NullPointerException when initializing Spring data repository

Question

I have webapp with Spring, Hibernate/JPA and Spring Data. I created repositories that extends JpaRepository for some entitites and everything were just fine with default methods like .save(T) or saveAndFlush, findAll, even with findBy, if some field name is simple as id (findById) or findByRole - where Role is enum or findByActive where active is the boolean field in given Entity. But when I try to do the same with fields which are complex object, I get into the trouble. I have enetity named Person. Person have field

private User manager;

with getters/setters. when I try to put this in PersonRepository like:

public interface PersonRepository extends JpaRepository<Person, Long> {

    List<Person> findByManager(User manager);
}

I got an exception during app deploy:

Context initialization failed
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'PersonRepository': Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1512)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:521)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:458)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:296)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:223)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:293)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:194)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:610)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:932)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:479)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.configureAndRefreshWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:389)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:294)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:112)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:4973)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5467)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:901)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:877)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:632)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.manageApp(HostConfig.java:1740)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.modeler.BaseModelMBean.invoke(BaseModelMBean.java:301)
    at com.sun.jmx.interceptor.DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.invoke(DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.java:819)
    at com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer.invoke(JmxMBeanServer.java:801)
    at org.apache.catalina.mbeans.MBeanFactory.createStandardContext(MBeanFactory.java:618)
    at org.apache.catalina.mbeans.MBeanFactory.createStandardContext(MBeanFactory.java:565)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.modeler.BaseModelMBean.invoke(BaseModelMBean.java:301)
    at com.sun.jmx.interceptor.DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.invoke(DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.java:819)
    at com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer.invoke(JmxMBeanServer.java:801)
    at javax.management.remote.rmi.RMIConnectionImpl.doOperation(RMIConnectionImpl.java:1487)
    at javax.management.remote.rmi.RMIConnectionImpl.access$300(RMIConnectionImpl.java:97)
    at javax.management.remote.rmi.RMIConnectionImpl$PrivilegedOperation.run(RMIConnectionImpl.java:1328)
    at javax.management.remote.rmi.RMIConnectionImpl.doPrivilegedOperation(RMIConnectionImpl.java:1420)
    at javax.management.remote.rmi.RMIConnectionImpl.invoke(RMIConnectionImpl.java:848)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
    at sun.rmi.server.UnicastServerRef.dispatch(UnicastServerRef.java:322)
    at sun.rmi.transport.Transport$1.run(Transport.java:177)
    at sun.rmi.transport.Transport$1.run(Transport.java:174)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at sun.rmi.transport.Transport.serviceCall(Transport.java:173)
    at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport.handleMessages(TCPTransport.java:556)
    at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport$ConnectionHandler.run0(TCPTransport.java:811)
    at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport$ConnectionHandler.run(TCPTransport.java:670)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:744)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
    at org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.query.QueryUtils.getOrCreateJoin(QueryUtils.java:522)
    at org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.query.QueryUtils.toExpressionRecursively(QueryUtils.java:459)
    at org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.query.JpaQueryCreator$PredicateBuilder.build(JpaQueryCreator.java:199)
    at org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.query.JpaQueryCreator.toPredicate(JpaQueryCreator.java:146)
    at org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.query.JpaQueryCreator.create(JpaQueryCreator.java:86)
    at org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.query.JpaQueryCreator.create(JpaQueryCreator.java:44)
    at org.springframework.data.repository.query.parser.AbstractQueryCreator.createCriteria(AbstractQueryCreator.java:109)
    at org.springframework.data.repository.query.parser.AbstractQueryCreator.createQuery(AbstractQueryCreator.java:88)
    at org.springframework.data.repository.query.parser.AbstractQueryCreator.createQuery(AbstractQueryCreator.java:73)
    at org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.query.PartTreeJpaQuery$QueryPreparer.<init>(PartTreeJpaQuery.java:98)
    at org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.query.PartTreeJpaQuery$CountQueryPreparer.<init>(PartTreeJpaQuery.java:186)
    at org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.query.PartTreeJpaQuery.<init>(PartTreeJpaQuery.java:60)
    at org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.query.JpaQueryLookupStrategy$CreateQueryLookupStrategy.resolveQuery(JpaQueryLookupStrategy.java:91)
    at org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.query.JpaQueryLookupStrategy$CreateIfNotFoundQueryLookupStrategy.resolveQuery(JpaQueryLookupStrategy.java:162)
    at org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.query.JpaQueryLookupStrategy$AbstractQueryLookupStrategy.resolveQuery(JpaQueryLookupStrategy.java:69)
    at org.springframework.data.repository.core.support.RepositoryFactorySupport$QueryExecutorMethodInterceptor.<init>(RepositoryFactorySupport.java:304)
    at org.springframework.data.repository.core.support.RepositoryFactorySupport.getRepository(RepositoryFactorySupport.java:161)
    at org.springframework.data.repository.core.support.RepositoryFactoryBeanSupport.initAndReturn(RepositoryFactoryBeanSupport.java:224)
    at org.springframework.data.repository.core.support.RepositoryFactoryBeanSupport.afterPropertiesSet(RepositoryFactoryBeanSupport.java:210)
    at org.springframework.data.jpa.repository.support.JpaRepositoryFactoryBean.afterPropertiesSet(JpaRepositoryFactoryBean.java:84)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.invokeInitMethods(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1571)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1509)
    ... 55 more

I tried even something like: findByManagerId(Lond id); and some other combinations, all the same. Any ideas?

importanp parts from my pom.xml:

 <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-entitymanager</artifactId>
            <version>3.5.1-Final</version>
        </dependency>
   <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate.javax.persistence</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-jpa-2.0-api</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.1.Final</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.data</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-data-jpa</artifactId>
            <version>1.5.1.RELEASE</version>
        </dependency>

Answer 1

This solved my problem (stil dont know what is the thing with NullPointerException during the app init), but anyway, this helped (in my PersonRepository):

@Query("SELECT person from Person person where person.manager=:manager")
public List<Person> findByManager(@Param("manager")User manager);

and saved my day... I still think that should work without query and that NPE looks like a bug. Thanks guys!

Answer 2

This doesn't directly answer why you're getting the null pointer, but you could try making a custom implementation for that query instead. Read 1.3 of this documentation for info on how to do that.