I’m getting the following exception after modifying meta descriptions (under global Look & Feel -> Presentation) to include some page content, and I can no longer access the admin area of the wiki to fix the error. Can anyone point me to where this information gets saved or how I might be able to revert the edits?
Here’s the exception:
Caused by: org.apache.velocity.exception.MethodInvocationException: Invocation of method 'substring' in class java.lang.String threw exception java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: 50 at 34:/skins/flamingo/docdoesnotexist.vm[line 3, column 66]
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTMethod.handleInvocationException(ASTMethod.java:243)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTMethod.execute(ASTMethod.java:187)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.execute(ASTReference.java:280)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.value(ASTReference.java:567)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTMethod.execute(ASTMethod.java:151)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.execute(ASTReference.java:280)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.render(ASTReference.java:369)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.SimpleNode.render(SimpleNode.java:342)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.directive.Evaluate.render(Evaluate.java:204)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTDirective.render(ASTDirective.java:207)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTBlock.render(ASTBlock.java:72)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTIfStatement.render(ASTIfStatement.java:87)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.SimpleNode.render(SimpleNode.java:342)
at org.xwiki.velocity.internal.DefaultVelocityEngine.evaluateInternal(DefaultVelocityEngine.java:259)
at org.xwiki.velocity.internal.DefaultVelocityEngine.evaluate(DefaultVelocityEngine.java:222)
... 123 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: 50
at java.lang.String.substring(String.java:1963)
at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor528.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
at org.apache.velocity.util.introspection.UberspectImpl$VelMethodImpl.doInvoke(UberspectImpl.java:395)
at org.apache.velocity.util.introspection.UberspectImpl$VelMethodImpl.invoke(UberspectImpl.java:384)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTMethod.execute(ASTMethod.java:173)
... 136 common frames omitted
Here’s the entire stack trace:
Error number 4001 in 4: Error while evaluating velocity template htmlheader.vm
Error number 4001 in 4: Error while evaluating velocity template htmlheader.vm
com.xpn.xwiki.XWikiException: Error number 4001 in 4: Error while evaluating velocity template htmlheader.vm
at com.xpn.xwiki.XWiki.evaluateTemplate(XWiki.java:2295)
at com.xpn.xwiki.XWiki.parseTemplate(XWiki.java:2268)
at com.xpn.xwiki.api.XWiki.parseTemplate(XWiki.java:992)
at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor222.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
at org.apache.velocity.util.introspection.UberspectImpl$VelMethodImpl.doInvoke(UberspectImpl.java:395)
at org.apache.velocity.util.introspection.UberspectImpl$VelMethodImpl.invoke(UberspectImpl.java:384)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTMethod.execute(ASTMethod.java:173)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.execute(ASTReference.java:280)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.render(ASTReference.java:369)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTBlock.render(ASTBlock.java:72)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.directive.VelocimacroProxy.render(VelocimacroProxy.java:216)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.directive.RuntimeMacro.render(RuntimeMacro.java:311)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.directive.RuntimeMacro.render(RuntimeMacro.java:230)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTDirective.render(ASTDirective.java:207)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.SimpleNode.render(SimpleNode.java:342)
at org.xwiki.velocity.internal.DefaultVelocityEngine.evaluateInternal(DefaultVelocityEngine.java:259)
at org.xwiki.velocity.internal.DefaultVelocityEngine.evaluate(DefaultVelocityEngine.java:222)
at com.xpn.xwiki.render.DefaultVelocityManager.evaluate(DefaultVelocityManager.java:358)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.InternalTemplateManager.evaluateContent(InternalTemplateManager.java:847)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.InternalTemplateManager.render(InternalTemplateManager.java:723)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.InternalTemplateManager.lambda$renderFromSkin$0(InternalTemplateManager.java:698)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.security.authorization.DefaultAuthorExecutor.call(DefaultAuthorExecutor.java:98)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.InternalTemplateManager.renderFromSkin(InternalTemplateManager.java:697)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.InternalTemplateManager.renderFromSkin(InternalTemplateManager.java:676)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.InternalTemplateManager.render(InternalTemplateManager.java:662)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.DefaultTemplateManager.render(DefaultTemplateManager.java:78)
at com.xpn.xwiki.XWiki.evaluateTemplate(XWiki.java:2290)
