Spring-Boot @Autowired in main class is getting null

Question

I want to connect to a Sonic Broker Topic and Listen for any incoming XML message. I did something like below;

Application.java

@SpringBootApplication
@ComponentScan({"com.mainpack", "com.msgpack.jms"})
@EnableJms
public class Application extends SpringBootServletInitializer {

@Autowired
private JmsTopicListener jmsTopicListener;

@Override
protected SpringApplicationBuilder configure(SpringApplicationBuilder application) {
    return application.sources(Application.class);
}

@Override
public void onStartup(final ServletContext servletContext) throws ServletException {
    try {
        LogService.info(Application.class.getName(), "Starting Service...");
        super.onStartup(servletContext);
        jmsTopicListener.listenMessage();
        LogService.info(Application.class.getName(), "Service Started");
    } catch (Exception ex) {
        LogService.error(this.getClass().getName(), ex);
    }
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
    ApplicationContext context = SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
    LogService.info(Application.class.getName(), "Service Started...");
 }
}

JmsTopicListener.java

@Component
public class JmsTopicListener {

@Autowired
private ApplicationProperties properties;

@Autowired
private MsgListener msgListener;

public void listenMessage() {
    TopicConnectionFactory factory;
    TopicConnection connection = null;
    LogService.info(this.getClass().getName(), "Registering Broker Connection");
    try {
        factory = new progress.message.jclient.TopicConnectionFactory(properties.getBrokerURL());
        connection = factory.createTopicConnection(properties.getUserName(), properties.getPass());

        javax.jms.TopicSession subSession = (TopicSession) connection.createTopicSession(false, Session.AUTO_ACKNOWLEDGE);

        javax.jms.Topic topic = subSession.createTopic(properties.getTopicName());
        MessageConsumer subscriber = subSession.createSubscriber(topic);
        subscriber.setMessageListener(msgListener);
        connection.start();
        LogService.info(this.getClass().getName(), "Broker connected");
    } catch (Exception ex) {
        LogService.error(this.getClass().getName(), ex);
    }
 }
}

MsgListener.java

@Component
public class MsgListener implements MessageListener {

@Override
public void onMessage(Message msg) {
    if (msg instanceof XMLMessage) {
        try {
            XMLMessage m = (XMLMessage) msg;
            if (m.getText().contains("Applications")) {
                LogService.info(this.getClass().getName(), "Recieved A Applications Message");
            } else {
                LogService.info(this.getClass().getName(), "Recieved Message Does not contain Applications Tag");
            }
        } catch (Exception ex) {
            LogService.info(this.getClass().getName(), "Exception: " + ex.getMessage());
        }
    }
 }
}

When, i run this code i get nullPointer at line jmsTopicListener.listenMessage() in Application.java.

What mistake i have made here? Is there a way i can improve this (I mean get the work done in less code maybe)?.

NOTE: com.mainpack have classes Application.java and ApplicationProp.java com.msgpack.jms have JmsTopicListener.java and MsgListner.java

Error From Logger:

ERROR [2015-07-14 14:34:52] [com.mainpack.Application] [localhost-startStop-1] - [Exception: ]java.lang.NullPointerException
    at com.mainpack.Application.onStartup(Application.java:33)
    at org.springframework.web.SpringServletContainerInitializer.onStartup(SpringServletContainerInitializer.java:175)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5156)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:725)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:701)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:717)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWAR(HostConfig.java:945)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployWar.run(HostConfig.java:1768)
    at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Unknown Source)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(Unknown Source)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Answer 1

onStartup is called by the servlet container very early in your application's lifecycle and is called on an instance of the class that was created by the servlet container, not Spring Boot. This is why jmsTopicListener is null.

Rather than overriding onStartup you could use a method annotated with @PostConstruct. It will be called by Spring once it's created an instance of Application and injected any dependencies:

@SpringBootApplication
@ComponentScan({"com.mainpack", "com.msgpack.jms"})
@EnableJms
public class Application extends SpringBootServletInitializer {

    @Autowired
    private JmsTopicListener jmsTopicListener;

    @Override
    protected SpringApplicationBuilder configure(SpringApplicationBuilder application) {
        return application.sources(Application.class);
    }

    @PostConstruct
    public void listen() { 
        jmsTopicListener.listenMessage();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ApplicationContext context = SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
        LogService.info(Application.class.getName(), "Service Started...");
    }
}