java.lang.NullPointerException in Page object Model

Question

I have created this program using TestNG and i'm getting this error java.lan*g.NullPointerException I have initialized the Webelement .But still i'm getting error

POM.java

package TestPOM;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.FindBy;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.How;
import org.openqa.selenium.support.PageFactory;
import org.testng.annotations.AfterClass;
import org.testng.annotations.AfterMethod;
import org.testng.annotations.BeforeClass;
import org.testng.annotations.BeforeMethod;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;
public class POM {
 public WebDriver driver;
 @FindBy(how=How.XPATH,using ="//a[@href='/tasks/tasklist.do']")
 public WebElement lnk_MyAccount;
 
 @BeforeClass
 public void openBrowser() {
 System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver","E:\\Users\\codeRefactor\\CodeRefactor\\Jar\\chromedriver_win32\\Chromedriver.exe");
 driver=new ChromeDriver();
 driver.manage().window().maximize();
 driver.get(" url");
 driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(30,TimeUnit.SECONDS);
 }
 @BeforeMethod
 public void Login()
 {
 driver.findElement(By.id("username")).sendKeys("admin");
 driver.findElement(By.name("pwd")).sendKeys("manager");
 driver.findElement(By.id("loginButton")).click();
 }
 @Test
 public void createcustomr(){
 PageFactory.initElements(driver, POM.class);
 lnk_MyAccount.click();
 
 }
 
 @AfterMethod
 public void Logout() throws InterruptedException
 {
 Thread.sleep(20000);
 driver.findElement(By.xpath("//a[text()='Logout']")).click();
 }
 
 @AfterClass
 public void closeBrowser()
 {
 driver.close();
 }
 
}

can someone help me on this?

Answer 1

When you construct the page using PageFactory.initElements(driver, POM.class); the new instance of the page is created so that the field that you are referring is still null.

What you are doing though is pretty tricky. I would rework your design actually. However changing the mentioned line to PageFactory.initElements(driver, this); might help you..

P.S. - The latter injects the fields into existing object rather than creates a new one of the specified type.

• Patricia: Thank you so much @Alexey R for you clear explanation! It's working fine
• Alexey R.: Great! Feel free to mark my answer as correct.