Java Look and Feel settings cause java.lang.NullPointerExcerption or java.lang.NoSuchFieldError when trying to Start Discoverer from e-Business Suite

Last updated on OCTOBER 04, 2016

Applies to:

Symptoms

In E-Business Suite with any version of Discoverer,  when Discoverer Viewer or Plus is launched from E-BS with JInitiator, a Java exception error stack occurs :

"Exception found :

java.lang.NullPointerException

at oracle.apps.fnd.util.URLEncoder.encode(URLEncoder.java:60)

at _OracleOasis._jspService (_OracleOasis.java:662) .... "

This has been observed in e-BS 12.1.2 with Discoverer 10.1.2.3.

If JInitiator is used, it may also be observed that Discoverer pastes &LookAndFeelName=OracleLookAndFeel or &LookAndFeelName=BrowserLookAndFeel into the URL, causing JInitiator to deliver the following error message to the screen:

"Exception occurred during event dispatching: java.lang.NoSuchFieldError: LIGHT_GRAY" .

It is possible to reproduce the latter message by pasting &LookAndFeelName=OracleLookAndFeel manually into the URL.

This has been observed in e-BS 11.5.10.2 with Discoverer 10.1.2.2.

Changes

The first scenario was reproduced by upgrading e-Business Suite from 12.0.6 to 12.1.2. It could not be reproduced in 12.1.1.

The URL scenario has been reproduced by applying Discoverer 10.1.2.2 + Cumulative Patch 5.

However neither has anything to do with the Discoverer patch level or anything in Discoverer.
The issue is in the FND code and core e-BS configuration settings encountered by Discoverer.

Cause