I’m going to walk you through a scenario that’s played out over the past couple months after I setup a Tomcat environment for a developer at our company. It’s gonna be condensed and go fast, so
brace yourself. Here we go.

Developer: Something broken. Our deploy aren’t working.
Me: Let me take a look. Have you made any changes recently?
Developer: We reinstall java, that all.
*I wind up rebuilding the entire environment and reinstalling everything*
Developer: I made environment variable change before everything broke. You change it back! Why? It no broke anything.
Me: *Face palm*

Developer: Everything broken again! We can’t deploy stuff.
Me: Did you make any changes?
Developer: They add extra processor to our VM.
*I spend a week trouble shooting*
Developer: We also delete and re-create folder inside Tomcat. But folder name is same. Shouldn’t break anything.
Me: *Face palm*

Developer: Our application no start! Tomcat broken!
Me: Everything looks fine. How do you normally start this application?
Developer: I run script.
Me: Well….that’s written in linux shell. We’re in Windows now, so you’ll need to re-write that to a windows command file.
Developer: Why?

The first two scenarious are really the point I’m trying to make, the third one was just frustrating and I’m venting. Here’s my point:

If you break something, and then go to another developer to fix it, don’t partially answer their questions. If you’re going to that person for help, you’re already admitting they have more expertise in the area than you. Half-answering their questions won’t help you save face, it will only frustrate them.

P.S. Also, I’m ready to take away this guy’s admin privileges. At this point, he’s just doing this:

If you’ve watched any Star Trek you’ve heard all sorts of people use phrases like:

“I wrote a program to….”
“I wrote an algorithm to….”

“We designed a computer program to….”

And usually the results of their work do magical things.

What’s interesting is that EVERYONE seems to know how to write programs and make computers do anything they want. Doctors, Captains, Engineers, and even Guinan have the ability to look at source code, understand it, and modify it.

How long have computers been around? A decade tops. They’ve been common in industry for far less than that. And already if you walked into a job and said, “What’s a computer?” You’d never get hired.

This is only going to get more so as time goes on. Computer skills are going to be more and more necessary for various jobs. President Obama recognized this and commented that high schoolers should be learning how to program.

My theory: By the time we’re travelling in space, we will all be programmers. Hence no need for people who specialize in programming. Instead of going into Computer Science as a specific field, people will learn how to program for their specific field.

Or Gene Roddenberry wasn’t as perfect as we all think. But I like my first idea better.

We can all agree that the folks over at Google are web programming wizards, right? If you’ve ever even heard of google docs and what it does with javascript, you won’t argue with me (not that you could anyways, this is a blog, not a conversation).

Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s poke fun at
google.

On my blog stats page, there’s this nifty graph:

Please take note of the cool dot that highlights where on the graph my cursor is and shows me what stats my blog has for that point in time (And yes, I’m aware almost no one reads my blog). Cool, right? I stumbled onto an error Google left in when they built this little graph. Take a look at what happens when you scroll down without moving your mouse at all.

Suddenly, our dot is off. And what if you’ve got even more space to scroll down?

As a disclaimer, I am critical of a lot of Spring frameworks. Don’t get me wrong, they’re often useful and can save a lot of time when they’re used right. But it’s really easy to shoot yourself in the foot (or the head) when using a lot of them. For this post, exhibit A will be Spring DI. I recently had a developer forward me the following exception:

                               org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name ‘****************’ defined in class path resource [*****************************************************************]: Cannot resolve reference to bean ‘************************’ while setting bean property ‘senders’ with key [TypedStringValue: value [03], target type [null]]; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name ‘************************’ defined in class path resource [*****************************************************************]: Cannot resolve reference to bean ‘***********************************’ while setting bean property ‘connectionFactory’; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name ‘***********************************’: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is javax.naming.NameNotFoundException: Context: ***************/*****/***********/***************, name: jms/MQ/*****************/*******: First component in name jms/MQ/*****************/Primary not found. [Root exception is org.omg.CosNaming.NamingContextPackage.NotFound: IDL:omg.org/CosNaming/NamingContext/NotFound:1.0]

