JavaFX FileChooser Throws Error (probably easy fix, but still confused)

Question

I'm trying to open a FileChooser with this code:

package back_end.controllers;

import javafx.fxml.FXML;
import javafx.fxml.Initializable;
import javafx.scene.control.Button;
import javafx.scene.control.ListView;
import javafx.scene.layout.BorderPane;
import javafx.stage.FileChooser;

import java.io.File;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.ResourceBundle;

/**
 * Created by Quinn McHugh on 4/15/2014.
 */
public class StartScreen_Controller implements Initializable {

    @FXML
    private ListView lstRecents;
    @FXML
    private Button btnBrowse;
    @FXML
    private BorderPane borderPane;

    @Override
    public void initialize(URL fxmlFileLocation, ResourceBundle resources){
        lstRecents = new ListView();
        btnBrowse = new Button();
        borderPane = new BorderPane();
    }

    public void openFile(){
        /* Presents a file chooser but does nothing functionally.
        */
        FileChooser fc = new FileChooser();
        File f = fc.showOpenDialog(btnBrowse.getScene().getWindow());
    }
}

but it is getting screwed up within the openFile() method. The compiler is throwing a NullPointerException with these error messages:

Exception in thread "JavaFX Application Thread" java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader$MethodHandler.invoke(FXMLLoader.java:1760)
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader$ControllerMethodEventHandler.handle(FXMLLoader.java:1643)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.CompositeEventHandler.dispatchBubblingEvent(CompositeEventHandler.java:86)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventHandlerManager.dispatchBubblingEvent(EventHandlerManager.java:238)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventHandlerManager.dispatchBubblingEvent(EventHandlerManager.java:191)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.CompositeEventDispatcher.dispatchBubblingEvent(CompositeEventDispatcher.java:59)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:58)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:56)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:56)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventUtil.fireEventImpl(EventUtil.java:74)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventUtil.fireEvent(EventUtil.java:49)
    at javafx.event.Event.fireEvent(Event.java:198)
    at javafx.scene.Node.fireEvent(Node.java:8196)
    at javafx.scene.control.Button.fire(Button.java:185)
    at com.sun.javafx.scene.control.behavior.ButtonBehavior.mouseReleased(ButtonBehavior.java:182)
    at com.sun.javafx.scene.control.skin.BehaviorSkinBase$1.handle(BehaviorSkinBase.java:97)
    at com.sun.javafx.scene.control.skin.BehaviorSkinBase$1.handle(BehaviorSkinBase.java:90)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.CompositeEventHandler$NormalEventHandlerRecord.handleBubblingEvent(CompositeEventHandler.java:218)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.CompositeEventHandler.dispatchBubblingEvent(CompositeEventHandler.java:80)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventHandlerManager.dispatchBubblingEvent(EventHandlerManager.java:238)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventHandlerManager.dispatchBubblingEvent(EventHandlerManager.java:191)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.CompositeEventDispatcher.dispatchBubblingEvent(CompositeEventDispatcher.java:59)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:58)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:56)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:56)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventUtil.fireEventImpl(EventUtil.java:74)
    at com.sun.javafx.event.EventUtil.fireEvent(EventUtil.java:54)
    at javafx.event.Event.fireEvent(Event.java:198)
    at javafx.scene.Scene$MouseHandler.process(Scene.java:3712)
    at javafx.scene.Scene$MouseHandler.access$1800(Scene.java:3440)
    at javafx.scene.Scene.impl_processMouseEvent(Scene.java:1663)
    at javafx.scene.Scene$ScenePeerListener.mouseEvent(Scene.java:2455)
    at com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.GlassViewEventHandler$MouseEventNotification.run(GlassViewEventHandler.java:326)
    at com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.GlassViewEventHandler$MouseEventNotification.run(GlassViewEventHandler.java:251)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.GlassViewEventHandler.handleMouseEvent(GlassViewEventHandler.java:360)
    at com.sun.glass.ui.View.handleMouseEvent(View.java:526)
    at com.sun.glass.ui.View.notifyMouse(View.java:898)
    at com.sun.glass.ui.win.WinApplication._runLoop(Native Method)
    at com.sun.glass.ui.win.WinApplication.access$300(WinApplication.java:39)
    at com.sun.glass.ui.win.WinApplication$4$1.run(WinApplication.java:112)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:744)
Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:483)
    at sun.reflect.misc.Trampoline.invoke(MethodUtil.java:71)
    at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor1.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:483)
    at sun.reflect.misc.MethodUtil.invoke(MethodUtil.java:275)
    at javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader$MethodHandler.invoke(FXMLLoader.java:1757)
    ... 47 more
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
    at back_end.controllers.StartScreen_Controller.openFile(StartScreen_Controller.java:38)
    ... 57 more

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I'm brand new to JavaFX and the use of Scene Builder.

I don't thing your posted code matches the stacktrace, because it's complaining about a NullPointerException on line 38 of StartScreen_Controller, and there are only 37 lines of code. Did you modify the code before posting it to StackOverflow? — matt forsythe, Apr 15 '14 at 21:29
By the way, it is not your compiler that is throwing the error message. It is the Java runtime. If you are getting a stacktrace, then by definition, you have already successfully compiled your code. — matt forsythe, Apr 15 '14 at 21:31
Yeah, I deleted two lines that just had comments in them. I'll put them back in. And gotcha on the Runtime vs. Compiler. — Quinn McHugh, Apr 15 '14 at 21:43
Next thing to figure out: is btnBrowse null, or is it btnBrowse.getScene() that is null? If btnBrowse is null, then it would seem that your initialize method is not getting called. Otherwise, you probably have to do something to get btnBrowse to populate its `scene`. — matt forsythe, Apr 15 '14 at 21:47

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 15 '14 at 21:46

This is the third question I've seen in two days that's been caused by people re-initializing fields that have been @FXML-injected by the FXMLLoader.

The point of @FXML is that you tell the FXMLLoader to initialize that field with the object that was created by parsing the FXML file. When you then execute

btnBrowse = new Button();

in your initialize() method, you create a new button and no longer have a reference to the one that was created for you when the FXML was parsed.

So, now it should be pretty obvious that btnBrowse.getScene() will return null (because the button was never added to a scene) and btnBrowse.getScene().getWindow() will generate a NullPointerException.

Just take those three lines out of your initialize() method.

Can I ask where you saw to re-initialize those fields like that? If there's some popular resource out there that's spreading incorrect code, it needs to be taken down.

I was learning from a certain free JavaFX tutorial on Youtube that I'm hesitant to post the name of because I know that the guy makes a living off his paid courses. Let's just say he's british and searching "javafx tutorial" on youtube yields his video in the top 5 results. — Quinn McHugh, Apr 15 '14 at 21:54

JavaFX FileChooser Throws Error (probably easy fix, but still confused)

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