using extension mapping with 3.2.3

[Nic Ferrier <nf...@tf1.tapsellferrier.co.uk>]

Hi people...

I'm getting pretty frustrated with Tomcat and path mappings.

I'm using 3.2.3 (client requirement - sorry) and I've had several
problems most of which I've managed to work round in one way or
another.

However, I've got a problem with extension mapping that I just can't
get to the bottom of. 

I've got a webapp mapped to "/colman". The webapp is just some
servlets and JSPs. Nothing particulary complicated except that the
default mapping (/*) is mapped to a webapp servlet instead of being
left to tomcat (this is to fix tomcat's welcome file -> servlet
dispatch problem).


Here's my web.xml extract:


  <servlet>
    <servlet-name>collateral-uploader</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>perception.colman.UploadServlet</servlet-class>
    <load-on-startup>-1</load-on-startup>
  </servlet>

  .
  .
  .

  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>collateral-uploader</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>*.upload</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>


So call the servlet from a browser with the path:

   /colman/anything.upload

should work right? Not with tomcat... I get the following:

  2001-10-14 18:19:26 - Ctx( /colman ): 
	   Exception in: R( /colman +  + /new.upload) 
	      - java.lang.NullPointerException
  at perception.colman.ColServer.doGet(ColServer.java:73)
  at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:740)
  at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:853)
  at org.apache.tomcat.core.ServletWrapper.doService(ServletWrapper.java:405)
  at org.apache.tomcat.core.Handler.service(Handler.java:287)
  at org.apache.tomcat.core.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:372)
  at org.apache.tomcat.core.ContextManager.internalService(ContextManager.java:812)
  at org.apache.tomcat.core.ContextManager.service(ContextManager.java:758)
  at org.apache.tomcat.service.http.HttpConnectionHandler.processConnection(HttpConnectionHandler.java:213)
  at org.apache.tomcat.service.TcpWorkerThread.runIt(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:416)
  at org.apache.tomcat.util.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:501)
  at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:475)


It looks to me like Tomcat is just broken... but then I can't really
believe that...

Anyone got an idea?


Nic Ferrier