NullPointerException @FindBy in PageObjectModel using ChromeDriver and Chrome through Selenium

Question

I am trying to implement PageObjectModel in Selenium. But I am getting NullPointer Exception at @FindBy. I hope someone can help me to identify my mistake. I created my Base class which sets config.properties file(it contains url,driver parameters) as well sets up driver. HomePage has object repository as well as actions and PageFactory is initialized. HomePageTest has all the tests. When I run the code, website is launched successfully. First test executes successfully. But at the second test it fails at FindBy.

Here is my code for reference.

Following is my Base class:

package com.seleniumEasy.qa.base;

import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Properties;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.edge.EdgeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.ie.InternetExplorerDriver;
import org.testng.annotations.AfterClass;
import org.testng.annotations.BeforeClass;
import org.testng.annotations.BeforeMethod;

import com.seleniumEasy.qa.commonUtility.*;

public class Base {

    public static WebDriver driver;
    public static Properties prop;
    
    @BeforeClass
    public void setBaseline()
    {
        try {
            setProperties("\\Devp\\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\\src\\main\\java\\com\\seleniumEasy\\qa\\config\\config.properties");
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        

        //setProperties("\\Devp\\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\\src\\main\\java\\com\\seleniumEasy\\qa\\config\\config.properties");
        setDriver();
    }
    /*@AfterClass
    public void tearDown()
    {
        driver.quit();
    }*/
    
    public static void setProperties(String sFilePath) throws IOException
    {
        prop = new Properties();
        FileInputStream fip = new FileInputStream(sFilePath);
        prop.load(fip);
    }
    
    public static void setDriver()
    {
        switch(prop.getProperty("browser").toLowerCase())
        {
            case "chrome":
                System.setProperty(prop.getProperty("chromekey"),prop.getProperty("chromedriverpath"));
                driver = new ChromeDriver();
                break;
            case "firefox":
                System.setProperty(prop.getProperty("firefoxkey"), prop.getProperty("firefoxdriverpath"));
                driver = new FirefoxDriver();
                break;
            case "ie":
                System.setProperty(prop.getProperty("iekey"),prop.getProperty("iedriverpath"));
                driver = new InternetExplorerDriver();
                break;
            case "edge":
                System.setProperty(prop.getProperty("edgekey"), prop.getProperty("edgedriverpath"));
                driver = new EdgeDriver();
                break;
            default:
                System.out.println("Driver does not exists: "+ prop.getProperty("browser"));
        }
        driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(commonUtil.Implicit_Wait, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
        //driver.manage().timeouts().pageLoadTimeout(commonUtil.PageLoad_Wait,TimeUnit.SECONDS);
        driver.get(prop.getProperty("url"));
        //driver.manage().window().maximize();
        if(driver.findElement(By.partialLinkText("No, thanks!")).isDisplayed())
            driver.findElement(By.partialLinkText("No, thanks!")).click();
    
    }
}

Following is my Page file

package com.seleniumEasy.qa.pages;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.FindBy;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.PageFactory;

import com.seleniumEasy.qa.base.Base;

public class HomePage extends Base {
    
    @FindBy(xpath="//*[@id=\"navbar-brand-centered\"]/ul[1]/li[1]/a")
    WebElement InputForm;
    
    @FindBy(css="#navbar-brand-centered > ul:nth-child(1) > li.dropdown.open")
    List<WebElement> InputFormLst;
    
    @FindBy(css="ul.nav.navbar-nav>li.dropdown.open>ul.dropdown-menu>li:first-of-type")
    WebElement simpleFormDemo;
    
    @FindBy(css="ul.nav.navbar-nav>li.dropdown.open>ul.dropdown-menu>li:nth-child(2)")
    WebElement checkBoxDemo;
    
    @FindBy(css="ul.nav.navbar-nav>li.dropdown.open>ul.dropdown-menu>li:nth-child(3)")
    WebElement radioBtnDemo;
    
