Writing Good Error Messages is hard

Providing your users with good error messages is hard. This is much better than nothing, but I have no idea of what went wrong and/or if can do something about it. And that stack trace is kinda long! This is from GeoServer 2.2.2. `

Oops, something went wrong…

Sorry, something unexpected happened on the server.

Here’s an error report you can include in a JIRA bug report about this issue: java.lang.NullPointerException at org.geoserver.catalog.impl.DataStoreInfoImpl.getDataStore(DataStoreInfoImpl.java:37) at org.geoserver.web.data.store.DataAccessNewPage.onSaveDataStore(DataAccessNewPage.java:91) at org.geoserver.web.data.store.AbstractDataAccessPage$1.onSubmit(AbstractDataAccessPage.java:162) at org.apache.wicket.ajax.markup.html.form.AjaxSubmitLink$1.onSubmit(AjaxSubmitLink.java:68) at org.apache.wicket.ajax.form.AjaxFormSubmitBehavior.onEvent(AjaxFormSubmitBehavior.java:143) at org.apache.wicket.ajax.AjaxEventBehavior.respond(AjaxEventBehavior.java:177) at org.apache.wicket.ajax.AbstractDefaultAjaxBehavior.onRequest(AbstractDefaultAjaxBehavior.java:300) at org.apache.wicket.request.target.component.listener.BehaviorRequestTarget.processEvents(BehaviorRequestTarget.java:119) at org.apache.wicket.request.AbstractRequestCycleProcessor.processEvents(AbstractRequestCycleProcessor.java:92) at org.apache.wicket.RequestCycle.processEventsAndRespond(RequestCycle.java:1250) at org.apache.wicket.RequestCycle.step(RequestCycle.java:1329) at org.apache.wicket.RequestCycle.steps(RequestCycle.java:1436) at org.apache.wicket.RequestCycle.request(RequestCycle.java:545) at org.apache.wicket.protocol.http.WicketFilter.doGet(WicketFilter.java:484) at org.apache.wicket.protocol.http.WicketServlet.doPost(WicketServlet.java:160) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:727) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:820) at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.ServletWrappingController.handleRequestInternal(ServletWrappingController.java:159) at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.AbstractController.handleRequest(AbstractController.java:153) at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.SimpleControllerHandlerAdapter.handle(SimpleControllerHandlerAdapter.java:48) at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:923) at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:852) at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:882) at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doPost(FrameworkServlet.java:789) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:727) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:820) at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder.handle(ServletHolder.java:487) at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1093) at org.geoserver.filters.ThreadLocalsCleanupFilter.doFilter(ThreadLocalsCleanupFilter.java:23) at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1084) at org.geoserver.filters.SpringDelegatingFilter$Chain.doFilter(SpringDelegatingFilter.java:74) at org.geoserver.filters.SpringDelegatingFilter.doFilter(SpringDelegatingFilter.java:45) at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1084) at org.geoserver.platform.AdvancedDispatchFilter.doFilter(AdvancedDispatchFilter.java:49) at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1084) at org.vfny.geoserver.filters.SetCharacterEncodingFilter.doFilter(SetCharacterEncodingFilter.java:109) at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1084) at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:311) at org.geoserver.security.filter.GeoServerCompositeFilter$NestedFilterChain.doFilter(GeoServerCompositeFilter.java:68) at org.springframework.security.web.access.intercept.FilterSecurityInterceptor.invoke(FilterSecurityInterceptor.java:116) at org.springframework.security.web.access.intercept.FilterSecurityInterceptor.doFilter(FilterSecurityInterceptor.java:83) at org.geoserver.security.filter.GeoServerCompositeFilter$NestedFilterChain.doFilter(GeoServerCompositeFilter.java:72) at org.geoserver.security.filter.GeoServerCompositeFilter.doFilter(GeoServerCompositeFilter.java:91) at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:323) at org.geoserver.security.filter.GeoServerCompositeFilter$NestedFilterChain.doFilter(GeoServerCompositeFilter.java:68) at org.springframework.security.web.access.ExceptionTranslationFilter.doFilter(ExceptionTranslationFilter.java:113) at org.geoserver.security.filter.GeoServerCompositeFilter$NestedFilterChain.doFilter(GeoServerCompositeFilter.java:72) at org.geoserver.security.filter.GeoServerCompositeFilter.doFilter(GeoServerCompositeFilter.java:91) at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:323) at org.geoserver.security.filter.GeoServerAnonymousAuthenticationFilter.doFilter(GeoServerAnonymousAuthenticationFilter.java:53) at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:323) at org.geoserver.security.filter.GeoServerCompositeFilter$NestedFilterChain.doFilter(GeoServerCompositeFilter.java:68) at org.springframework.security.web.authentication.rememberme.RememberMeAuthenticationFilter.doFilter(RememberMeAuthenticationFilter.java:146) at org.geoserver.security.filter.GeoServerCompositeFilter$NestedFilterChain.doFilter(GeoServerCompositeFilter.java:72) at org.geoserver.security.filter.GeoServerCompositeFilter.doFilter(GeoServerCompositeFilter.java:91) at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:323) at org.geoserver.security.filter.GeoServerCompositeFilter$NestedFilterChain.doFilter(GeoServerCompositeFilter.java:68) at org.springframework.security.web.context.SecurityContextPersistenceFilter.doFilter(SecurityContextPersistenceFilter.java:87) at org.geoserver.security.filter.GeoServerCompositeFilter$NestedFilterChain.doFilter(GeoServerCompositeFilter.java:72) at org.geoserver.security.filter.GeoServerCompositeFilter.doFilter(GeoServerCompositeFilter.java:91) at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:323) at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:173) at org.geoserver.security.GeoServerSecurityFilterChainProxy.doFilter(GeoServerSecurityFilterChainProxy.java:97) at org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy.invokeDelegate(DelegatingFilterProxy.java:346) at org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy.doFilter(DelegatingFilterProxy.java:259) at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1084) at org.geoserver.filters.LoggingFilter.doFilter(LoggingFilter.java:71) at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1084) at org.geoserver.filters.GZIPFilter.doFilter(GZIPFilter.java:41) at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1084) at org.geoserver.filters.SessionDebugFilter.doFilter(SessionDebugFilter.java:46) at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1084) at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler.handle(ServletHandler.java:360) at org.mortbay.jetty.security.SecurityHandler.handle(SecurityHandler.java:216) at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.SessionHandler.handle(SessionHandler.java:181) at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandler.handle(ContextHandler.java:726) at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppContext.handle(WebAppContext.java:405) at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandlerCollection.handle(ContextHandlerCollection.java:206) at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerCollection.handle(HandlerCollection.java:114) at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerWrapper.handle(HandlerWrapper.java:152) at org.mortbay.jetty.Server.handle(Server.java:324) at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection.handleRequest(HttpConnection.java:505) at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection$RequestHandler.content(HttpConnection.java:842) at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpParser.parseNext(HttpParser.java:648) at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpParser.parseAvailable(HttpParser.java:211) at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection.handle(HttpConnection.java:380) at org.mortbay.io.nio.SelectChannelEndPoint.run(SelectChannelEndPoint.java:395) at org.mortbay.thread.BoundedThreadPool$PoolThread.run(BoundedThreadPool.java:450)

Next time you write an error message try to make it short and clear. You will thank yourself later.