Saxon XSLT 9.2 throws NullPointerException for config file in Eclipse STS

Question

I've been using the Xalan XSLT processor in Eclipse STS 3.7, but I recently switched to Saxon 9.2 (Home Edition). In Eclipse Preferences, I switched the processor and set the JAR file to saxon9he.jar, but without a debugger. When I execute a transformation from Eclipse, I keep getting this exception. It appears to be complaining about a config file edition.properties, but I've checked the Saxon package I downloaded with the jar binaries and there is no such file. I also downloaded the Saxon Eclipse plugin just to see if that config file is part of the plugin, but it ain't.

Unfortunately, we have a 3rd party product that uses Saxon internally, so I'm forced to get this to work in Eclipse to make sure our integration with the product produces expected results, otherwise, I would have stuck with Xalan.

java.lang.NullPointerException
    at net.sf.saxon.Configuration.<clinit>(Configuration.java:231)
    at net.sf.saxon.TransformerFactoryImpl.<init>(TransformerFactoryImpl.java:36)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:27)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:513)
    at java.lang.Class.newInstance0(Class.java:355)
    at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:308)
    at javax.xml.transform.FactoryFinder.newInstance(FactoryFinder.java:147)
    at javax.xml.transform.FactoryFinder.find(FactoryFinder.java:187)
    at javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory.newInstance(TransformerFactory.java:102)
    at org.eclipse.wst.xsl.jaxp.debug.invoker.internal.JAXPSAXProcessorInvoker.createTransformerFactory(JAXPSAXProcessorInvoker.java:92)
    at org.eclipse.wst.xsl.jaxp.debug.invoker.internal.JAXPSAXProcessorInvoker.setAttributes(JAXPSAXProcessorInvoker.java:79)
    at org.eclipse.wst.xsl.jaxp.debug.invoker.PipelineDefinition.configure(PipelineDefinition.java:143)
    at org.eclipse.wst.xsl.jaxp.debug.invoker.internal.Main.main(Main.java:72)
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
    at net.sf.saxon.TransformerFactoryImpl.<init>(TransformerFactoryImpl.java:36)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:27)
    at javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory.newInstance(TransformerFactory.java:102)
    at org.eclipse.wst.xsl.jaxp.debug.invoker.internal.JAXPSAXProcessorInvoker.createTransformerFactory(JAXPSAXProcessorInvoker.java:92)
    at org.eclipse.wst.xsl.jaxp.debug.invoker.internal.JAXPSAXProcessorInvoker.setAttributes(JAXPSAXProcessorInvoker.java:79)
    at org.eclipse.wst.xsl.jaxp.debug.invoker.PipelineDefinition.configure(PipelineDefinition.java:143)
    at org.eclipse.wst.xsl.jaxp.debug.invoker.internal.Main.main(Main.java:72)
Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: Failed to load configuration defined in edition.properties
    at net.sf.saxon.Configuration.<clinit>(Configuration.java:277)
    ... 14 more
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
    at net.sf.saxon.Configuration.<clinit>(Configuration.java:231)
    ... 14 more

Answer 1

I managed to get this working after recreating the Saxon XSLT parser configuration under Preferences, and restarting Eclipse. I believe Eclipse was holding on to some old configuration that may have tripped up the Saxon initialization. Works now, go figure..

Answer 2

There have been a couple of bugs in Saxon relating to failure to load the edition.properties file in environments such as Eclipse and eXist that do highly customized class loading. See here:

https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=3043783&group_id=29872&atid=397617

and this discussion thread:

http://saxon.markmail.org/thread/wwljuixdww6fhd7w

As far as I am aware the problem has been fixed for some time. If you have a good reason to want to use the 9.2 branch, use the latest maintenance release on that branch which is 9.2.1.5. Otherwise, the latest Saxon release is 9.4.0.2, and the most stable is 9.3.0.11.

And do feel free to use the Saxon help list (on Sourceforge), where you will always get a response from Saxon developers. Asking here, it's a matter of chance whether we see the posting or not.