null pointer exception when transforming pftaps file to a bulk of jsons

[sotnikov-s]

The exception is being thrown at a concrete file point. In this case (file pftaps19760203_wk05.zip), it's 238-th (see --skip and --limit flags) patent info:

java -jar transformer.jar -f=pftaps19760203_wk05.zip --type=json --outDir=. --outBulk=false --prettyPrint=true --skip=237 --limit=1
log4j:WARN No appenders could be found for logger (gov.uspto.patent.PatentDocFormatDetect).
log4j:WARN Please initialize the log4j system properly.
log4j:WARN See http://logging.apache.org/log4j/1.2/faq.html#noconfig for more info.
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
        at com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkNotNull(Preconditions.java:878)
        at com.google.common.base.Strings.padStart(Strings.java:90)
        at gov.uspto.patent.model.classification.LocarnoClassification.getTree(LocarnoClassification.java:72)
        at gov.uspto.patent.serialize.JsonMapperStream.writeSingleClassificationType(JsonMapperStream.java:700)
        at gov.uspto.patent.serialize.JsonMapperStream.writeClassifications(JsonMapperStream.java:561)
        at gov.uspto.patent.serialize.JsonMapperStream.output(JsonMapperStream.java:145)
        at gov.uspto.patent.serialize.JsonMapperStream.write(JsonMapperStream.java:97)
        at gov.uspto.bulkdata.tools.transformer.TransformerRecordProcessor.writeOutputType(TransformerRecordProcessor.java:142)
        at gov.uspto.bulkdata.tools.transformer.TransformerRecordProcessor.process(TransformerRecordProcessor.java:90)
        at gov.uspto.bulkdata.RecordReader.read(RecordReader.java:195)
        at gov.uspto.bulkdata.RecordReader.read(RecordReader.java:122)
        at gov.uspto.bulkdata.RecordReader.read(RecordReader.java:85)
        at gov.uspto.bulkdata.RecordReader.read(RecordReader.java:43)
        at gov.uspto.bulkdata.cli.Transformer.exec(Transformer.java:77)
        at gov.uspto.bulkdata.cli.Transformer.main(Transformer.java:115)

Wherein 236 and 238 documents are being parsed successfully.
The same error happens also when parsing 373-rd patent in the same file:

java -jar transformer.jar -f=pftaps19760203_wk05.zip --type=json --outDir=. --outBulk=false --prettyPrint=true --skip=372 --limit=1
log4j:WARN No appenders could be found for logger (gov.uspto.patent.PatentDocFormatDetect).
log4j:WARN Please initialize the log4j system properly.
log4j:WARN See http://logging.apache.org/log4j/1.2/faq.html#noconfig for more info.
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
        at com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkNotNull(Preconditions.java:878)
        at com.google.common.base.Strings.padStart(Strings.java:90)
        at gov.uspto.patent.model.classification.LocarnoClassification.getTree(LocarnoClassification.java:72)
        at gov.uspto.patent.serialize.JsonMapperStream.writeSingleClassificationType(JsonMapperStream.java:700)
        at gov.uspto.patent.serialize.JsonMapperStream.writeClassifications(JsonMapperStream.java:561)
        at gov.uspto.patent.serialize.JsonMapperStream.output(JsonMapperStream.java:145)
        at gov.uspto.patent.serialize.JsonMapperStream.write(JsonMapperStream.java:97)
        at gov.uspto.bulkdata.tools.transformer.TransformerRecordProcessor.writeOutputType(TransformerRecordProcessor.java:142)
        at gov.uspto.bulkdata.tools.transformer.TransformerRecordProcessor.process(TransformerRecordProcessor.java:90)
        at gov.uspto.bulkdata.RecordReader.read(RecordReader.java:195)
        at gov.uspto.bulkdata.RecordReader.read(RecordReader.java:122)
        at gov.uspto.bulkdata.RecordReader.read(RecordReader.java:85)
        at gov.uspto.bulkdata.RecordReader.read(RecordReader.java:43)
        at gov.uspto.bulkdata.cli.Transformer.exec(Transformer.java:77)
        at gov.uspto.bulkdata.cli.Transformer.main(Transformer.java:115)

Sure there are more such cases.

[bgfeldm]

I am not able to reproduce the error. Instead the software throws an warning for the record. The code was last edited July 2019, have you updated and rebuilt since then?