at com.xpn.xwiki.XWiki.parseTemplate(XWiki.java:2268)
at com.xpn.xwiki.api.XWiki.parseTemplate(XWiki.java:992)
at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor222.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
at org.apache.velocity.util.introspection.UberspectImpl$VelMethodImpl.doInvoke(UberspectImpl.java:395)
at org.apache.velocity.util.introspection.UberspectImpl$VelMethodImpl.invoke(UberspectImpl.java:384)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTMethod.execute(ASTMethod.java:173)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.execute(ASTReference.java:280)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.render(ASTReference.java:369)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTBlock.render(ASTBlock.java:72)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.directive.VelocimacroProxy.render(VelocimacroProxy.java:216)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.directive.RuntimeMacro.render(RuntimeMacro.java:311)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.directive.RuntimeMacro.render(RuntimeMacro.java:230)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTDirective.render(ASTDirective.java:207)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTBlock.render(ASTBlock.java:72)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.SimpleNode.render(SimpleNode.java:342)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTIfStatement.render(ASTIfStatement.java:106)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.SimpleNode.render(SimpleNode.java:342)
at org.xwiki.velocity.internal.DefaultVelocityEngine.evaluateInternal(DefaultVelocityEngine.java:259)
at org.xwiki.velocity.internal.DefaultVelocityEngine.evaluate(DefaultVelocityEngine.java:222)
at com.xpn.xwiki.render.DefaultVelocityManager.evaluate(DefaultVelocityManager.java:358)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.InternalTemplateManager.evaluateContent(InternalTemplateManager.java:847)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.InternalTemplateManager.render(InternalTemplateManager.java:723)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.InternalTemplateManager.lambda$renderFromSkin$0(InternalTemplateManager.java:698)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.security.authorization.DefaultAuthorExecutor.call(DefaultAuthorExecutor.java:98)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.InternalTemplateManager.renderFromSkin(InternalTemplateManager.java:697)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.InternalTemplateManager.renderFromSkin(InternalTemplateManager.java:676)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.InternalTemplateManager.render(InternalTemplateManager.java:662)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.DefaultTemplateManager.render(DefaultTemplateManager.java:78)
at com.xpn.xwiki.XWiki.evaluateTemplate(XWiki.java:2290)
at com.xpn.xwiki.web.Utils.parseTemplate(Utils.java:179)
at com.xpn.xwiki.web.XWikiAction.execute(XWikiAction.java:489)
at com.xpn.xwiki.web.XWikiAction.execute(XWikiAction.java:210)
at org.apache.struts.action.RequestProcessor.processActionPerform(RequestProcessor.java:425)
at org.apache.struts.action.RequestProcessor.process(RequestProcessor.java:228)
at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.process(ActionServlet.java:1913)
at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.doGet(ActionServlet.java:449)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:634)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:741)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:231)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166)
at com.xpn.xwiki.web.ActionFilter.doFilter(ActionFilter.java:112)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166)
at org.xwiki.wysiwyg.filter.ConversionFilter.doFilter(ConversionFilter.java:109)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166)
at org.xwiki.container.servlet.filters.internal.SetHTTPHeaderFilter.doFilter(SetHTTPHeaderFilter.java:63)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166)
at org.xwiki.container.servlet.filters.internal.SavedRequestRestorerFilter.doFilter(SavedRequestRestorerFilter.java:208)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166)
at org.xwiki.container.servlet.filters.internal.SetCharacterEncodingFilter.doFilter(SetCharacterEncodingFilter.java:111)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166)
at org.xwiki.resource.servlet.RoutingFilter.doFilter(RoutingFilter.java:132)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166)
at org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriteFilter.doFilter(UrlRewriteFilter.java:399)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:199)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:96)
at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:543)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:139)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:81)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.AbstractAccessLogValve.invoke(AbstractAccessLogValve.java:688)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:87)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.RemoteIpValve.invoke(RemoteIpValve.java:747)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:343)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.service(Http11Processor.java:609)
at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProcessorLight.process(AbstractProcessorLight.java:65)
at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$ConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:818)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1623)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.SocketProcessorBase.run(SocketProcessorBase.java:49)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)
Caused by: org.xwiki.velocity.XWikiVelocityException: Failed to evaluate content with id [/skins/flamingo/view.vm]
at org.xwiki.velocity.internal.DefaultVelocityEngine.evaluate(DefaultVelocityEngine.java:227)
at com.xpn.xwiki.render.DefaultVelocityManager.evaluate(DefaultVelocityManager.java:358)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.InternalTemplateManager.evaluateContent(InternalTemplateManager.java:847)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.InternalTemplateManager.render(InternalTemplateManager.java:723)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.InternalTemplateManager.lambda$renderFromSkin$0(InternalTemplateManager.java:698)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.security.authorization.DefaultAuthorExecutor.call(DefaultAuthorExecutor.java:98)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.InternalTemplateManager.renderFromSkin(InternalTemplateManager.java:697)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.InternalTemplateManager.renderFromSkin(InternalTemplateManager.java:676)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.InternalTemplateManager.render(InternalTemplateManager.java:662)
at com.xpn.xwiki.internal.template.DefaultTemplateManager.render(DefaultTemplateManager.java:78)
at com.xpn.xwiki.XWiki.evaluateTemplate(XWiki.java:2290)
... 109 more
Caused by: org.apache.velocity.exception.MethodInvocationException: Invocation of method 'substring' in class java.lang.String threw exception java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: 50 at 38:/skins/flamingo/view.vm[line 3, column 66]
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTMethod.handleInvocationException(ASTMethod.java:243)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTMethod.execute(ASTMethod.java:187)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.execute(ASTReference.java:280)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.value(ASTReference.java:567)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTMethod.execute(ASTMethod.java:151)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.execute(ASTReference.java:280)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.render(ASTReference.java:369)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.SimpleNode.render(SimpleNode.java:342)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.directive.Evaluate.render(Evaluate.java:204)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTDirective.render(ASTDirective.java:207)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTBlock.render(ASTBlock.java:72)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTIfStatement.render(ASTIfStatement.java:87)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.SimpleNode.render(SimpleNode.java:342)
at org.xwiki.velocity.internal.DefaultVelocityEngine.evaluateInternal(DefaultVelocityEngine.java:259)
at org.xwiki.velocity.internal.DefaultVelocityEngine.evaluate(DefaultVelocityEngine.java:222)
... 119 more
Caused by: java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: 50
at java.lang.String.substring(String.java:1963)
at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor528.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
at org.apache.velocity.util.introspection.UberspectImpl$VelMethodImpl.doInvoke(UberspectImpl.java:395)
at org.apache.velocity.util.introspection.UberspectImpl$VelMethodImpl.invoke(UberspectImpl.java:384)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTMethod.execute(ASTMethod.java:173)
... 132 more
Alright, so I fixed it. For posterity, in case someone else likes to tinker like me and wind up breaking things, the site meta information is stored in the xwikipreferences table. Look for the record where xwp_meta is not null. Just clear the value or edit it (which ever you prefer) then restart tomcat.
Indeed, If you break the site meta info then all pages are going to be broken since it’s added to all pages in the HTML header 
Note that one solution to get you out of this is to comment out this line in your ##htmlheader.vm## file and restart xwiki: xwiki-platform/xwiki-platform-core/xwiki-platform-flamingo/xwiki-platform-flamingo-skin/xwiki-platform-flamingo-skin-resources/src/main/resources/flamingo/htmlheader.vm at 71ba7e3e0178d5e3f4aae52805cdf55d145dc5de · xwiki/xwiki-platform · GitHub
Once you’ve fixed the error you should put it back ofc and restart again.
I think we should simply wrap this line with a #try directive to avoid breaking everything. This definitely warrants a JIRA issue! If you can open one that would be great.
Thanks
If you want to try a fix, modify your htmlheader.vm file at xwiki-platform/xwiki-platform-core/xwiki-platform-flamingo/xwiki-platform-flamingo-skin/xwiki-platform-flamingo-skin-resources/src/main/resources/flamingo/htmlheader.vm at 71ba7e3e0178d5e3f4aae52805cdf55d145dc5de · xwiki/xwiki-platform · GitHub with:
## ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
## Add user-defined Meta directives.
## ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
## Note: Velocity code, so it needs to be evaluated.
#try()
#evaluate($!xwiki.getSpacePreference("meta"))
#end