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionValueResolver.resolveReference(BeanDefinitionValueResolver.java:328)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionValueResolver.resolveValueIfNecessary(BeanDefinitionValueResolver.java:106)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionValueResolver.resolveManagedMap(BeanDefinitionValueResolver.java:378)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionValueResolver.resolveValueIfNecessary(BeanDefinitionValueResolver.java:161)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.applyPropertyValues(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1360)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.populateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1118)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:517)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:456)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:294)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:225)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:291)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:193)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:585)

at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:913)

at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:464)

at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.configureAndRefreshWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:384)

at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:283)

at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:111)

at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.notifyServletContextCreated(WebApp.java:1717)

at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.commonInitializationFinish(WebApp.java:384)

at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppImpl.initialize(WebAppImpl.java:299)

at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebGroupImpl.addWebApplication(WebGroupImpl.java:100)

at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.VirtualHostImpl.addWebApplication(VirtualHostImpl.java:166)

at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.WSWebContainer.addWebApp(WSWebContainer.java:732)

at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.WSWebContainer.addWebApplication(WSWebContainer.java:617)

at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.component.WebContainerImpl.install(WebContainerImpl.java:376)

at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.component.WebContainerImpl.start(WebContainerImpl.java:668)

at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl.start(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:1127)

at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.DeployedApplicationImpl.fireDeployedObjectStart(DeployedApplicationImpl.java:1319)

at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.DeployedModuleImpl.start(DeployedModuleImpl.java:611)

at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl.startModule(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:1572)

at com.ibm.ws.runtime.component.ApplicationMgrImpl._startModule(ApplicationMgrImpl.java:1520)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:60)

at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:37)

at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:611)

at sun.reflect.misc.Trampoline.invoke(MethodUtil.java:49)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:60)

at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:37)

at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:611)

at sun.reflect.misc.MethodUtil.invoke(MethodUtil.java:256)

at javax.management.modelmbean.RequiredModelMBean.invokeMethod(RequiredModelMBean.java:1085)

at javax.management.modelmbean.RequiredModelMBean.invoke(RequiredModelMBean.java:966)

at com.sun.jmx.interceptor.DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.invoke(DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.java:848)

at com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer.invoke(JmxMBeanServer.java:773)

at com.ibm.ws.management.AdminServiceImpl$1.run(AdminServiceImpl.java:1331)

at com.ibm.ws.security.util.AccessController.doPrivileged(AccessController.java:118)

at com.ibm.ws.management.AdminServiceImpl.invoke(AdminServiceImpl.java:1224)

at com.ibm.ws.management.application.sync.StartDeploymentTask.startDeployment(StartDeploymentTask.java:246)

at com.ibm.ws.management.application.sync.StartDeploymentTask.fineGrainUpdate(StartDeploymentTask.java:197)

at com.ibm.ws.management.application.sync.StartDeploymentTask.performTask(StartDeploymentTask.java:104)

at com.ibm.ws.management.application.sync.AppBinaryProcessor$ExpandApp.expand(AppBinaryProcessor.java:1682)

at com.ibm.ws.management.application.sync.AppBinaryProcessor.postProcessSynchronousExt(AppBinaryProcessor.java:723)

at com.ibm.ws.management.bla.sync.BLABinaryProcessor.postProcess(BLABinaryProcessor.java:575)

at com.ibm.ws.management.bla.sync.BLABinaryProcessor.onChangeCompletion(BLABinaryProcessor.java:452)

at com.ibm.ws.management.repository.FileRepository.postNotify(FileRepository.java:1916)

at com.ibm.ws.management.repository.FileRepository.update(FileRepository.java:1425)

at com.ibm.ws.management.repository.client.LocalConfigRepositoryClient.update(LocalConfigRepositoryClient.java:189)

at com.ibm.ws.sm.workspace.impl.WorkSpaceMasterRepositoryAdapter.update(WorkSpaceMasterRepositoryAdapter.java:665)

at com.ibm.ws.sm.workspace.impl.RepositoryContextImpl.update(RepositoryContextImpl.java:1954)

at com.ibm.ws.sm.workspace.impl.RepositoryContextImpl.synch(RepositoryContextImpl.java:1902)

at com.ibm.ws.sm.workspace.impl.WorkSpaceImpl.synch(WorkSpaceImpl.java:511)

at com.ibm.ws.management.configservice.ConfigServiceImpl.save(ConfigServiceImpl.java:702)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:60)

