Struts 2 and Custom Error Pages on WebSphere Application Server 8 (WAS 8)

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11868692

Question

We're migrating our servers from WAS 7 to WAS 8 and facing an issue that does not happen in WAS 7: if an invalid URL is requested, WAS 7 responds with the custom error page we set in web.xml, which is a JSP and use Struts Tags. In WAS 8, however, it does not, and shows up the error page / stack trace below. It only happens if the invalid URL doesn't have the default struts extension, so I believe the issue is on web.xml configuration, whose snippets are show after the error page.



ERROR PAGE / STACK TRACE

Error Page Exception
SRVE0260E: The server cannot use the error page specified for your application to handle the Original Exception printed below.

Original Exception:
Error Message: javax.servlet.ServletException: java.io.FileNotFoundException: SRVE0190E: File not found: /whatever
Error Code: 404
Target Servlet: com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.extension.DefaultExtensionProcessor
Error Stack:
java.io.FileNotFoundException: SRVE0190E: File not found: /whatever
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.extension.DefaultExtensionProcessor._processEDR(DefaultExtensionProcessor.java:874)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.extension.DefaultExtensionProcessor.processEDR(DefaultExtensionProcessor.java:855)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.extension.DefaultExtensionProcessor.handleRequest(DefaultExtensionProcessor.java:433)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.invokeTarget(WebAppFilterChain.java:125)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:92)
     at org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.FilterDispatcher.doFilter(FilterDispatcher.java:389)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.FilterInstanceWrapper.doFilter(FilterInstanceWrapper.java:192)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:89)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.doFilter(WebAppFilterManager.java:919)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.invokeFilters(WebAppFilterManager.java:1016)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.handleRequest(WebApp.java:3703)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebGroup.handleRequest(WebGroup.java:304)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.WebContainer.handleRequest(WebContainer.java:953)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.WSWebContainer.handleRequest(WSWebContainer.java:1655)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.channel.WCChannelLink.ready(WCChannelLink.java:195)
     at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.handleDiscrimination(HttpInboundLink.java:452)
     at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.handleNewRequest(HttpInboundLink.java:511)
     at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.processRequest(HttpInboundLink.java:305)
     at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.ready(HttpInboundLink.java:276)
     at com.ibm.ws.tcp.channel.impl.NewConnectionInitialReadCallback.sendToDiscriminators(NewConnectionInitialReadCallback.java:214)
     at com.ibm.ws.tcp.channel.impl.NewConnectionInitialReadCallback.complete(NewConnectionInitialReadCallback.java:113)
     at com.ibm.ws.tcp.channel.impl.AioReadCompletionListener.futureCompleted(AioReadCompletionListener.java:165)
     at com.ibm.io.async.AbstractAsyncFuture.invokeCallback(AbstractAsyncFuture.java:217)
     at com.ibm.io.async.AsyncChannelFuture.fireCompletionActions(AsyncChannelFuture.java:161)
     at com.ibm.io.async.AsyncFuture.completed(AsyncFuture.java:138)
     at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.complete(ResultHandler.java:204)
     at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.runEventProcessingLoop(ResultHandler.java:775)
     at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler$2.run(ResultHandler.java:905)
     at com.ibm.ws.util.ThreadPool$Worker.run(ThreadPool.java:1650)