    @FindBy(css="ul.nav.navbar-nav>li.dropdown.open>ul.dropdown-menu>li:nth-child(4)")
    WebElement dropDownLstDemo;
    
    @FindBy(css="ul.nav.navbar-nav>li.dropdown.open>ul.dropdown-menu>li:nth-child(5)")
    WebElement inputFrmSubmit;
    
    @FindBy(css="ul.nav.navbar-nav>li.dropdown.open>ul.dropdown-menu>li:nth-child(6)")
    WebElement ajaxForm;
    
    @FindBy(css="ul.nav.navbar-nav>li.dropdown.open>ul.dropdown-menu>li:nth-child(6)")
    WebElement jQuerySelect;
    
    List<WebElement> inputFormList = new ArrayList();
    
            
    public HomePage()
    {
        PageFactory.initElements(driver, this);     
    }
    
    public String validateTitle()
    {
        return driver.getTitle();
    }
    public SimpleForm validateSimpleFormDemo()
    {
        InputForm.click();
        //driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("div.navbar-collapse.collapse.in>ul.nav.navbar-nav>li.dropdown.open>a")).click();
        //driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[@id=\"navbar-brand-centered\"]/ul[1]/li[1]/a")).click();
        simpleFormDemo.click();
        return new SimpleForm();
    }
    
}

Following is my Test Page

package com.seleniumEasy.qa.Test;
import org.testng.Assert;
import org.testng.annotations.AfterMethod;
import org.testng.annotations.BeforeMethod;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;
import org.testng.asserts.SoftAssert;

import com.seleniumEasy.qa.base.Base;
import com.seleniumEasy.qa.pages.HomePage;
import com.seleniumEasy.qa.pages.SimpleForm;

public class HomePageTest extends Base {

    HomePage homePage;
    SoftAssert softAssert;
    public HomePageTest()
    {
        homePage = new HomePage();
        softAssert = new SoftAssert();
    }
    
    
    @Test(priority=1)
    public void validateLoginPage()
    {
        String sTitle = homePage.validateTitle();
        softAssert.assertEquals(sTitle, "Selenium Easy Demo");
    }
    @Test(priority=1)
    public void validateSimpleForm()
    {
        SimpleForm simpleForm = homePage.validateSimpleFormDemo();
        
    }
    
}

And here is the stacktrace

 Starting ChromeDriver 2.41.578737 (49da6702b16031c40d63e5618de03a32ff6c197e) on port 32000
Only local connections are allowed.
[1599758981.703][WARNING]: Timed out connecting to Chrome, retrying...
Sep 10, 2020 10:59:43 PM org.openqa.selenium.remote.ProtocolHandshake createSession
INFO: Detected dialect: OSS
[Utils] Attempting to create C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\Default suite\Default test.xml
[Utils]   Directory C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\Default suite exists: true
FAILED: validateSimpleForm
java.lang.NullPointerException
    at org.openqa.selenium.support.pagefactory.DefaultElementLocator.findElement(DefaultElementLocator.java:69)
    at org.openqa.selenium.support.pagefactory.internal.LocatingElementHandler.invoke(LocatingElementHandler.java:38)
    at com.sun.proxy.$Proxy8.click(Unknown Source)
    at com.seleniumEasy.qa.pages.HomePage.validateSimpleFormDemo(HomePage.java:66)
    at com.seleniumEasy.qa.Test.HomePageTest.validateSimpleForm(HomePageTest.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at org.testng.internal.MethodInvocationHelper.invokeMethod(MethodInvocationHelper.java:100)
    at org.testng.internal.Invoker.invokeMethod(Invoker.java:646)
    at org.testng.internal.Invoker.invokeTestMethod(Invoker.java:811)
    at org.testng.internal.Invoker.invokeTestMethods(Invoker.java:1129)
    at org.testng.internal.TestMethodWorker.invokeTestMethods(TestMethodWorker.java:129)
    at org.testng.internal.TestMethodWorker.run(TestMethodWorker.java:112)
    at org.testng.TestRunner.privateRun(TestRunner.java:746)
    at org.testng.TestRunner.run(TestRunner.java:600)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunner.runTest(SuiteRunner.java:366)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunner.runSequentially(SuiteRunner.java:361)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunner.privateRun(SuiteRunner.java:319)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunner.run(SuiteRunner.java:268)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunnerWorker.runSuite(SuiteRunnerWorker.java:52)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunnerWorker.run(SuiteRunnerWorker.java:86)
    at org.testng.TestNG.runSuitesSequentially(TestNG.java:1264)
    at org.testng.TestNG.runSuitesLocally(TestNG.java:1189)
    at org.testng.TestNG.runSuites(TestNG.java:1104)
    at org.testng.TestNG.run(TestNG.java:1076)
    at org.testng.remote.AbstractRemoteTestNG.run(AbstractRemoteTestNG.java:126)
    at org.testng.remote.RemoteTestNG.initAndRun(RemoteTestNG.java:152)
    at org.testng.remote.RemoteTestNG.main(RemoteTestNG.java:57)


