Internet Explorer 8 null pointer exception issues

Report · Aug 15, 2009

Sorry if this has been answered, but I've done searches all over the place and can't find an answer.

I have a site that uses client variables to manage user sessions in a secure application. (Loadbalanced with a common database) When you go to the login page or log out it removes (or attempts to) any previous cookies and recreates new cookies. I have been having a problem with Internet Explorer 8 where it seems to be returning something to my site that Coldfusion can't handle. I get java.lang.nullPointerException. The error messages say the error occurs either at line -1, with no idea what tag is involved, or line 6, which is in the middle of my cfapplication tag. The diagnostics line is always null other than the line number. From that, though, the error seems to occur before my cfapplication tag even runs.

If the user turns off the "Preserve Favorites website data" feature and deletes the Temporary Internet files, they can log in. It seems to be happening on browsers that were update automatically through windows updates. I created an error page with instructions to delete temp files and cookies, but people don't always read error pages.

I am planning to re-write this application in CF8, but for now I am stuck with CF MX 6.1. I have updated to the latest version supported of Java (1.4.2_11).

Is there anything that I can do in my code to fix this error?

Thanks

Byron

Report · Aug 15, 2009

When you go to the login page or log out it removes (or attempts to) any previous cookies and recreates new cookies. I have been having a problem with Internet Explorer 8 where it seems to be returning something to my site that Coldfusion can't handle. I get java.lang.nullPointerException. The error messages say the error occurs either at line -1, with no idea what tag is involved, or line 6, which is in the middle of my cfapplication tag. The diagnostics line is always null other than the line number. From that, though, the error seems to occur before my cfapplication tag even runs.

That suggests to me that the previous cookie is removed, but no new cookie is being created. The null would therefore refer to the non-existent cookie object. One way out might be to create new cookies without attempting to remove previous ones.