context-param>

then I get the Facelets debug page.

[gavin.king]

Oh, according to the stack trace this exception occurs in the render phase!

Of course Seam can most certainly not do anything at all about an exception that occurs while rendering the view!

This is obvious, right? (Servlet engine may already have flushed some of the response to the browser.)

[gavin.king]

This behavior is well-documented, btw:

http://docs.jboss.com/seam/1.1CR1/reference/en/html/events.html#d0e3555

[gavin.king]

And so the correct way to solve your problem is to use a page action instead of an @Factory method, since page actions take place *before* rendering the view.

[zzzz8]

Hi Gavin,

Thanks for the info. I was under the belief that the factory method would be called in the invoke application phase... Are you saying that instantiations take place in the render phase instead? I probably need to understand the JSF lifecyle some more and JSF/Seam in general (I'm still a beginner). But I'll definitely look into page actions.

The overall goal of this status component was that the retrieveStatus method called a Web service (via JAX-RPC) to retrieve the status of something - whose value (status) could be later retrieved. If there was an error in retrieving the status, the exception would be thrown and I thought it would be caught by (and dealt with) the Seam exception filter. I never thought it would take place in the render phase (but then again, I probably don't understand the lifecycle).

[gavin.king]

It happens when the variable is first referenced. In this case, during the render phase.

Note that if this is a GET request, or a redirect, there is no invoke application phase.

Use a page action.