2019-12-23 08:18:40,074 INFO [ main] pftaps19760203_wk05.zip:200:US3935790A RecordReader - ... mark pftaps19760203_wk05.zip:200
2019-12-23 08:18:40,445 WARN [ main] pftaps19760203_wk05.zip:238:US3935828A ClassificationNode - Failed to Parse locarno IPC Classification: '114' from : 11410273178R114144E2114B63H 904G01C 2112114144 R;114 C;114 E;39;102;10531858873178 R;180;181;186;187;189;182;144
2019-12-23 08:18:41,042 INFO [ main] pftaps19760203_wk05.zip:300:US3935890A RecordReader - ... mark pftaps19760203_wk05.zip:300
2019-12-23 08:18:41,662 WARN [ main] pftaps19760203_wk05.zip:373:US3935963A ClassificationNode - Failed to Parse locarno IPC Classification: '222' from : 2203152152212221532B65D 4500222215216;221;9220315
2019-12-23 08:18:41,872 INFO [ main] pftaps19760203_wk05.zip:400:US3935990A RecordReader - ... mark pftaps19760203_wk05.zip:400

[sotnikov-s]

I pulled the repo a week ago and use the master branch as the source. and I just retried it with pulling from master and build the .jar anew. could you please affirm my building steps are right?

1. pull repo
2. cd to $REPO_ROOT/BulkDownloader/
3. run mvn package
4. get an error:

[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-assembly-plugin:3.1.1:single (default) on project BulkDownloader: Error reading assemblies: Error locating assembly descriptor: resources/assembly/bin.xml

5. copy $REPO_ROOT/resources/assembly/bin.xml to $REPO_ROOT/BulkDownloader/ to avoid that error
6. run mvn package again with success result
7. cd BulkDownloader/target/dependency-jars
8. unzip all jars and create a new dependency.jar file containing all dependency folders:

mkdir dependencies
unzip \*.jar -d dependencies/
cd dependencies
jar cf dependency.jar *

9. cd BulkDownloader/target/classes
10. create a manifest file with the following content:

Manifest-Version: 1.0
Created-By: 1.7.0_06 (Oracle Corporation)
Main-Class: gov.uspto.bulkdata.cli.Transformer
Class-Path: dependency.jar

11. run jar cfm transformer.jar manifest.txt gov/*
12. put together transformer.jar and dependency.jar and use the transformer.jar as following:
    java -jar transformer.jar -f=pftaps19760203_wk05.zip --type=json --outDir=. --outBulk=false --prettyPrint=true

[bgfeldm]

After pulling the repo run "maven clean package" from the top level directory (not from within BulkDownloader). If test are failing, you can skip test with "maven clean package -DskipTests=true".
If the maven build is successful a zip file should be created under target; "./target/PatentPublicData-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT-*.zip".

[sotnikov-s]

If the maven build is successful a zip file should be created under target; "./target/PatentPublicData-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT-*.zip".

The build was successful, the snapshot file has been created. But the same .jar creation algorithm leads to the same null pointer exception.
And the same exception at the same file point also happens if I avoid all custom algorithms and run the tool as it is, with no hand made .jar files:

cd PatentPublicData/BulkDownloader

java -cp "target/BulkDownloader-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar:target/dependency-jars/*" gov.uspto.bulkdata.cli.Transformer -f="pftaps19760203_wk05.zip" --type="json" --outDir="." --matching-xml=true --outBulk=false

log4j:WARN No appenders could be found for logger (gov.uspto.patent.PatentDocFormatDetect).
log4j:WARN Please initialize the log4j system properly.
log4j:WARN See http://logging.apache.org/log4j/1.2/faq.html#noconfig for more info.
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
	at com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkNotNull(Preconditions.java:878)
	at com.google.common.base.Strings.padStart(Strings.java:90)
	at gov.uspto.patent.model.classification.LocarnoClassification.getTree(LocarnoClassification.java:72)
	at gov.uspto.patent.serialize.JsonMapperStream.writeSingleClassificationType(JsonMapperStream.java:700)
	at gov.uspto.patent.serialize.JsonMapperStream.writeClassifications(JsonMapperStream.java:561)
	at gov.uspto.patent.serialize.JsonMapperStream.output(JsonMapperStream.java:145)
	at gov.uspto.patent.serialize.JsonMapperStream.write(JsonMapperStream.java:97)
	at gov.uspto.bulkdata.tools.transformer.TransformerRecordProcessor.writeOutputType(TransformerRecordProcessor.java:142)
	at gov.uspto.bulkdata.tools.transformer.TransformerRecordProcessor.process(TransformerRecordProcessor.java:90)
	at gov.uspto.bulkdata.RecordReader.read(RecordReader.java:195)
	at gov.uspto.bulkdata.RecordReader.read(RecordReader.java:122)
	at gov.uspto.bulkdata.RecordReader.read(RecordReader.java:85)
	at gov.uspto.bulkdata.RecordReader.read(RecordReader.java:43)
	at gov.uspto.bulkdata.cli.Transformer.exec(Transformer.java:77)
	at gov.uspto.bulkdata.cli.Transformer.main(Transformer.java:115)