===============================================
    Default test
    Tests run: 1, Failures: 1, Skips: 0
===============================================


===============================================
Default suite
Total tests run: 1, Failures: 1, Skips: 0
===============================================

[TestNG] Time taken by org.testng.reporters.EmailableReporter2@42d3bd8b: 8 ms
[Utils] Attempting to create C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\testng-failed.xml
[Utils]   Directory C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output exists: true
[Utils] Attempting to create C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\Default suite\testng-failed.xml
[Utils]   Directory C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\Default suite exists: true
[TestNG] Time taken by [FailedReporter passed=0 failed=0 skipped=0]: 9 ms
[Utils] Attempting to create C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old\Default suite\toc.html
[Utils]   Directory C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old\Default suite exists: true
[Utils] Attempting to create C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old\Default suite\Default test.properties
[Utils]   Directory C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old\Default suite exists: true
[Utils] Attempting to create C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old\Default suite\index.html
[Utils]   Directory C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old\Default suite exists: true
[Utils] Attempting to create C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old\Default suite\main.html
[Utils]   Directory C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old\Default suite exists: true
[Utils] Attempting to create C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old\Default suite\groups.html
[Utils]   Directory C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old\Default suite exists: true
[Utils] Attempting to create C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old\Default suite\classes.html
[Utils]   Directory C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old\Default suite exists: true
[Utils] Attempting to create C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old\Default suite\reporter-output.html
[Utils]   Directory C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old\Default suite exists: true
[Utils] Attempting to create C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old\Default suite\methods-not-run.html
[Utils]   Directory C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old\Default suite exists: true
[Utils] Attempting to create C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old\Default suite\testng.xml.html
[Utils]   Directory C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old\Default suite exists: true
[Utils] Attempting to create C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old\index.html
[Utils]   Directory C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\old exists: true
[TestNG] Time taken by org.testng.reporters.SuiteHTMLReporter@6cd8737: 41 ms
[TestNG] Time taken by org.testng.reporters.jq.Main@6aaa5eb0: 46 ms
[Utils] Attempting to create C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\junitreports\TEST-com.seleniumEasy.qa.Test.HomePageTest.xml
[Utils]   Directory C:\Arundhati\Devp\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\test-output\junitreports exists: true
[TestNG] Time taken by org.testng.reporters.JUnitReportReporter@3b81a1bc: 6 ms
[TestNG] Time taken by org.testng.reporters.XMLReporter@6b2fad11: 12 ms

Here is the eclipse view

Answer 1

This error message...

Starting ChromeDriver 2.41.578737 (49da6702b16031c40d63e5618de03a32ff6c197e) on port 32000
Only local connections are allowed.
[1599758981.703][WARNING]: Timed out connecting to Chrome, retrying...
Sep 10, 2020 10:59:43 PM org.openqa.selenium.remote.ProtocolHandshake createSession
INFO: Detected dialect: OSS

...implies that the ChromeDriver was unable to initiate/spawn a new Browsing Context i.e. Chrome Browser session.

