I am trying to send html email from a servlet and could use some help.

I have added the following to my components.xml file as described in chapter 21 of the reference manual (Section 21.1.2.5. Context management for custom servlets):

<web:context-filter url-pattern="/servlet/*" />

With the above in place, my servlet can retrieve a non-null Renderer (org.jboss.seam.core.Renderer) using the following:

Renderer renderer = (Renderer) Component.getInstance("org.jboss.seam.core.renderer");

I then try to use the renderer:

renderer.render("/WEB-INF/email/test-email.xhtml");

but this throws an exception as shown in the stacktrace below. Do I need to somehow provide more context for the renderer? Note that for this test the xhtml file has no dynamic content, although I am hoping to make it dynamic at some point. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

The following is the stack trace that results from the call to the renderer:
java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.sun.faces.application.ApplicationAssociate.(ApplicationAssociate.java:143)
at com.sun.faces.application.ApplicationImpl.(ApplicationImpl.java:156)
at com.sun.faces.application.ApplicationFactoryImpl.getApplication(ApplicationFactoryImpl.java:97)
at org.jboss.seam.mock.MockFacesContext.(MockFacesContext.java:62)
at org.jboss.seam.ui.facelet.FaceletsRenderer$Context.wrap(FaceletsRenderer.java:59)
at org.jboss.seam.ui.facelet.FaceletsRenderer.render(FaceletsRenderer.java:110)
at com.el.util.mail.EmailServlet.processRequest(EmailServlet.java:54)
at com.el.util.mail.EmailServlet.doGet(EmailServlet.java:82)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:718)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:831)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.servletService(ApplicationFilterChain.java:411)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:317)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:198)
at org.jboss.seam.web.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:63)
at org.jboss.seam.web.ContextFilter.doFilter(ContextFilter.java:56)
at org.jboss.seam.web.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:49)
at org.jboss.seam.web.ExceptionFilter.doFilter(ExceptionFilter.java:57)
at org.jboss.seam.web.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:49)
at org.jboss.seam.debug.hot.HotDeployFilter.doFilter(HotDeployFilter.java:60)
at org.jboss.seam.web.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:49)
at org.jboss.seam.web.RedirectFilter.doFilter(RedirectFilter.java:45)
at org.jboss.seam.web.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:49)
at org.jboss.seam.web.MultipartFilter.doFilter(MultipartFilter.java:79)
at org.jboss.seam.web.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:49)
at org.jboss.seam.web.SeamFilter.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:84)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:230)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:198)
at org.netbeans.modules.web.monitor.server.MonitorFilter.doFilter(MonitorFilter.java:368)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:230)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:198)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:288)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invokeInternal(StandardContextValve.java:271)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:202)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.doInvoke(StandardPipeline.java:632)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.doInvoke(StandardPipeline.java:577)
at com.sun.enterprise.web.WebPipeline.invoke(WebPipeline.java:94)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:206)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.doInvoke(StandardPipeline.java:632)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.doInvoke(StandardPipeline.java:577)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:571)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:1080)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:150)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.doInvoke(StandardPipeline.java:632)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.doInvoke(StandardPipeline.java:577)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:571)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:1080)
at org.apache.coyote.tomcat5.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:270)
at com.sun.enterprise.web.connector.grizzly.DefaultProcessorTask.invokeAdapter(DefaultProcessorTask.java:637)
at com.sun.enterprise.web.connector.grizzly.DefaultProcessorTask.doProcess(DefaultProcessorTask.java:568)
at com.sun.enterprise.web.connector.grizzly.DefaultProcessorTask.process(DefaultProcessorTask.java:813)
at com.sun.enterprise.web.connector.grizzly.DefaultReadTask.executeProcessorTask(DefaultReadTask.java:339)
at com.sun.enterprise.web.connector.grizzly.DefaultReadTask.doTask(DefaultReadTask.java:261)
at com.sun.enterprise.web.connector.grizzly.DefaultReadTask.doTask(DefaultReadTask.java:212)
at com.sun.enterprise.web.portunif.PortUnificationPipeline$PUTask.doTask(PortUnificationPipeline.java:361)
at com.sun.enterprise.web.connector.grizzly.TaskBase.run(TaskBase.java:265)
at com.sun.enterprise.web.connector.grizzly.ssl.SSLWorkerThread.run(SSLWorkerThread.java:106)