at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:37)

at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:611)

at sun.reflect.misc.Trampoline.invoke(MethodUtil.java:49)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:60)

at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:37)

at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:611)

at sun.reflect.misc.MethodUtil.invoke(MethodUtil.java:256)

at javax.management.modelmbean.RequiredModelMBean.invokeMethod(RequiredModelMBean.java:1085)

at javax.management.modelmbean.RequiredModelMBean.invoke(RequiredModelMBean.java:966)

at com.sun.jmx.interceptor.DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.invoke(DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.java:848)

at com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer.invoke(JmxMBeanServer.java:773)

at com.ibm.ws.management.AdminServiceImpl$1.run(AdminServiceImpl.java:1331)

at com.ibm.ws.security.util.AccessController.doPrivileged(AccessController.java:118)

at com.ibm.ws.management.AdminServiceImpl.invoke(AdminServiceImpl.java:1224)

at com.ibm.ws.management.connector.AdminServiceDelegator.invoke(AdminServiceDelegator.java:181)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:60)

at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:37)

at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:611)

at com.ibm.ws.management.connector.soap.SOAPConnector.invoke(SOAPConnector.java:453)

at com.ibm.ws.management.connector.soap.SOAPConnector.service(SOAPConnector.java:288)

at com.ibm.ws.management.connector.soap.SOAPConnection.handleRequest(SOAPConnection.java:65)

at com.ibm.ws.http.HttpConnection.readAndHandleRequest(HttpConnection.java:733)

at com.ibm.ws.http.HttpConnection.run(HttpConnection.java:532)

at com.ibm.ws.util.ThreadPool$Worker.run(ThreadPool.java:1646)

Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name ‘************************’ defined in class path resource [*****************************************************************]: Cannot resolve reference to bean ‘***********************************’ while setting bean property ‘connectionFactory’; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name ‘***********************************’: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is javax.naming.NameNotFoundException: Context: ***************/*****/**********/***************, name: jms/MQ/*************************: First component in name jms/MQ/******************************found. [Root exception is org.omg.CosNaming.NamingContextPackage.NotFound: IDL:omg.org/CosNaming/NamingContext/NotFound:1.0]

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionValueResolver.resolveReference(BeanDefinitionValueResolver.java:328)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionValueResolver.resolveValueIfNecessary(BeanDefinitionValueResolver.java:106)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.applyPropertyValues(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1360)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.populateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1118)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:517)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:456)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:294)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:225)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:291)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:193)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionValueResolver.resolveReference(BeanDefinitionValueResolver.java:322)

… 91 more

Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name ‘************************’: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is javax.naming.NameNotFoundException: Context: ************************, name: jms/MQ/************************: First component in name jms/MQ/************************ not found. [Root exception is org.omg.CosNaming.NamingContextPackage.NotFound: IDL:omg.org/CosNaming/NamingContext/NotFound:1.0]

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1455)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:519)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:456)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:294)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:225)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:291)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:193)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionValueResolver.resolveReference(BeanDefinitionValueResolver.java:322)

… 101 more

Caused by: javax.naming.NameNotFoundException: Context: ************************, name: jms/MQ/RequestManagement/Primary: First component in name ************************ not found. [Root exception is org.omg.CosNaming.NamingContextPackage.NotFound: IDL:omg.org/CosNaming/NamingContext/NotFound:1.0]

at com.ibm.ws.naming.jndicos.CNContextImpl.mapNotFoundException(CNContextImpl.java:4378)

at com.ibm.ws.naming.jndicos.CNContextImpl.doLookup(CNContextImpl.java:1807)

at com.ibm.ws.naming.jndicos.CNContextImpl.doLookup(CNContextImpl.java:1762)

at com.ibm.ws.naming.jndicos.CNContextImpl.lookupExt(CNContextImpl.java:1513)

at com.ibm.ws.naming.jndicos.CNContextImpl.lookup(CNContextImpl.java:645)

at com.ibm.ws.naming.util.WsnInitCtx.lookup(WsnInitCtx.java:166)

at com.ibm.ws.naming.util.WsnInitCtx.lookup(WsnInitCtx.java:180)

at javax.naming.InitialContext.lookup(InitialContext.java:436)

