java.lang.NullPointerException when building Firestore connection with my project id - spring

Question

I am trying to build a Firestore connection from my Google App Engine web application. I have followed the tutorial on google's website (https://cloud.google.com/firestore/docs/quickstart-servers) and setup the necessary service key as well as set the environment variable GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS to the path of the json file with the key. However, I keep getting a NullPointerException on the line when I call the build() ater setting my project id. Has anyone encountered this same problem and have fixed it before? I can't find any similar problems online. There is not many lines of code so it seems like the problem should be relatively simple.
This is the error itself:
Caused by:
java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkNotNull(Preconditions.java:770)
at com.google.cloud.ServiceOptions$Builder.setCredentials(ServiceOptions.java:203)
at com.google.cloud.firestore.FirestoreOptions$Builder.build(FirestoreOptions.java:213)
at com.tellafirma.mappers.PierMapper.(PierMapper.java:63)
at com.tellafirma.controller.PierController.displayLogin(PierController.java:60)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
at org.springframework.web.method.support.InvocableHandlerMethod.invoke(InvocableHandlerMethod.java:219)
at org.springframework.web.method.support.InvocableHandlerMethod.invokeForRequest(InvocableHandlerMethod.java:132)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.ServletInvocableHandlerMethod.invokeAndHandle(ServletInvocableHandlerMethod.java:104)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.invokeHandleMethod(RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.java:745)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.handleInternal(RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.java:686)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.AbstractHandlerMethodAdapter.handle(AbstractHandlerMethodAdapter.java:80)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:925)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:856)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:936)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet(FrameworkServlet.java:827)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:687)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.service(FrameworkServlet.java:812)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:790)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder.handle(ServletHolder.java:867)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1623)
at com.google.appengine.tools.development.ResponseRewriterFilter.doFilter(ResponseRewriterFilter.java:134)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1610)
at com.google.appengine.tools.development.HeaderVerificationFilter.doFilter(HeaderVerificationFilter.java:34)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1610)
at com.google.appengine.api.blobstore.dev.ServeBlobFilter.doFilter(ServeBlobFilter.java:63)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1610)
at com.google.apphosting.utils.servlet.TransactionCleanupFilter.doFilter(TransactionCleanupFilter.java:48)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1610)
at com.google.appengine.tools.development.jetty9.StaticFileFilter.doFilter(StaticFileFilter.java:123)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1610)
at com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerModulesFilter.doDirectRequest(DevAppServerModulesFilter.java:366)
at com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerModulesFilter.doDirectModuleRequest(DevAppServerModulesFilter.java:349)
at com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerModulesFilter.doFilter(DevAppServerModulesFilter.java:116)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1610)
at com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerRequestLogFilter.doFilter(DevAppServerRequestLogFilter.java:44)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1602)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler.doHandle(ServletHandler.java:540)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ScopedHandler.handle(ScopedHandler.java:146)
at org.eclipse.jetty.security.SecurityHandler.handle(SecurityHandler.java:524)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.HandlerWrapper.handle(HandlerWrapper.java:132)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ScopedHandler.nextHandle(ScopedHandler.java:257)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.session.SessionHandler.doHandle(SessionHandler.java:1588)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ScopedHandler.nextHandle(ScopedHandler.java:255)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandler.doHandle(ContextHandler.java:1345)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ScopedHandler.nextScope(ScopedHandler.java:203)
at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler.doScope(ServletHandler.java:480)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.session.SessionHandler.doScope(SessionHandler.java:1557)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ScopedHandler.nextScope(ScopedHandler.java:201)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandler.doScope(ContextHandler.java:1247)
at com.google.appengine.tools.development.jetty9.DevAppEngineWebAppContext.doScope(DevAppEngineWebAppContext.java:94)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ScopedHandler.handle(ScopedHandler.java:144)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.HandlerWrapper.handle(HandlerWrapper.java:132)
at com.google.appengine.tools.development.jetty9.JettyContainerService$ApiProxyHandler.handle(JettyContainerService.java:595)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.HandlerWrapper.handle(HandlerWrapper.java:132)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.Server.handle(Server.java:502)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.HttpChannel.handle(HttpChannel.java:364)
at org.eclipse.jetty.server.HttpConnection.onFillable(HttpConnection.java:260)
at org.eclipse.jetty.io.AbstractConnection$ReadCallback.succeeded(AbstractConnection.java:305)
at org.eclipse.jetty.io.FillInterest.fillable(FillInterest.java:103)
at org.eclipse.jetty.io.ChannelEndPoint$2.run(ChannelEndPoint.java:118)
at org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.QueuedThreadPool.runJob(QueuedThreadPool.java:765)
at org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.QueuedThreadPool$2.run(QueuedThreadPool.java:683)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)
I have tried redoing the service key and setting the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS again through the command line. I have printed out the FirestoreOptions object and the FirestoreOptions.Builder object and those have memory addresses that are non-null. I separated each metthod call to try and see specificalyl where the error was happening and it is on the build() line. I also updated my cloud components to see if anything was out of date.
public PierMapper(String id)
{
projectId = id;
firestoreOptions = FirestoreOptions.getDefaultInstance();
System.out.println(firestoreOptions.toString());
firestoreBuilder = firestoreOptions.toBuilder();
System.out.println(firestoreBuilder.toString());
firestoreBuilder = firestoreBuilder.setProjectId(projectId);
System.out.println(firestoreBuilder.toString());
System.out.println(firestoreBuilder.build());
firestoreOptions = firestoreBuilder.build();
database = firestoreOptions.getService();
}
I need to get this connection working to Firestore so I can begin to read and write data from my webapp.

Answer 1

Try setting GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS to the full path to your json file. I suspect your app isn't finding your key file.
You can also try using gcloud auth application-default login, as described here, instead of the env variable.