Getting null pointer exception @Resource annotation in tomcat 7

Question

Here is my Resource element in context.xml ::

<Resource name="jdbc/myoracle" auth="Container"
              type="javax.sql.DataSource" driverClassName="oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver"
              url="jdbc:oracle:thin:@localhost:1521:XE"
              username="hr" password="hr" maxActive="20" maxIdle="10"
              maxWait="-1"/> 

Here is my Resource reference in web.xml:

       <resource-ref>
            <description>Oracle Datasource</description>
            <res-ref-name>jdbc/myoracle</res-ref-name>
            <res-type>javax.sql.DataSource</res-type>
            <res-auth>Container</res-auth>
        </resource-ref>

I then use @Resource annotation in my code:

      @Resource(mappedName = "jdbc/myoracle")
        DataSource ds;

When I try to create connection object using getConnection() on ds, I get a null pointer exception during runtime:

    Oct 24, 2011 12:18:21 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve invoke
    INFO: java.lang.NullPointerException
        at jdbc.patientDaoImpl.get_patients(patientDaoImpl.java:248)
        at org.apache.jsp.index2_jsp._jspService(index2_jsp.java:92)
        at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:70)
        at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:722)
        at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:419)
        at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:390)
        at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:333)
        at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:722)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:304)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
        at org.netbeans.modules.web.monitor.server.MonitorFilter.doFilter(MonitorFilter.java:393)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:223)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:164)
        at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:462)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:164)
        at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:100)
        at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:563)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:118)
        at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:399)
        at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:317)
        at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:204)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:311)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)

But if I lookup using initialContext the app works fine.

    Context initContext = new InitialContext();
    Context envContext  = (Context)initContext.lookup("java:/comp/env");
    DataSource ds = (DataSource)envContext.lookup("jdbc/myoracle");

Where am I going wrong?

Answer 1

Note Tomcat does support @Resource injection. You were really really close.

The issue was you used:

• @Resource(mappedName = "jdbc/myoracle")

This would have worked:

• @Resource(name = "jdbc/myoracle")

I'll note that had you been using Apache TomEE (the JavaEE certified version of Tomcat), both would have worked with no changes to your context.xml

Plus you get CDI, EJB, JPA and other things mentioned in some of the other answers.

Small comparison here.