Your main issue is the incompatibility between the version of the binaries you are using as follows:

• You are using chromedriver=2.41
• Release Notes of chromedriver=2.41 clearly mentions the following :

Supports Chrome v67-69

• Possibly you are using the latest chrome=85.0
• Release Notes of ChromeDriver v85.0 clearly mentions the following :

Supports Chrome version 85

So there is a clear mismatch between ChromeDriver v2.41 and the Chrome Browser v85.0

---

Solution

Ensure that:

• JDK is upgraded to current levels JDK 8u252.
• Selenium is upgraded to current released Version 3.141.59.
• ChromeDriver is updated to current ChromeDriver v84.0 level.
• Chrome is updated to current Chrome Version 85.0 level. (as per ChromeDriver v85.0 release notes)
• If your base Web Client version is too old, then uninstall it and install a recent GA and released version of Web Client.
• Clean your Project Workspace through your IDE and Rebuild your project with required dependencies only.
• Take a System Reboot.
• Execute your @Test as non-root user.
• Always invoke driver.quit() within tearDown(){} method to close & destroy the WebDriver and Web Client instances gracefully.

Answer 2

Finally I found a solution to my own problem. NullPointerException is thrown when the driver object is null when the PageFactory is initialized. The problem was before initializing the driver object I was calling PageFactory Initialization method. Thats why at the HomePage.java page in the constructor, driver was null. Here is the updated code. This is my Base class. I am initializing the cofig.properties file through the Base class constructor.

    /**
 * 
 */
package com.seleniumEasy.qa.base;

import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Properties;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.edge.EdgeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.ie.InternetExplorerDriver;
import org.testng.annotations.BeforeClass;
import org.testng.annotations.BeforeMethod;

import com.seleniumEasy.qa.commonUtility.*;

public class Base {

    public static WebDriver driver;
    public static Properties prop;
    
    
    public WebDriver getDriver()
    {
        return driver;
    }
    public Base()
    {
        try 
        {
            setProperties("\\Arundhati\\Devp\\SeleniumEasy_Maven_POM_DataDrivenProject\\src\\main\\java\\com\\seleniumEasy\\qa\\config\\config.properties");
        } catch (IOException e) 
        {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        
    }
    
    /*@AfterClass
    public void tearDown()
    {
        driver.quit();
    }*/
    
    public static void setProperties(String sFilePath) throws IOException
    {
        prop = new Properties();
        FileInputStream fip = new FileInputStream(sFilePath);
        prop.load(fip);
    }
    
    public static void setDriver()
    {
        
        if(prop.getProperty("browser").toLowerCase().equals("chrome"))
        {
            System.setProperty(prop.getProperty("chromekey"),prop.getProperty("chromedriverpath"));
            driver = new ChromeDriver();
        }
        else if(prop.getProperty("browser").toLowerCase().equals("firefox"))
        {
                System.setProperty(prop.getProperty("firefoxkey"), prop.getProperty("firefoxdriverpath"));
                driver = new FirefoxDriver();
        }
        else if(prop.getProperty("browser").toLowerCase().equals("ie"))
        {
            System.setProperty(prop.getProperty("iekey"),prop.getProperty("iedriverpath"));
            driver = new InternetExplorerDriver();
        }
        else if(prop.getProperty("browser").toLowerCase().equals("edge"))
        {
            System.setProperty(prop.getProperty("edgekey"), prop.getProperty("edgedriverpath"));
            driver = new EdgeDriver();
        }
        else
        {
            System.out.println("Driver does not exists: "+ prop.getProperty("browser"));
        }
        driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(commonUtil.Implicit_Wait, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
        //driver.manage().timeouts().pageLoadTimeout(commonUtil.PageLoad_Wait,TimeUnit.SECONDS);
        driver.get(prop.getProperty("url"));
        //driver.manage().window().maximize();
        if(driver.findElement(By.partialLinkText("No, thanks!")).isDisplayed())
            driver.findElement(By.partialLinkText("No, thanks!")).click();

            
    }
    
    public String getProperty(String key)
    {
        return prop.getProperty(key);
    }
}

Following is code for my HomePage.java. No change in this file.

