This is an extension to ( [Managed-Bean best practice](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24742311/managed-bean-best-practice) ). I have written a class AppProperties that defines the various items in the Class:

```
public class AppProperties implements Serializable {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
        //contents of AppProperties Object
        private String appRepID;
        private String helpRepID;
        private String ruleRepID;
        private String filePath;
        private Vector formNames;
        //end content
        private Session s;
        private String serverName;

        public String getAppRepID() {
            return appRepID;
        }
        public void setAppRepID(String appRepID) {
            this.appRepID = appRepID;
        }
//rest if getters and setters
}

```

In my bean I have the following:

```
import ca.wfsystems.core.AppProperties;

private final Map<String, AppProperties> internalMap = new HashMap<String, AppProperties>();

    public ApplicationMap() {
        this.buildMap(internalMap);
    }

    private void buildMap(Map<String, AppProperties> theMap) {

        try{
            AppProperties ap = null;
            Session s = ExtLibUtil.getCurrentSession();
            vwApps = s.getCurrentDatabase().getView("vwWFSApplications");
            veCol = vwApps.getAllEntries();
            ve = veCol.getFirstEntry();
            tVE = null;
            while (ve != null){
                Vector colVal = ve.getColumnValues();
                String tAppRepID = colVal.get(2).toString();
                ap.setAppRepID(colVal.get(2).toString());
                ap.setHelpRepID(colVal.get(3).toString());
                ap.setRuleRepID(colVal.get(4).toString());

                theMap.put(colVal.get(0).toString(), ap);
            }
        }catch(Exception e){
            System.out.println(e.toString());
        }finally{
            Utils.recycleObjects(s,vwApps);
        }
    }

```

everything seems to be ok except at ap.setAppRepID(colVal(2).toString()) there is a compiler error that "Null pointer access The variable ap can only be null at this point" the code for the setAppRepID and setHelpRepID are identical and there is no compiler error of either setHelpRepID or setRuleRepID. I'm not sure if the problem is in the setting AppProperties ap = null tried to create AppProperties ap = new AppProperties but it doesn't like that. I think I'm really close to making this work but ....

Thanks to all who have been very patient with me as I climb up the JAVA slope.