CFCs returning Null Pointer Exception

Since ColdFusion was rewritten in Java beginning with MX, the useful error messages have become a quagmire of stack traces. Here’s one such example while I was trying to instantiate a CFC inside of another CFC. The error I received is:

The system has attempted to use an undefined value, which usually indicates a programming error, either in your code or some system code. Null Pointers are another name for undefined values.The actual error was the CFC that I was trying to use inside of my other CFC had the roles attribute defined on CFFUNCTION which the parent CFC did not fulfill. Why this didn’t throw an error, I have no idea. Something to watch out for…