Xpages not loading? JVM errors? - Solution

If you read my last post you will recall that after upgrading my Dominio 7.02 server to 8.5.1 I could not get xpages to load from the server. I would get HTTP 500 errors in the browser and a http jvm: severe: clfad####e: error on the console.

I did the usual search on the net, tried the suggestions such as re-installing the server after removing the jvm directory, running a clean on the project from designer etc... But still no joy. Asked around a few fellow notes peeps and still no luck.

I tried to view two different xpage databases, the first was the standard 8.5 discussion and the second was a simple bespoke database with a single xpage containing a label and a field. Neither would load, however both would preview on the client.

After a few hours of investigation this morning and much hair pulling, desk head banging and caffeine consumption I have found the cause.

The error I was getting seems to be a fairly generic one:

HTTP JVM: SEVERE: CLFAD####E: Exception occurred servicing request for: /xpages/xpagestu.nsf/xp1.xsp - HTTP Code: 500
HTTP Web Server: Command Not Handled Exception [/xpages/xpagestu.nsf/xp1.xsp]

Unfortunately turning on the "Display Default Error Page" in the xpages tab of the database properties did not work and no additional information was displayed making tracking the problem down a bit of an issue.

So I turned on Http debugging using "tell http debug session on" from the console. This generates log files in the IBM_TECHNICAL_SUPPORT directory under the server data directory. After trying a few requests a had a look at the logs and the only error I could see related to a completely different database. The log file was showing an error with a cookie used in another web application on that server.

The error showing in the logs was :

java.lang.illegalArgumentException: Cookie name "some name" is a reserved tokenSo initially I ignored that and continued searching... After another half hour or so I went back to the log file and still the only error recorded was related to a cookie from another application. So I decided to clear all my cookies out and try again. Hey presto, it loaded!

The end result is that a malformed cookie name, in this case one that has a space in the name, stops xpages loading to the browser!

Now I need to do some more testing but what this means to me is that the other web application on our server, if used, will stop xpages working on a users browser. Now I don't know if there is a way around this without a a lot of changes to the other application. I will enquire from people at IBM etc... if there is a solution but at least I know the cause now.