SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

2449367 - Attempting to send an ad-hoc notification in LMS with certain characters causes a java.lang.NullPointerException error

Symptom

  • Sending ad-hoc notification when footer notification is specified for Organization causes an error: java.lang.NullPointerException
  • Admins attempting to send notifications via User Record using "Send Notification" receive a java.lang.NullPointerException error if the User belongs to an Organization that has a Notification footer specified

Environment

  • SAP SuccessFactors
  • Learning Management System (LMS)

Reproducing the Issue

Create Notification Template:

  1. Login as Learning Admin
  2. Navigate to System Admin > Configuration > Notification Templates
  3. Create a new Notification Template
  4. Message body contains special character such as "İşi"
  5. Save changes

Create Organization Footer:

  1. Navigate to User > Organizations
  2. Create new Organization (or edit an existing one)
  3. On "Summary" tab, add "Notification Footer"
  4. Add any footer - example:
    • <html><p><a href="https://help.sap.com">Find more info</a></p></html>

Send Notification to User:

  1. Navigate to Users
  2. Search for a User
  3. Make sure they belong to the Organization created above (w/the footer)
  4. Click "Send Notification" in the right menu
  5. Find Template that you created above
  6. Click "Launch Editor" and copy source code for template
  7. Close editor
  8. Paste source code into message body
  9. Select a "From" email address
  10. Attempt to send

Error produced:

java.lang.NullPointerException: while trying to invoke the method com.plateau.common.mail.api.MailVO.setLastUpdateUser(java.lang.String) of a null object loaded from local variable 'mailVO'

Cause

Product Engineering has confirmed that this is caused by an issue with JAVA APIs dealing with certain characters and is not an issue with the LMS application

Resolution

  • It is recommended to avoid using the characters causing the issue
  • An ongoing Enhancement exists to work with the JAVA APIs limitations, but there is no confirmation on if and when this can be done

Keywords

SF SuccessFactors LMS Learning Management System java error null pointer exception notification footer organization header source code special characters turkish german java.lang.NullPointerException: while trying to invoke the method com.plateau.common.mail.api.MailVO.setLastUpdateUser(java.lang.String) of a null object loaded from local variable 'mailVO' LRN-17293 , KBA , LOD-SF-LMS-NOT , Notifications , Problem

Product

SAP SuccessFactors Learning all versions