Error invoking login method - javax.el.PropertyNotFoundException: Target Unreachable, identifier 'authenticator' resolved to null

[odomitchi]

I 'm using Seam 2.1.1GA with Tomcat6. I have followed the documentation to create a login page that uses Seam authentication (see code extract from componenets.xml, Authenticator.java and login.xhtml below). But When I submit the form I get the following error:

ERROR [http-8080-6] (SeamLoginModule.java:113) - Error invoking login method
javax.el.PropertyNotFoundException: Target Unreachable, identifier 'authenticator' resolved to null
        at org.jboss.el.parser.AstValue.getTarget(AstValue.java:38)
        at org.jboss.el.parser.AstValue.invoke(AstValue.java:95)
        at org.jboss.el.MethodExpressionImpl.invoke(MethodExpressionImpl.java:276)
        at org.jboss.seam.core.Expressions$2.invoke(Expressions.java:175)
        at org.jboss.seam.security.jaas.SeamLoginModule.login(SeamLoginModule.java:109)
        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 javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext.invoke(LoginContext.java:769)
        at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext.access$000(LoginContext.java:186)
        at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext$5.run(LoginContext.java:706)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext.invokeCreatorPriv(LoginContext.java:703)
        at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext.login(LoginContext.java:575)
        at org.jboss.seam.security.Identity.authenticate(Identity.java:344)
        at org.jboss.seam.security.Identity.authenticate(Identity.java:332)
        at org.jboss.seam.security.Identity.login(Identity.java:259)
        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.el.util.ReflectionUtil.invokeMethod(ReflectionUtil.java:329)
        at org.jboss.el.util.ReflectionUtil.invokeMethod(ReflectionUtil.java:342)
        at org.jboss.el.parser.AstPropertySuffix.invoke(AstPropertySuffix.java:58)
        at org.jboss.el.parser.AstValue.invoke(AstValue.java:96)
        at org.jboss.el.MethodExpressionImpl.invoke(MethodExpressionImpl.java:276)
        at com.sun.facelets.el.TagMethodExpression.invoke(TagMethodExpression.java:68)
        at javax.faces.component._MethodExpressionToMethodBinding.invoke(_MethodExpressionToMethodBinding.java:78)
        at org.apache.myfaces.application.ActionListenerImpl.processAction(ActionListenerImpl.java:57)
        at javax.faces.component.UICommand.broadcast(UICommand.java:143)
        at org.ajax4jsf.component.AjaxViewRoot.processEvents(AjaxViewRoot.java:321)
        at org.ajax4jsf.component.AjaxViewRoot.broadcastEvents(AjaxViewRoot.java:296)
        at org.ajax4jsf.component.AjaxViewRoot.processPhase(AjaxViewRoot.java:253)
        at org.ajax4jsf.component.AjaxViewRoot.processApplication(AjaxViewRoot.java:466)
        at org.apache.myfaces.lifecycle.InvokeApplicationExecutor.execute(InvokeApplicationExecutor.java:32)
        at org.apache.myfaces.lifecycle.LifecycleImpl.executePhase(LifecycleImpl.java:103)
        at org.apache.myfaces.lifecycle.LifecycleImpl.execute(LifecycleImpl.java:76)
        at javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet.service(FacesServlet.java:151)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:290)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
        at org.ajax4jsf.webapp.BaseFilter.doFilter(BaseFilter.java:532)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
        at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:83)
        at org.jboss.seam.web.IdentityFilter.doFilter(IdentityFilter.java:40)
        at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:69)
        at org.jboss.seam.web.MultipartFilter.doFilter(MultipartFilter.java:90)
        at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:69)
        at org.jboss.seam.web.ExceptionFilter.doFilter(ExceptionFilter.java:64)
        at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:69)
        at org.jboss.seam.web.RedirectFilter.doFilter(RedirectFilter.java:45)
        at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:69)
        at org.ajax4jsf.webapp.BaseXMLFilter.doXmlFilter(BaseXMLFilter.java:178)
        at org.ajax4jsf.webapp.BaseFilter.handleRequest(BaseFilter.java:290)
        at org.ajax4jsf.webapp.BaseFilter.processUploadsAndHandleRequest(BaseFilter.java:390)
        at org.ajax4jsf.webapp.BaseFilter.doFilter(BaseFilter.java:517)
        at org.jboss.seam.web.Ajax4jsfFilter.doFilter(Ajax4jsfFilter.java:56)
        at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:69)
        at org.jboss.seam.web.LoggingFilter.doFilter(LoggingFilter.java:58)
        at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:69)
        at org.jboss.seam.web.HotDeployFilter.doFilter(HotDeployFilter.java:53)
        at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:69)
        at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamFilter.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:158)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:175)
        at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:433)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:128)
        at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
        at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:286)
        at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:844)
        at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:583)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:447)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)


My code:

1) components.xml

<security:identity authenticate-method="#{authenticator.authenticate}" remember-me="true"/>


2) Authenticator.java

`@Name("authenticator")
public class Authenticator {
        @Logger
        Log log;

    @In
    Credentials credentials;

        @In
        Identity identity;

        public boolean authenticate() {
                log.info("authenticating #0 ", credentials.getUsername());
        System.out.println("username " + credentials.getUsername() + " and password " + credentials.getPassword());
                identity.addRole("admin");
                return true;
        }
}`



3) login.xhtml
                         `
<div class="dialog">
        <h:panelGrid columns="2" rowClasses="prop" columnClasses="name,value">
        <h:outputLabel for="username">Username</h:outputLabel>
        <h:inputText id="username" value="#{credentials.username}"/>
        <h:outputLabel for="password">Password</h:outputLabel>
        <h:inputSecret id="password" value="#{credentials.password}"/>
        <h:outputLabel for="rememberMe">Remember me</h:outputLabel>
        <h:selectBooleanCheckbox id="rememberMe" value="#{identity.rememberMe}"/>
        </h:panelGrid>
</div>
...

<div class="actionButtons">
<h:commandButton id="login" value="Login" action="#{identity.login}"/>
</div>
`

I review my code and can't seem to find where I have gone wrong neither. And I checked that my authenticator.java class is compiled and in the war file. I would very much appreciate any help (note I'm new to seam so any input even if it seems obvious to you will be helpful.  Thanks

[swd847]

When your app starts up do you see something like:

09:02:36,526 INFO  [Component] Component: authenticator, scope: EVENT, type: JAVA_BEAN, class: com.yourpackage.Authenticator?

in the server logs?

If so do your other components work when you reference them from EL?

[odomitchi]

thanks for the prompt reply Stuart!

No I do not see this in my logs. I do not have any other working components. I'm starting from scratch.

Note, this makes me wonder, am I supposed to add the scope annotation to the Authenticator,java? 

[swd847]

The lack of scope is not what is causing your problem. At a guess I would say that seam is not scanning your file for components. Do you have a components.xml or a seam.properties file in the archive?

[odomitchi]

my archive has compnenets.xml under WEB-INF but not seam.properties. I have it in the projecy root but I'm using netbeans and missed that the automated build script is not packaging it. Where do I want it in my war? on the classpath is fine? I'll change the script

[swd847]

It should be in WEB-INF/classes/seam.properties

[odomitchi]

It worked!

I checked the sample exploded war included in the distribution and seam.properties was under web-inf/classes. I placed the file in my source package, built it and my archive has seam.properties under WEB-INF/classes now in addition to the components.xml in my war.

I ran it and it's actually calling my authenticate method now. thank you so much, Stuart!!!