richfaces js files sometimes served with size 0

[mhn]

I use Richfaces 3.3.3 in combination with myFaces 1.2.X and facelets. The application is running fine on many locations for years except for one installation.

Static resources are not loaded correctly on this installation which result in a not useable application.

This problem occurs only in Internet Explorer (tested with version 6-8). It does also occur with Firefox.

In this szenario users receive messages like "Message: 'ModalPanel' is undefined " or "'jQuery.hotkeys' is null or not an object".

All users are affected. Mostly it happens immediately after the load of the first page, sometimes later on.

We saw with a network sniffer that the content-length of the JavaScript file (e.g jquery.hotkeys.js) is 0 and HTTP status code 200.

But this happens also for other richfaces js files (e.g.modalPanel.js).

Request: (masked some values with xxx):

GET /xxx/faces/a4j/g/3_3_3.Finalorg/richfaces/renderkit/html/scripts/jquery.hotkeys.js HTTP/1.1

Host: xxx

Accept: */*

Referer: https:/xxx/faces/facelets/mypage.xhtml

Accept-Language: en-us

User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; xxx)

Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate

Cookie: xxx

authmethod: xxx

authmethods: xxx

X-Forwarded-For: xxx

X-Forwarded-Host: xxx

X-Forwarded-Server: xxx

Connection: Keep-Alive

Response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Server: Apache-Coyote/1.1

Cache-Control: private,max-age=3600

Pragma: private

Expires: Sat, 27 Aug 2011 14:45:32 GMT

Content-Length: 0

Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:45:32 GMT

The application is accessed through a reverse proxy with an authenticating Apache HTTPd configured with mod_proxy.

Connection between client and proxy is https. Connection between proxy and Tomcat is http.

We run with a default richfaces config.

Did anybody else met this problem?

Any ideas how to solve this without system access and without being able to reproduce it?

[mhn]

I corrected my initial bug report. This issue occurs also in Firefox.

Now I got a new logfile with more detailed logging, which contains a NullPointerException in the PhaseListener!

[2011-09-19 12:27:11,601] http-8080-16 [DEBUG] [] BaseFilter doFilter: Filter start request processing at 9/19/11 12:27 PM  for uri: /test_ax/faces/a4j/g/3_3_3.Finalorg/richfaces/renderkit/html/scripts/modalPanel.js

[2011-09-19 12:27:11,601] http-8080-16 [DEBUG] [] AjaxPhaseListener beforePhase: Process before phase RESTORE_VIEW(1)

[2011-09-19 12:27:11,601] http-8080-16 [DEBUG] [] ResourceLifecycle invokePhaseListener: Exception in PhaseListener, phase :RESTORE_VIEW(1) : beforePhase

java.lang.NullPointerException

[2011-09-19 12:27:11,601] http-8080-16 [DEBUG] [] InternetResourceService serviceResource: Get content from cache for resource org/richfaces/renderkit/html/scripts/modalPanel.js

[2011-09-19 12:27:11,601] http-8080-16 [DEBUG] [] BaseFilter doFilter: Finished request processing total time 0ms for uri: /test_ax/faces/a4j/g/3_3_3.Finalorg/richfaces/renderkit/html/scripts/modalPanel.js

Does this help?

Why is a PhaseListener even called for a js file?

The Faces Servlet is mapped to  <url-pattern>/faces/*</url-pattern>

javax.faces.DEFAULT_SUFFIX is ".xhtml"

Any help is highly appreciated here

[mhn]

Now I got a stacktrace from another js file (we changed the LoadStrategy)

[2011-09-20 16:59:27,479] http-8080-1 [DEBUG] [] BaseFilter doFilter: Filter start request processing at 9/20/11 4:59 PM  for uri: /xxx/faces/a4j/g/3_3_3.Final/org/ajax4jsf/framework.pack.js

[2011-09-20 16:59:27,479] http-8080-1 [DEBUG] [] AjaxPhaseListener beforePhase: Process before phase RESTORE_VIEW(1)

[2011-09-20 16:59:27,479] http-8080-1 [DEBUG] [] ResourceLifecycle invokePhaseListener: Exception in PhaseListener, phase :RESTORE_VIEW(1) : beforePhase

java.lang.NullPointerException

    at org.apache.catalina.connector.Request.setAttribute(Request.java:1469)

    at org.apache.catalina.connector.RequestFacade.setAttribute(RequestFacade.java:503)

    at org.apache.myfaces.context.servlet.RequestMap.setAttribute(RequestMap.java:53)

    at org.apache.myfaces.util.AbstractAttributeMap.put(AbstractAttributeMap.java:105)

    at org.apache.myfaces.util.AbstractAttributeMap.put(AbstractAttributeMap.java:38)

    at org.apache.myfaces.webapp.filter.ServeResourcePhaseListener.beforePhase(ServeResourcePhaseListener.java:71)

    at org.ajax4jsf.resource.ResourceLifecycle.invokePhaseListener(ResourceLifecycle.java:202)

    at org.ajax4jsf.resource.ResourceLifecycle.processPhaseListeners(ResourceLifecycle.java:178)

    at org.ajax4jsf.resource.ResourceLifecycle.send(ResourceLifecycle.java:117)

    at org.ajax4jsf.resource.InternetResourceService.serviceResource(InternetResourceService.java:226)

    at org.ajax4jsf.resource.InternetResourceService.serviceResource(InternetResourceService.java:141)

    at org.ajax4jsf.webapp.BaseFilter.doFilter(BaseFilter.java:508)

    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)

    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)

    at org.apache.myfaces.webapp.filter.ExtensionsFilter.doFilter(ExtensionsFilter.java:384)

    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)

    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)

    at com.recommind.litigation.client.web.filters.LoginFilter.doFilter(LoginFilter.java:224)

    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)

    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)

    at com.recommind.litigation.client.web.filters.CacheFilter.doFilter(CacheFilter.java:114)

    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)

    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)

    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233)

    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)

    at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:470)

    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:127)

    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)

    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)

    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:298)

    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:859)

    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:588)

    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:489)

    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)

[2011-09-20 16:59:27,479] http-8080-1 [DEBUG] [] BaseFilter doFilter: Finished request processing total time 15ms for uri: /xxx/faces/a4j/g/3_3_3.Final/org/ajax4jsf/framework.pack.js

Could there be a problem with the FacesContext?

[mhn]

Issue could be solved.

It was caused by a not released FacesContext which I created manually in a non faces request. This FacesContext was created in the http thread of the login request which was redirected to another page. The javascript error occurred when this http thread was reused in order to fetch a richfaces javascript. The deprecated FacesContext was reused in this thread and richfaces was therefore not able to serve the javascript resource.

Unfortunately this error was logged with debug level only and mostly without any stacktrace and the js file was served without any content as a consequence of this.