Skip to main content
Carolyn5E88
Inspiring
Mar 23, 2021 10:48 PM UTC
Answered

The system has attempted to use an undefined value, which usually indicates a programming error

I'm suddenly receiving the error message "The system has attempted to use an undefined value, which usually indicates a programming error, either in your code or some system code. Null Pointers are another name for undefined values."

 

This is a development site on my local machine. Everything was working until I changed the database associated with the datasource. When I refreshed the page, I got the message above. Now none of the pages work.

 

It's an old application using Fusebox 5.5 and I'm migrating it from ColdFusion 11 to ColdFusion 2018.

 

I'm not skilled at reading stack trace, but here it is in case someone sees something useful. Thank you!

Resources:

Check the ColdFusion documentation to verify that you are using the correct syntax.
Search the Knowledge Base to find a solution to your problem.

Browser Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:86.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/86.0
Remote Address 127.0.0.1
Referrer
Date/Time 23-Mar-21 03:35 PM
Stack Trace


java.lang.NullPointerException
at coldfusion.runtime.AppHelper.generateNewClientIDs(AppHelper.java:605)
at coldfusion.runtime.AppHelper.handleClientIDs(AppHelper.java:221)
at coldfusion.runtime.AppHelper.ValidateClientAndSession(AppHelper.java:1239)
at coldfusion.filter.ApplicationFilter.invoke(ApplicationFilter.java:483)
at coldfusion.filter.RequestMonitorFilter.invoke(RequestMonitorFilter.java:43)
at coldfusion.filter.MonitoringFilter.invoke(MonitoringFilter.java:40)
at coldfusion.filter.PathFilter.invoke(PathFilter.java:162)
at coldfusion.filter.IpFilter.invoke(IpFilter.java:45)
at coldfusion.filter.LicenseFilter.invoke(LicenseFilter.java:30)
at coldfusion.filter.ExceptionFilter.invoke(ExceptionFilter.java:96)
at coldfusion.filter.BrowserDebugFilter.invoke(BrowserDebugFilter.java:78)
at coldfusion.filter.ClientScopePersistenceFilter.invoke(ClientScopePersistenceFilter.java:28)
at coldfusion.filter.BrowserFilter.invoke(BrowserFilter.java:38)
at coldfusion.filter.NoCacheFilter.invoke(NoCacheFilter.java:60)
at coldfusion.filter.GlobalsFilter.invoke(GlobalsFilter.java:38)
at coldfusion.filter.DatasourceFilter.invoke(DatasourceFilter.java:22)
at coldfusion.filter.CachingFilter.invoke(CachingFilter.java:62)
at coldfusion.CfmServlet.service(CfmServlet.java:226)
at coldfusion.bootstrap.BootstrapServlet.service(BootstrapServlet.java:311)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:231)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166)
at coldfusion.monitor.event.MonitoringServletFilter.doFilter(MonitoringServletFilter.java:46)
at coldfusion.bootstrap.BootstrapFilter.doFilter(BootstrapFilter.java:47)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166)
at coldfusion.inspect.weinre.MobileDeviceDomInspectionFilter.doFilter(MobileDeviceDomInspectionFilter.java:121)
at coldfusion.bootstrap.BootstrapFilter.doFilter(BootstrapFilter.java:47)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166)
at org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:202)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:97)
at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:542)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:143)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:92)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:78)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:359)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.service(Http11Processor.java:374)
at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProcessorLight.process(AbstractProcessorLight.java:65)
at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$ConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:888)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1597)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.SocketProcessorBase.run(SocketProcessorBase.java:49)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1128)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:628)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61)
at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:834)

    This topic is closed to new replies. Start a new post to keep the conversation going.
    Carolyn5E88Correct answer
    Inspiring
    Mar 23, 2021 11:22 PM UTC

    Sorry for the false alarm! After much consternation, it seems to have corrected itself. Will keep my fingers crossed that it stays that way!

    View reply

    6 replies

    Abram Adams
    Inspiring
    May 28, 2021 5:57 AM UTC

    I know your issue just seemingly resolved itself, but ours didn't 😞 .  Similar scenario (migrating old site from CF10 to 2018) and encountered the same error. 

    Turns out our applicationTimeout was set to 

     

    this.applicationTimeout = createTimeSpan( 0, 0, 0, 0 )

     

    Not sure why, or why that worked before, but changing that to something above 0 fixes the issue for us.  Just thought I'd share that since not everyone's problems fix themselves 😉

    Translate
    Community Expert
    Dave WattsCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 28, 2021 1:42 PM UTC

    On a slightly unrelated note, I don't think setting the application timeout to zero is a good thing. Better to just not use application variables at all - something that can be disabled server-wide in the CF Administrator.

     

    Dave Watts, Eidolon LLC

    Translate
    Dave Watts, Eidolon LLC
    Abram Adams
    Inspiring
    May 28, 2021 11:41 PM UTC

    Agreed. This was a 10+ year old app that hasn't been touched in... well probably 10 years.  I'm guessing someone was being clever or working around some limitation.  

    Translate
    Carolyn5E88Author
    Inspiring
    Mar 23, 2021 10:57 PM UTC

    I should add that I've done some basic troubleshooting like restarting the server, rebooting my machine, changing the application name, etc. Also, this is the exception data below the debugging information:

    15:53:40.040 - coldfusion.util.RuntimeWrapper Exception - in : line -1
    15:53:40.040 - java.lang.NullPointerException - in : line -1

    Translate
    Carolyn5E88AuthorCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    Mar 23, 2021 11:22 PM UTC

    Sorry for the false alarm! After much consternation, it seems to have corrected itself. Will keep my fingers crossed that it stays that way!

    Translate
    BKBK
    Community Expert
    BKBKCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    Mar 24, 2021 10:11 AM UTC

    A missing cookie or session ID perhaps, that later got restored? Reminds me of an old problem with CFID cookies. In any case, thanks for sharing.

    Translate
    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices