upgrading grails from 2.1.5 to 2.4.4 - grails

Question

i am trying to upgrade our grails app from 2.1.5 to 2.4.4.
i've created a new 2.4.4 project and copied all the sources from existing project.
and java from 7 to 8.
build config is
grails.servlet.version = "3.0" // Change depending on target container compliance (2.5 or 3.0)
grails.project.class.dir = "target/classes"
grails.project.test.class.dir = "target/test-classes"
grails.project.test.reports.dir = "target/test-reports"
//grails.project.work.dir = "target/work"
grails.project.target.level = 1.8
grails.project.source.level = 1.8
//grails.project.war.file = "target/${appName}-${appVersion}.war"
grails.project.dependency.resolver = "ivy"
/*grails.project.fork = [
// configure settings for compilation JVM, note that if you alter the Groovy version forked compilation is required
// compile: [maxMemory: 256, minMemory: 64, debug: false, maxPerm: 256, daemon:true],
// configure settings for the test-app JVM, uses the daemon by default
test: [maxMemory: 768, minMemory: 64, debug: false, maxPerm: 256, daemon:true],
// configure settings for the run-app JVM
run: [maxMemory: 768, minMemory: 64, debug: false, maxPerm: 256, forkReserve:false],
// configure settings for the run-war JVM
war: [maxMemory: 768, minMemory: 64, debug: false, maxPerm: 256, forkReserve:false],
// configure settings for the Console UI JVM
console: [maxMemory: 768, minMemory: 64, debug: false, maxPerm: 256]
]
*/
System.setProperty("logback.configurationFile", "${basedir}/grails-app/conf/logback-build.xml")
grails.project.dependency.resolution = {
// inherit Grails' default dependencies
inherits("global") {
// specify dependency exclusions here; for example, uncomment this to disable ehcache:
// excludes 'ehcache'
excludes 'grails-plugin-log4j' , 'log4j'
}
log "warn" // log level of Ivy resolver, either 'error', 'warn', 'info', 'debug' or 'verbose'
checksums true // Whether to verify checksums on resolve
// legacyResolve false // whether to do a secondary resolve on plugin installation, not advised and here for backwards compatibility
repositories {
inherits true // Whether to inherit repository definitions from plugins
grailsPlugins()
grailsHome()
grailsCentral()
mavenCentral()
mavenLocal()
grailsRepo "https://grails.org/plugins"
mavenRepo "http://repo.grails.org/grails/repo"
mavenRepo "http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/"
mavenRepo "https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/"
mavenRepo "https://repo.grails.org/grails/plugins/"
mavenRepo "http://repo.grails.org/grails/libs-releases/"
// uncomment these to enable remote dependency resolution from public Maven repositories
//mavenRepo "http://snapshots.repository.codehaus.org"
//mavenRepo "http://repository.codehaus.org"
//mavenRepo "http://download.java.net/maven/2/"
//mavenRepo "http://repository.jboss.com/maven2/"
}
dependencies {
runtime 'xalan:serializer:2.7.1'
compile 'commons-net:commons-net:2.0'
compile 'org.grails.plugins:logback:0.3.1'
// runtime "ch.qos.logback:logback-core:0.9.29"
compile 'org.springframework.ws:spring-ws:2.1.0.RELEASE'
'
runtime 'org.mariadb.jdbc:mariadb-java-client:2.2.4'
compile 'org.grails.plugins:rendering:1.0.1-SNAPSHOT'
//compile("mysql:mysql-connector-java:8.0.13")
runtime 'mysql:mysql-connector-java:5.1.16'
test "org.grails:grails-datastore-test-support:1.0-grails-2.4"
}
plugins {
// plugins for the build system only
build ":tomcat:7.0.55"
// plugins for the compile step
compile ":scaffolding:2.1.2"
compile ':cache:1.1.7'
compile (":asset-pipeline:2.6.9") {
excludes 'grails-plugin-log4j' , 'log4j'
}
// plugins needed at runtime but not for compilation
runtime ":hibernate4:4.3.5.5" //":hibernate:3.6.10.18" // or "" :hibernate4:4.3.6.1
runtime ":database-migration:1.4.0"
//runtime ':database-migration:1.3.1'
runtime ":jquery:1.11.1"
compile ":spring-security-core:2.0.0"
compile ":remoting:1.3"
compile(":ws-client:1.0") {
excludes "org.codehaus.woodstox:wstx-asl:3.2.8"
}
compile("org.grails.plugins:blueprint:1.0.2")
compile("org.grails.plugins:executor:0.3")
compile("org.grails.plugins:export:1.5")
// compile("org.grails.plugins:mail:1.0")
// compile("org.grails.plugins:mysql-connectorj:5.1.22.1")
compile("org.grails.plugins:quartz:1.0.2")
compile("org.grails.plugins:remote-pagination:0.3")
compile("org.grails.plugins:rest:0.8")
// compile 'org.grails.plugins:quartz:1.0.1'
}
}
now, when i try to run the app, it says
[localhost-startStop-1] ERROR o.c.g.g.w.c.GrailsContextLoaderListener - Error initializing the application: Error creating bean with name 'transactionManagerPostProcessor': Initialization of bean failed; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'transactionManager': Cannot resolve reference to bean '$primaryTransactionManager' while setting constructor argument with key [0]; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name '$primaryTransactionManager': Cannot resolve reference to bean 'sessionFactory' while setting bean property 'sessionFactory'; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'sessionFactory': Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'transactionManagerPostProcessor': Initialization of bean failed; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'transactionManager': Cannot resolve reference to bean '$primaryTransactionManager' while setting constructor argument with key [0]; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name '$primaryTransactionManager': Cannot resolve reference to bean 'sessionFactory' while setting bean property 'sessionFactory'; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'sessionFactory': Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266) [na:1.8.0_25]
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142) [na:1.8.0_25]
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617) [na:1.8.0_25]
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745) [na:1.8.0_25]
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'transactionManager': Cannot resolve reference to bean '$primaryTransactionManager' while setting constructor argument with key [0]; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name '$primaryTransactionManager': Cannot resolve reference to bean 'sessionFactory' while setting bean property 'sessionFactory'; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'sessionFactory': Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException
... 4 common frames omitted
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name '$primaryTransactionManager': **Cannot resolve reference to bean 'sessionFactory' while setting bean property 'sessionFactory'**; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'sessionFactory': Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException
... 4 common frames omitted
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'sessionFactory': Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException
... 4 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException: null
... 4 common frames omitted
could you let me know how to resolve this error?

Answer 1

Upgrading from Grails 2.1.5 to 2.5.5 or 2.5.6 would give you Java 8 support. I have done this multiple times. I have also have upgraded from Grails 2 to Grails 3 or I would now recommend using Grails 4. If you are going to make the bigger jump from Grails 2 to 3 or 4. I would skip Grails 3 and instead goto Grails 4. Doing the upgrade from 2 to 4 would take additional time but about the same amount of time going from Grails 2 to 3. One of the biggest concerns is what plugins do you use that are no longer supported. This could be a problem even going to Grails 2.5.5 but is a bigger deal going to Grails 3 or 4.
Here I posted some wisdom on going from Grails 2 to Grails 4.
How to Upgrade Grails from Grails 2.4.4 to Grails 4.0.1?