    /**
     * 
     */
    package com.seleniumEasy.qa.pages;
    
    import java.util.List;
    
    import org.openqa.selenium.By;
    import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
    import org.openqa.selenium.support.FindBy;
    import org.openqa.selenium.support.PageFactory;
    
    import com.seleniumEasy.qa.base.Base;
    
    public class HomePage extends Base {
        
        @FindBy(xpath="//*[@id=\"navbar-brand-centered\"]/ul[1]/li[1]/a")
        WebElement InputForm;
        
        @FindBy(css="#navbar-brand-centered > ul:nth-child(1) > li.dropdown.open")
        List<WebElement> InputFormLst;
        
        @FindBy(css="ul.nav.navbar-nav>li.dropdown.open>ul.dropdown-menu>li:first-of-type")
        WebElement simpleFormDemo;
        
        @FindBy(css="ul.nav.navbar-nav>li.dropdown.open>ul.dropdown-menu>li:nth-child(2)")
        WebElement checkBoxDemo;
        
        @FindBy(css="ul.nav.navbar-nav>li.dropdown.open>ul.dropdown-menu>li:nth-child(3)")
        WebElement radioBtnDemo;
        
        @FindBy(css="ul.nav.navbar-nav>li.dropdown.open>ul.dropdown-menu>li:nth-child(4)")
        WebElement dropDownLstDemo;
        
        @FindBy(css="ul.nav.navbar-nav>li.dropdown.open>ul.dropdown-menu>li:nth-child(5)")
        WebElement inputFrmSubmit;
        
        @FindBy(css="ul.nav.navbar-nav>li.dropdown.open>ul.dropdown-menu>li:nth-child(6)")
        WebElement ajaxForm;
        
        @FindBy(css="ul.nav.navbar-nav>li.dropdown.open>ul.dropdown-menu>li:nth-child(6)")
        WebElement jQuerySelect;
        
        //List<WebElement> inputFormList = new ArrayList();
        
        
        public HomePage()
        {       
            PageFactory.initElements(driver, this);     
        }
        
        public String validateTitle()
        {
            return driver.getTitle();
        }
        public SimpleForm validateSimpleFormDemo()
        {
            
            InputForm.click();
            simpleFormDemo.click();
            return new SimpleForm();
        }
        
    }

Here is my HomePageTest file. I am calling the driver setup method following by creating the HomePage object in the BeforeClass annotation. No constructor in this class.

//package com.seleniumEasy.qa.testdata;
package com.seleniumEasy.qa.Test;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.PageFactory;
import org.testng.annotations.AfterClass;
import org.testng.annotations.AfterMethod;
import org.testng.annotations.BeforeClass;
import org.testng.annotations.BeforeMethod;
import org.testng.annotations.BeforeSuite;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;
import org.testng.asserts.SoftAssert;

import com.seleniumEasy.qa.base.Base;
import com.seleniumEasy.qa.pages.HomePage;
import com.seleniumEasy.qa.pages.SimpleForm;

public class HomePageTest extends Base {

    
    HomePage homePage;
    SoftAssert softAssert;
    
    @BeforeClass
    public void setUp()
    {
        setDriver();
        homePage = new HomePage();
        //PageFactory.initElements(driver, HomePage.class); 
        softAssert = new SoftAssert();
        
    }
    /*@AfterClass
    public void tearDown()
    {
        driver.quit();
    }*/
    @Test(priority='b')
    public void validateLoginPage()
    {
        String sTitle = homePage.validateTitle();
        softAssert.assertEquals(sTitle, "Selenium Easy Demo");
    }
    
    @Test(priority='a')
    public void validateSimpleForm()
    {
        SimpleForm simpleForm = homePage.validateSimpleFormDemo();
    }
    
}