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Published Sep. 10, 2025

JSPs stop working if their osgi module is restarted and direct.servlet.context.reload property is configured to false

Written By

Jorge Diaz

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Issue

  • JSPs stop working if their osgi module is restarted and the direct servlet context reload functionality is disabled with the direct.servlet.context.reload=false setting.
  • The issue is also reproduced in case:
    • You deploy a new osgi fragment module that overrides an existing JSP module (see JSP Overrides Using-OSGi Fragments) in a running Liferay environment.
    • You deploy a new version of an existing module that contains JSPs in a running Liferay environment.
  • The following exception can be also thrown due to this issue: 
    2018-01-29 05:30:59.053 ERROR [http-nio-8080-exec-7][IncludeTag:128] Current URL /group/control_panel/manage?p_p_id=com_liferay_server_admin_web_portlet_ServerAdminPortlet&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=maximized generates exception: null
java.lang.NullPointerException
	at com.liferay.taglib.servlet.PageContextWrapper.handlePageException(PageContextWrapper.java:173)
	at org.apache.jsp.server_jsp._jspService(server_jsp:653)
	at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:111)
	at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
	at com.liferay.portal.servlet.DirectRequestDispatcher.include(DirectRequestDispatcher.java:64)
	at com.liferay.portal.servlet.ClassLoaderRequestDispatcherWrapper.doDispatch(ClassLoaderRequestDispatcherWrapper.java:78)
	at com.liferay.portal.servlet.ClassLoaderRequestDispatcherWrapper.include(ClassLoaderRequestDispatcherWrapper.java:53)
	at com.liferay.taglib.util.IncludeTag.includePage(IncludeTag.java:372)
	at com.liferay.taglib.util.IncludeTag.include(IncludeTag.java:349)
	at com.liferay.taglib.util.IncludeTag.doInclude(IncludeTag.java:202)
	at com.liferay.taglib.util.IncludeTag.doEndTag(IncludeTag.java:86)
	at org.apache.jsp.view_jsp._jspService(view_jsp:432)

Environment

  • DXP 7.0
  • DXP 7.1
  • DXP 7.2
  • DXP 7.3

Resolution

  • Disabling the direct servlet context reload functionality with direct.servlet.context.reload=false is not compatible with any functionality that relies on the JSP dynamic reloading ability at runtime.
  • If you have disabled it, any administrative operation that causes a JSP dynamic reloading at runtime will cause that JSP to stop working.
  • Some of these operations are:
    • Manual stop / start of a module that contains a JSP file.
    • Deploying a new osgi module version of an existing module.
    • Deploying a new osgi fragment to override an existing JSP file of other module.
  • To avoid this issue you have two options:
    • Always restart the application server after these operations in order to force a reload of the JSP file.
    • Remove the direct.servlet.context.reload=false property and enable the direct servlet context reload functionality.

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