How to recover from fixedlayout RenderingException

at least in LS 7.1: if I forget to deploy a new fixed layout config file and try to hit the page, I get this error:
[html]
2013-02-28 14:47:26,352 71765122 ERROR [com.interwoven.livesite.runtime.rendering.RuntimeRenderingManager] (http-1776-4 Smiley Happy

Unhandled exception thrown during rendering
com.interwoven.livesite.runtime.rendering.RenderingException: Unhandled Exception
at com.interwoven.livesite.runtime.rendering.RenderingManager.handleException(RenderingManager.java:1002)
at com.interwoven.livesite.runtime.rendering.RenderingManager.render(RenderingManager.java:256)
at com.interwoven.livesite.runtime.impl.BaseRequestContext.render(BaseRequestContext.java:235)
at com.interwoven.livesite.runtime.filter.LiveSiteFilter.doFilter(LiveSiteFilter.java:126)
....
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.interwoven.livesite.model.fixedlayout.FixedLayoutCanvas.(FixedLayoutCanvas.java:188)
at com.interwoven.livesite.runtime.model.page.RuntimePage.init(RuntimePage.java:265)
at com.interwoven.livesite.runtime.model.page.RuntimePage.(RuntimePage.java:207)
[/html]
this is a legit error since the fixedlayout file wasn't deployed to runtime server. but my problem is even after I deploy the fixed layout config file, the page never recovers from this error. I tried redeploying the page, the .site, creating new page with same layout and deploying it, modifying the fixedlayout file to get newer timestamp and deploying it. no matter what i try the page never comes up and the only way to recover from this error is to restart LSDS.

I m curious to see if anyone has dealt with this issue and maybe found a way to recover from the error without restarting the app. or at least if someone can explain why i can't load any pages related to that file without restarting?

keep in mind that I never had any errors in the file itself. The only reason I got the error is because I forget to deploy it before I hit a page that is using it.

LS 7.1 Patch 1, Redhat 5.

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Comments

Rick Poulin

I haven't personally come across this issue and I don't currently have a 7.1 instance to play with, but for what it's worth it looks like the 7.2 code will cache these files (null or not) for 15 seconds. Have you tried waiting at least that long after a successful deployment to see if LSDS will find it?

Crsb

yeah, that was one of the first things i tried and the page never comes up. can you try reproducing the issue in 7.2? create small test layout and test page. deploy the page first, try to access it then deploy the test layout and see if you will get the page without restarting LSDS.

Rick Poulin

Figured it out for ya.. Was able to reproduce on mine, so I did some digging and discovered that it checks again every 15 seconds AND requires that the last modified timestamp on the layout file be later than the last time it was loaded. Thus, if you 'touch' (or add a meaningless space in) the layout file to change its timestamp and then deploy it, your runtime should render the page ok after up to 15 seconds.

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Crsb

I was able to get rid of the error twice using your solution. i thought i have tried the modified timestamp part but i am guessing i wasnt leaving enough time between some of the steps.

Thanks for spending time on this!
just curious, where exactly did you see the 15 seconds and timestamp rules?

Rick Poulin

I was able to get rid of the error twice using your solution. i thought i have tried the modified timestamp part but i am guessing i wasnt leaving enough time between some of the steps.

Yeah, it seems a bit shortsighted on iwov's part.. When OD is retaining the timestamps from the authoring server (as it does in OOTB PLC), it's quite conceivable that your workflow doesn't run from start to end in 15 seconds, so there's a window there where you could have made a legit change to a layout and the runtime will never see it.

just curious, where exactly did you see the 15 seconds and timestamp rules?

com.interwoven.livesite.runtime.impl.BaseFixedLayoutCanvasLoader