Error Page Exception:
Error Message: The Struts dispatcher cannot be found. This is usually caused by using Struts tags without the associated filter. Struts tags are only usable when the request has passed through its servlet filter, which initializes the Struts dispatcher needed for this tag. - [unknown location]
Error Code: 0
Target Servlet:
Error Stack:
The Struts dispatcher cannot be found. This is usually caused by using Struts tags without the associated filter. Struts tags are only usable when the request has passed through its servlet filter, which initializes the Struts dispatcher needed for this tag. - [unknown location]
     at org.apache.struts2.views.jsp.TagUtils.getStack(TagUtils.java:60)
     at org.apache.struts2.views.jsp.StrutsBodyTagSupport.getStack(StrutsBodyTagSupport.java:44)
     at org.apache.struts2.views.jsp.ComponentTagSupport.doStartTag(ComponentTagSupport.java:48)
     at com.ibm._jsp._error404._jspx_meth_s_i18n_0(_error404.java:374)
     at com.ibm._jsp._error404._jspService(_error404.java:108)
     at com.ibm.ws.jsp.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:99)
     at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:668)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:1152)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.handleRequest(ServletWrapper.java:722)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper.handleRequest(ServletWrapper.java:449)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapperImpl.handleRequest(ServletWrapperImpl.java:178)
     at com.ibm.wsspi.webcontainer.servlet.GenericServletWrapper.handleRequest(GenericServletWrapper.java:122)
     at com.ibm.ws.jsp.webcontainerext.AbstractJSPExtensionServletWrapper.handleRequest(AbstractJSPExtensionServletWrapper.java:205)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.invokeTarget(WebAppFilterChain.java:125)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:77)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.doFilter(WebAppFilterManager.java:919)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterManager.invokeFilters(WebAppFilterManager.java:1016)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppRequestDispatcher.dispatch(WebAppRequestDispatcher.java:1384)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebAppRequestDispatcher.forward(WebAppRequestDispatcher.java:193)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.sendError(WebApp.java:3206)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.handleException(WebApp.java:3733)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebApp.handleRequest(WebApp.java:3714)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.webapp.WebGroup.handleRequest(WebGroup.java:304)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.WebContainer.handleRequest(WebContainer.java:953)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.WSWebContainer.handleRequest(WSWebContainer.java:1655)
     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.channel.WCChannelLink.ready(WCChannelLink.java:195)
     at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.handleDiscrimination(HttpInboundLink.java:452)
     at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.handleNewRequest(HttpInboundLink.java:511)
     at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.processRequest(HttpInboundLink.java:305)
     at com.ibm.ws.http.channel.inbound.impl.HttpInboundLink.ready(HttpInboundLink.java:276)
     at com.ibm.ws.tcp.channel.impl.NewConnectionInitialReadCallback.sendToDiscriminators(NewConnectionInitialReadCallback.java:214)
     at com.ibm.ws.tcp.channel.impl.NewConnectionInitialReadCallback.complete(NewConnectionInitialReadCallback.java:113)
     at com.ibm.ws.tcp.channel.impl.AioReadCompletionListener.futureCompleted(AioReadCompletionListener.java:165)
     at com.ibm.io.async.AbstractAsyncFuture.invokeCallback(AbstractAsyncFuture.java:217)
     at com.ibm.io.async.AsyncChannelFuture.fireCompletionActions(AsyncChannelFuture.java:161)
     at com.ibm.io.async.AsyncFuture.completed(AsyncFuture.java:138)
     at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.complete(ResultHandler.java:204)
     at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler.runEventProcessingLoop(ResultHandler.java:775)
     at com.ibm.io.async.ResultHandler$2.run(ResultHandler.java:905)
     at com.ibm.ws.util.ThreadPool$Worker.run(ThreadPool.java:1650)

WEB.XML SNIPPETS

<filter>
    <filter-name>struts-cleanup</filter-name>
    <filter-class>org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.ActionContextCleanUp</filter-class>
</filter>

<filter>
    <filter-name>struts2</filter-name>
    <filter-class>org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.FilterDispatcher</filter-class>
</filter>

<filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>struts2</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>

<error-page>
    <error-code>404</error-code>
    <location>/error/error404.jsp</location>
</error-page>
<error-page>
    <error-code>500</error-code>
    <location>/error/error500.jsp</location>
</error-page>

Since it works fine on WAS 7, I'm wondering what am I missing? Is there any configuration change required to have struts handling custom error pages on WAS 8? Note that we're still using the very same configuration files and still pointing to 2.4 servlet, as this snippet shows:

<web-app id="WebApp_ID" version="2.4" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee" 
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee
         http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd">
Was it helpful?

Solution

After contacting product support the solution was to add an additional mapping to web.xml to have the ERROR dispatcher also mapped to Struts filter, as:

<filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>struts2</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/error/*</url-pattern>
    <dispatcher>ERROR</dispatcher>
</filter-mapping>

It seems that, in absence of a mapping for specific dispatchers, WAS 7 uses the default, while WAS 8 does not pass the request to any filter (as there's no mapping).

OTHER TIPS

I had the same problem during migration from WAS 6.1 to WAS 8.5 with custom error pages containing Struts2 tags.

Because you use Struts2 tags, you have to define your JSP in struts.xml. See examples below.

web.xml:

<error-page>
    <error-code>403/error-code>
    <location>/error403.html</location>  
</error-page>

struts.xml:

<constant name="struts.action.extension" value="html, jsp" />
...
<package name="globals" extends="struts-default" namespace="/">
    ...
    <action name="error403">
        <result>/WEB-INF/pages/error/403.jsp</result>
    </action>
    ...
</package>

Did you try to set the com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.invokeFiltersCompatibility to true?

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