Hello everyone,

A NullPointerException is thrown when the JBoss AS 7.1.3 tries to replace an expression in the "jboss-app.xml" file. (the "jboss-descriptor-property-replacement" property is set true in the "standalone.xml" file)

Wolf-Dieter Fink says that the "jboss-app.xml" file should not contain expresssion (https://community.jboss.org/message/747278#747278), but a RedHat document say that the "jboss-descriptor-property-replacement", if set true, enables the properties replacement in the "jboss-app.xml" file. (https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/docs/en-US/JBoss_Enterprise_Application_Platform/6/html/Administration_and_Configuration_Guide/EnablingDisabling_Descriptor_Based_Property_Replacement.html)

We want to avoid the use of the "default-distinct-name" property of the "standalone.xml" file. We have other deployed applications and we think that they does not have to manage a distinct-name if they does not declared one.

One other point is that the property replacement works well in the JBoss AS 7.1.1

Best regards,

François

The "jboss-app.xml" file:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--
  ~ JBoss, Home of Professional Open Source.
  ~ Copyright 2012, Red Hat, Inc., and individual contributors
  ~ as indicated by the @author tags. See the copyright.txt file in the
  ~ distribution for a full listing of individual contributors.
  ~
  ~ This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
  ~ under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as
  ~ published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of
  ~ the License, or (at your option) any later version.
  ~
  ~ This software is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
  ~ but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  ~ MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
  ~ Lesser General Public License for more details.
  ~
  ~ You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
  ~ License along with this software; if not, write to the Free
  ~ Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
  ~ 02110-1301 USA, or see the FSF site: http://www.fsf.org.
  -->
<jboss-app xmlns="http://www.jboss.com/xml/ns/javaee"
           xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
           xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.jboss.com/xml/ns/javaee http://www.jboss.org/noschema/jboss-app_5_0.xsd"
           version="5.0"
           id="jboss-app-id">
    <distinct-name>${jboss.server.name}</distinct-name>
</jboss-app>

The log file shows:

15:09:30,496 ERROR [org.jboss.msc.service.fail] (MSC service thread 1-5) MSC00001: Failed to start service jboss.deployment.unit."DS.ear".STRUCTURE: org.jboss.msc.service.StartException in service jboss.deployment.unit."DS.ear".STRUCTURE: JBAS018733: N'a pas pu traiter la phase STRUCTURE de deployment "DS.ear"
 at org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitPhaseService.start(DeploymentUnitPhaseService.java:123) [jboss-as-server-7.1.3.Beta1.jar:7.1.3.Beta1]
 at org.jboss.msc.service.ServiceControllerImpl$StartTask.startService(ServiceControllerImpl.java:1811) [jboss-msc-1.0.2.GA.jar:1.0.2.GA]
 at org.jboss.msc.service.ServiceControllerImpl$StartTask.run(ServiceControllerImpl.java:1746) [jboss-msc-1.0.2.GA.jar:1.0.2.GA]
 at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1110) [rt.jar:1.7.0_03]
 at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:603) [rt.jar:1.7.0_03]
 at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722) [rt.jar:1.7.0_03]
Caused by: org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitProcessingException: JBAS011059: Impossible d'analyser "/D:/home/fme/jboss7.1.3/bin/content/DS.ear/META-INF/jboss-app.xml"
 at org.jboss.as.ee.structure.EarMetaDataParsingProcessor.handleJbossMetadata(EarMetaDataParsingProcessor.java:126)
 at org.jboss.as.ee.structure.EarMetaDataParsingProcessor.deploy(EarMetaDataParsingProcessor.java:67)
 at org.jboss.as.server.deployment.DeploymentUnitPhaseService.start(DeploymentUnitPhaseService.java:116) [jboss-as-server-7.1.3.Beta1.jar:7.1.3.Beta1]
 ... 5 more
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
 at org.jboss.metadata.property.DefaultPropertyReplacer.replaceProperties(DefaultPropertyReplacer.java:110)
 at org.jboss.metadata.parser.util.MetaDataElementParser.getElementText(MetaDataElementParser.java:194)
 at org.jboss.metadata.parser.jboss.JBossAppMetaDataParser.parse(JBossAppMetaDataParser.java:103)
 at org.jboss.as.ee.structure.EarMetaDataParsingProcessor.handleJbossMetadata(EarMetaDataParsingProcessor.java:123)
 ... 7 more

fmessiaen: add the NullPointerExcpetion