AssetRenderer fails for Journal/Web Content utilising template when embeded in custom portlet due to incorrect class loader

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 6.1.0 CE RC1, 6.1.0 CE GA1, 6.2.0 CE M2
• Fix Version/s: 6.1.1 CE GA2, 6.1.20 EE GA2, 6.2.0 CE M2
• Component/s: WCM, WCM > Asset Publisher, WCM > Web Content Administration
• Labels:
  • QA-R
• Branch Version/s:
  6.1.x
• Backported to Branch:
  Committed
• Fix Priority: 5
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Description:

Using the AssetRenderer to display Journal/Web Content in a custom portlet results in a null pointer when the Web Content has an associated Template.

This is because the template parser com.liferay.portal.kernel.templateparser.BaseTransformer attempts to lookup the Template Parser with the following code:

Line 147 of BaseTransformer.java
templateParser =(TemplateParser)InstanceFactory.newInstance(templateParserClassName);

This results in the InstanceFactory getting the class loader from the current thread:
Line 47 of InstanceFactory.java
Thread currentThread = Thread.currentThread();

The class loader for the current thread will be the class loader for the custom portlet, thus the expected classes will not be available and an exception:
com.liferay.portal.kernel.templateparser.TransformException:
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.liferay.portlet.journal.util.VelocityTemplateParser

will be generated.

Fortunately the InstanceFactory.newInstance(..) call can be passed a class loader, so modification of
Line 147 of BaseTransformer.java to:

templateParser=(TemplateParser)InstanceFactory.newInstance(
PortalClassLoaderUtil.getClassLoader(),
templateParserClassName);

i.e. passing in the PortalClassLoader fixes the issue.

Step to reproduce:

1. Create a structure and template for web content.
2. Add an instance of web content using the new structure and template.
3. Write a custom portlet that attempt to display the data using the AssetRenderer in FULL, i.e. AssetRenderer.TEMPLATE_FULL_CONTENT

example code:

<%
AssetRendererFactory af = AssetRendererFactoryRegistryUtil.getAssetRendererFactoryByClassName( JournalArticle.class.getName());

AssetRenderer assetRenderer=af.getAssetRenderer('articleId');
String renderPath=assetRenderer.render(portletRequest, portletResponse, AssetRenderer.TEMPLATE_FULL_CONTENT);
String renderPortletId = AssetRendererFactoryRegistryUtil.getAssetRendererFactoryByClassName( JournalArticle.class.getName()).getPortletId()
<liferay-util:include page="<%=renderPath%>" portletId="<%=renderPortletId %>" />

4. View custom portlet (sometimes it will work on the first view)
5. Refresh page - null pointer will occur in "html\portlet\journal\asset\full_content.jsp" at line 43 as the articleDisplay object is null due to the above exception.

[Ben K]

This issue is a pretty big deal; it actually affects any call to JournalContentUtil (e.g. even getDisplay )

It prevents developers from programatically retrieving any content.

[Milen Dyankov]

Just ran into this issue while attempting to get article's content in my portlet. I really hope this will get fixed in 6.1 GA. And here is another simple way to reproduce (Liferay 6.1rc1, Tomcat bundle), just add:

String content = JournalArticleServiceUtil.getArticleContent(
						groupId, 
						articleId, 
						themeDisplay.getLanguageId(), 
						themeDisplay);

in a custom portlet. Then when executed :

com.liferay.portal.kernel.exception.SystemException: com.liferay.portal.kernel.templateparser.TransformException: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.liferay.portlet.journal.util.VelocityTemplateParser
	at com.liferay.portlet.journal.service.impl.JournalArticleLocalServiceImpl.getArticleDisplay(JournalArticleLocalServiceImpl.java:1075)
	at com.liferay.portlet.journal.service.impl.JournalArticleLocalServiceImpl.getArticleDisplay(JournalArticleLocalServiceImpl.java:1113)
	at com.liferay.portlet.journal.service.impl.JournalArticleLocalServiceImpl.getArticleDisplay(JournalArticleLocalServiceImpl.java:1123)
	at com.liferay.portlet.journal.service.impl.JournalArticleLocalServiceImpl.getArticleDisplay(JournalArticleLocalServiceImpl.java:1158)
	at com.liferay.portlet.journal.service.impl.JournalArticleLocalServiceImpl.getArticleContent(JournalArticleLocalServiceImpl.java:877)
	at com.liferay.portlet.journal.service.impl.JournalArticleLocalServiceImpl.getArticleContent(JournalArticleLocalServiceImpl.java:888)
[SKIPPED]

[Robert Kornmesser]

Previewing any webcontent with a non-default vm-template causes this error, too.

[James Falkner]

Able to reproduce this issue in 6.1.0 GA1. Assigning to support-qa.

[Michael Saechang]

Committed on:
6.1.x GIT ID: 1d3be829596a137ea72b1a2346bce8f4e092267c.
6.2.x GIT ID: 1d3be829596a137ea72b1a2346bce8f4e092267c.

[Mark Jin]

PASSED Manual Testing following the steps in the description.

Fixed on:
Tomcat 7.0 + MySQL 5. 6.1.x GIT ID: 4166a5e8894ce3c6024bfc549545e5fc74c1320c.
Tomcat 7.0 + MySQL 5. 6.2.x GIT ID: 6535813184f8681e14487b205c17df1caee259d0.