500 Servlet Exception

[Simon]

Since Hero Games was brought over to my server, I've received sporadic reports of some folks getting a 500 servlet exception when they try to access the home page. This has been a very odd error to track down, as it seems to have affected less than 1% of the total users and goes away when the user hits refresh in their browser.

Anyway, we're still not sure what's causing the error, but we've decided to try upgrading the servlet engine that we're using (we're now running with the most recent build of Resin, for those that are interested). With luck, this will fix the issue.

Since I am unable to replicate the problem on any of the machines that I use, it will help me quite a bit if anyone who was getting the error previously could let me know if they're still seeing it.

Thanks in advance!

[Blue]

You know that's odd you should post this now.

I traditionally visit the front page and have no issues. If I need to login (to post) I go in through the discussion boards. Someone just suggested to me that I could change my chat handle by through Preferences on the front page. But when I went there, it only had the LOG IN link. I was already logged in according to the boards, so I thought it was odd. I went ahead and logged in and visited preferences and when I tried to save it told me it was unable to perform the action.

When I tried to return to the front page, I got the error you just mentioned. Total amature guess (Knowing nothing about these systems): Is there a possible conflict between the login for the boards and the one for the main page of Hero's site?

It's working now, so I'd just assumed my issue was because you had taken the site down for a moment or something.

If I'm way off base just ignore me. Everybody does! :0

[Simon]

Originally posted by Blue
You know that's odd you should post this now.

I traditionally visit the front page and have no issues. If I need to login (to post) I go in through the discussion boards. Someone just suggested to me that I could change my chat handle by through Preferences on the front page. But when I went there, it only had the LOG IN link. I was already logged in according to the boards, so I thought it was odd. I went ahead and logged in and visited preferences and when I tried to save it told me it was unable to perform the action.

When I tried to return to the front page, I got the error you just mentioned. Total amature guess (Knowing nothing about these systems): Is there a possible conflict between the login for the boards and the one for the main page of Hero's site?

It's working now, so I'd just assumed my issue was because you had taken the site down for a moment or something.

If I'm way off base just ignore me. Everybody does! :0
The boards and the chat use different logins....the boards are driven off of PHP which accesses a mySQL database. The chat (and the online store and the rest of the site) are driven off of JSP which accesses a postGreSQL database.

When Hero first switched over to the new server, I had hoped to link everything in together, but because of the way that vBulletin (the forum software) is setup, this was not possible...so there are two logins.

The good news is that you can set both to "auto login" if you want....then you never really need to worry about it.

As for the error, you guessed correct: we were in the process of changing out the server...so there was a period of about 10 minutes when all the JSP pages on the server were inaccessible....

[TechnoViking]

I only see the 500 error when I connect to the Hero Games web site for the first time on a machine.

[Blue]

I suspected as much. I'm just lookin' for problems that aint there ;)

[Tom]

Still getting it. I usually don't think about, since I only go to the home page about once a week and hitting F5 isn't a big deal.

I think the "problem" did finally disappear, but I've replaced my hard drive and OS and the problem showed back up. (was on Win98, now on WinXP).

[Simon]

OK...this may just have to be something folks get used to then. It's not affecting everyone...not by a longshot. From what I'm seeing in the logs, it's less than 1%.

Now...for those that are still seeing it, let's do some experimenting, if you'll humor me:

1. Go to http://www.herogames.com and verify that you're getting the exception

2. Go to http://www.herocentral.net and see if you get the same thing

Let me know what happens.

[lemming]

500 Servlet Exception

java.lang.NullPointerException
at _login__jsp._jspService(/login.jsp:5)
at com.caucho.jsp.JavaPage.service(JavaPage.java:75)
at com.caucho.jsp.Page.subservice(Page.java:506)
at com.caucho.server.http.FilterChainPage.doFilter(Fi lterChainPage.java:182)
at com.caucho.server.http.Invocation.service(Invocati on.java:315)
at com.caucho.server.http.CacheInvocation.service(Cac heInvocation.java:135)
at com.caucho.server.http.QRequestDispatcher.forward( QRequestDispatcher.java:222)
at com.caucho.server.http.QRequestDispatcher.forward( QRequestDispatcher.java:103)
at com.caucho.server.http.QRequestDispatcher.forward( QRequestDispatcher.java:80)
at com.caucho.jsp.QPageContext.forward(QPageContext.j ava:577)
at _index__jsp._jspService(_index__jsp.java:165)
at com.caucho.jsp.JavaPage.service(JavaPage.java:75)
at com.caucho.jsp.Page.subservice(Page.java:506)
at com.caucho.server.http.FilterChainPage.doFilter(Fi lterChainPage.java:182)
at com.caucho.server.http.Invocation.service(Invocati on.java:315)
at com.caucho.server.http.CacheInvocation.service(Cac heInvocation.java:135)
at com.caucho.server.http.RunnerRequest.handleRequest (RunnerRequest.java:344)
at com.caucho.server.http.RunnerRequest.handleConnect ion(RunnerRequest.java:274)
at com.caucho.server.TcpConnection.run(TcpConnection. java:139)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:536)

At herocentral; It just happens whenever the first time I use a browser at one of the sites. I reload and everything is fine. I think if I discard my cookies or cache, it happens again.

[Jhamin]

Originally posted by lemming
At herocentral; It just happens whenever the first time I use a browser at one of the sites. I reload and everything is fine. I think if I discard my cookies or cache, it happens again.

I get this exact same behavior.

The first time I get the error, but reloading fixes it.

I know this happens whenever I access the site from a new machine.

[Simon]

OK...that cache comment may help.

Please try it one more time and let me know if you're still seeing it. I've made a slight tweak to the login page.

If I'm right, then the problem looks like an issue with your browser passing back an invalid response when the server requests the cookies that it has for the site. I've got a fix in for this issue in the code now.

Thanks (in advance) for the help!

[Ndreare]

As a person who acsesses these boards from many differnt computers I have had this problem. It seems to me that the problem is gone rite now as I have not had this problem on either three computers today.

[Ndreare]

It only figures after posting that I get the servlet message again.

Sorry still there.

[Simon]

Originally posted by Ndreare
It only figures after posting that I get the servlet message again.

Sorry still there.
Please post the message that you get (like lemming did above). I know it's a lot of text, but it helps me track down where the issue is.

[Ndreare]

Just posting so you know I am not ignoring you.

I will post the complete message as soon as I get the message again.

[Fur Face]

Hey D-man,

I used to get the same problem every time I opened a browser, but now its gone! And there was much rejoicing! :p