at org.springframework.jndi.JndiTemplate$1.doInContext(JndiTemplate.java:154)

at org.springframework.jndi.JndiTemplate.execute(JndiTemplate.java:87)

at org.springframework.jndi.JndiTemplate.lookup(JndiTemplate.java:152)

at org.springframework.jndi.JndiTemplate.lookup(JndiTemplate.java:178)

at org.springframework.jndi.JndiLocatorSupport.lookup(JndiLocatorSupport.java:104)

at org.springframework.jndi.JndiObjectLocator.lookup(JndiObjectLocator.java:105)

at org.springframework.jndi.JndiObjectFactoryBean.lookupWithFallback(JndiObjectFactoryBean.java:201)

at org.springframework.jndi.JndiObjectFactoryBean.afterPropertiesSet(JndiObjectFactoryBean.java:187)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.invokeInitMethods(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1514)

at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1452)

… 108 more

Caused by: org.omg.CosNaming.NamingContextPackage.NotFound: IDL:omg.org/CosNaming/NamingContext/NotFound:1.0

at com.ibm.ws.naming.ipcos.WsnOptimizedNamingImpl.handleNameNotFound(WsnOptimizedNamingImpl.java:2519)

at com.ibm.ws.naming.ipcos.WsnOptimizedNamingImpl.getNextWsnOptimizedNamingContext(WsnOptimizedNamingImpl.java:1270)

at com.ibm.ws.naming.cosbase.WsnOptimizedNamingImplBase$3.run(WsnOptimizedNamingImplBase.java:4738)

at com.ibm.ws.naming.cosbase.WsnOptimizedNamingImplBase$3.run(WsnOptimizedNamingImplBase.java:4733)

at com.ibm.ws.naming.util.CommonHelpers.retry(CommonHelpers.java:771)

at com.ibm.ws.naming.cosbase.WsnOptimizedNamingImplBase.getTargetContext(WsnOptimizedNamingImplBase.java:4732)

at com.ibm.ws.naming.cosbase.WsnOptimizedNamingImplBase$LeafOperationData.(WsnOptimizedNamingImplBase.java:5311)

at com.ibm.ws.naming.cosbase.WsnOptimizedNamingImplBase.resolve_complete_info(WsnOptimizedNamingImplBase.java:2155)

at com.ibm.WsnOptimizedNaming._NamingContextStub.resolve_complete_info(_NamingContextStub.java:538)

at com.ibm.ws.naming.jndicos.CNContextImpl$2.run(CNContextImpl.java:2810)

at com.ibm.ws.naming.jndicos.CNContextImpl$2.run(CNContextImpl.java:2806)

at com.ibm.ws.naming.util.CommonHelpers.retry(CommonHelpers.java:771)

at com.ibm.ws.naming.jndicos.CNContextImpl.cosResolve(CNContextImpl.java:2804)

at com.ibm.ws.naming.jndicos.CNContextImpl.doLookup(CNContextImpl.java:1803)

… 124 more

I include the entire stack-trace to give you a little perspective (and to keep myself from looking like an idiot). Like most good trouble shooters, I skimmed the bottom of the trace and then looked more closely at the top three or four exceptions that got thrown. They were Spring bean related and there was something goofy about a classpath. I started to look at the classpath and buildpath for the project and actually spent a few weeks on and off trying to figure out what was going on before I noticed what should’ve jumped out at me right away: The middle of the trace.

Caused by: javax.naming.NameNotFoundException: Context: ************************, name: jms/MQ/RequestManagement/Primary: First component in name ************************ not found. [Root exception is org.omg.CosNaming.NamingContextPackage.NotFound: IDL:omg.org/CosNaming/NamingContext/NotFound:1.0]

There’s the issue, plain as day. I could’ve solved this problem in five minutes of going through WebSphere config panels and realizing that the JNDI name it was looking for didn’t exist. Instead, I ran down a bunny trail  before really examining the situation.

This story has two morals:

First, read the entire stack-trace before you start trying to figure out the problem. If you don’t want to read it all, at least skim the exceptions, especially if you notice anything that looks odd.

Second, when you’re working with Spring (or any other framework that has a tendency to throw lots of runtime exceptions) keep in mind that the framework may be an attention hog, and hiding the actual problem that you are encountering.