NPE on EXistServlet init running latest from IDE

Trying to build the latest in GIT using Eclipse using the Ant task and a custom Eclipse project.  Everything seems to compile correctly, and I can access the Orbeon webapp, however at startup I get an NPE when eXist tries loading users.xml (log & stacktrace excerpt below).

After that point, any operations which use eXist will return the error "User 'guest' does not exist".  No data files were created in \build\orbeon-war\WEB-INF\exist-data.  Is the initial DB not being set up correctly?  Any hints on where to look/how to get this set up?

NB that I have followed the instructions at http://wiki.orbeon.com/forms/doc/contributor-guide/java-development, adapting them to Eclipse where appropriate.

Thanks!
Gino

Starting Orbeon Forms Release @RELEASE@
2010-03-23 14:22:33,021  INFO org.orbeon.oxf.webapp.WebAppContext - Initializing Resource Manager with: {oxf.resources.priority.2.oxf.resources.webapp.rootdir=/WEB-INF/resources, oxf.resources.factory=org.orbeon.oxf.resources.PriorityResourceManagerFactory, oxf.resources.priority.4=org.orbeon.oxf.resources.ClassLoaderResourceManagerFactory, oxf.resources.priority.3=org.orbeon.oxf.resources.FilesystemResourceManagerFactory, oxf.resources.priority.2=org.orbeon.oxf.resources.WebAppResourceManagerFactory, oxf.resources.priority.1.oxf.resources.filesystem.sandbox-directory=C:\work\orbeon-forms/src/resources, oxf.resources.priority.1=org.orbeon.oxf.resources.FilesystemResourceManagerFactory, oxf.resources.priority.3.oxf.resources.filesystem.sandbox-directory=C:\work\orbeon-forms/src/resources-packaged, org.orbeon.oxf.resources.WebAppResourceManagerImplServletContext=org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContextFacade@944dbd}
Initializing Resource Manager with: {oxf.resources.priority.2.oxf.resources.webapp.rootdir=/WEB-INF/resources, oxf.resources.factory=org.orbeon.oxf.resources.PriorityResourceManagerFactory, oxf.resources.priority.4=org.orbeon.oxf.resources.ClassLoaderResourceManagerFactory, oxf.resources.priority.3=org.orbeon.oxf.resources.FilesystemResourceManagerFactory, oxf.resources.priority.2=org.orbeon.oxf.resources.WebAppResourceManagerFactory, oxf.resources.priority.1.oxf.resources.filesystem.sandbox-directory=C:\work\orbeon-forms/src/resources, oxf.resources.priority.1=org.orbeon.oxf.resources.FilesystemResourceManagerFactory, oxf.resources.priority.3.oxf.resources.filesystem.sandbox-directory=C:\work\orbeon-forms/src/resources-packaged, org.orbeon.oxf.resources.WebAppResourceManagerImplServletContext=org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContextFacade@944dbd}
java.lang.NullPointerException
	at org.exist.dom.QName.hashCode(QName.java:213)
	at org.exist.dom.QNamePool.get(QNamePool.java:67)
	at org.exist.dom.SymbolTable.getQName(SymbolTable.java:137)
	at org.exist.dom.ElementImpl.deserialize(ElementImpl.java:277)
	at org.exist.dom.StoredNode.deserialize(StoredNode.java:148)
	at org.exist.dom.StoredNode.deserialize(StoredNode.java:127)
	at org.exist.storage.NativeBroker$21.start(NativeBroker.java:2826)
	at org.exist.storage.dom.DOMTransaction.run(DOMTransaction.java:111)
	at org.exist.storage.NativeBroker.objectWith(NativeBroker.java:2816)
	at org.exist.dom.DocumentImpl.getChildNodes(DocumentImpl.java:696)
	at org.exist.dom.DocumentImpl.getDocumentElement(DocumentImpl.java:941)
	at org.exist.security.XMLSecurityManager.attach(XMLSecurityManager.java:125)
	at org.exist.storage.BrokerPool.initialize(BrokerPool.java:796)
	at org.exist.storage.BrokerPool.<init>(BrokerPool.java:638)
	at org.exist.storage.BrokerPool.configure(BrokerPool.java:203)
	at org.exist.storage.BrokerPool.configure(BrokerPool.java:177)
	at org.exist.http.servlets.EXistServlet.startup(EXistServlet.java:613)
	at org.exist.http.servlets.EXistServlet.init(EXistServlet.java:113)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1161)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:981)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:4045)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4351)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1045)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:719)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1045)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:443)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:516)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:710)
	at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:566)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
	at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
	at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:288)
	at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:413)

Would you be able to comment/document the steps you had to undertake in order to setup your Eclipse environment?  There's a separate thread for this already started...

http://n4.nabble.com/Is-there-a-Simple-Way-to-Setup-an-Orbeon-Forms-Project-in-Eclipse-td1594968.html#a1596427

That'd be greatly appreciated.

Hi Jbc,

I saw that while search for the answer to my problem.  I'd be happy to share my project files with you, as soon as I can get it working properly.   I started a separate thread to identify the cause of that specific problem;  I'll post back my findings to the  "Eclipse" thread once I get it all up and running..

Alex, Erik, any ideas on what could be wrong?

Thanks!
-Gino

Hmm.. this problem seems to have solved itself;  I remove the webapp, re-added it, and republished it to the Tomcat instance in Eclipse.  I also emptied Tomcat's webapps directory completely, although I doubt that was the cause.  

I just realized I had the wrong paths in the vm args (used for testing), but now I cannot reproduce the problem.  

I suppose I will just have to be content that it's work.  I'll post the project files to the Eclipse thread now.

HTH,
Gino