Hi,

I am fairly new to salesforce and am making a TimeSheet app.

What I have is a dropdown box with a list of accounts. Once an account is selected it should show a dropdown box that contains a list of projects connected to that account. The accounts dropdown box shows but every time a click on an item in the account I get:

System.NullPointerException: Attempt to de-reference a null object
Error is in expression '{!projectsByAccount}' in component <apex:page> in page timesheet

Class.TimesheetEntry.projectsByAccount: line 36, column 1

Here is my VisualForce code:

<apex:page controller="TimesheetEntry" sidebar="false">
    <apex:pageBlock title="Timesheet Entry">
    
    <apex:pageBlockSection >
    Resource Name: {!$User.FirstName} {!$User.LastName}
    </apex:pageBlockSection>
    
    <apex:form >
    <apex:pageBlockSection columns="4">
    
    <apex:pageBlockSectionItem >
    <apex:selectList value="{!accountID}" size="1">
        <apex:selectOptions value="{!accounts}">
        </apex:selectOptions>
        <apex:actionSupport event="onchange" action="{!projectsByAccount}" rerender="projectSectionItem">
            <apex:param name="accountid" assignTo="{!accountID}" value="{!accountID}" />
        </apex:actionSupport>
    </apex:selectList>
    </apex:pageBlockSectionItem>
    
    
    <apex:outputPanel id="projectSectionItem" style="display:{!if(showProjects,'block','none')};">
    <apex:selectList value="{!projectID}" size="1">
        <apex:selectOptions value="{!projects}">
        </apex:selectOptions>
    </apex:selectList>
    </apex:outputPanel>
    
    </apex:pageBlockSection>
    </apex:form>
    </apex:pageBlock>
</apex:page>

 and here is my Custom Controller code:

public with sharing class TimesheetEntry { // sharing class so that user permissions are respected
    
    public String projectID { get; set; }
    public String accountID { get; set; }
    public Boolean showProjects { get; set; }
    public List<SelectOption> projOptions { get; set;}
    
    // Constructor
    public TimesheetEntry() {
        // Do not show the projects dropdown on page load
        System.debug('Constructor');
        showProjects = false;
        List<SelectOption> projOptions = new List<SelectOption>();
    }
    
    // Method referenced in VF page as {!accounts}
    public List<SelectOption> getAccounts() {
        System.debug('getAccounts');
        List<SelectOption> accOptions = new List<SelectOption>();
        accOptions.add(new SelectOption('Select Account', '--Select Account--'));
        for (Account account: [SELECT id, Name FROM Account]) {
           accOptions.add(new SelectOption(account.id, account.Name));
        }
        return accOptions;
    }
    
    // Method referenced in VF page as {!projects}
    public List<SelectOption> getProjects() {
        System.debug('getProjects');
        return projOptions;
    }
    
    // Action call in VF page {!projectsByAccount} referecnces this method
    public PageReference projectsByAccount() {
        System.debug('Inside page reference');
        projOptions.add(new SelectOption('Select Project', '--Select Project--'));
        System.debug('Added first item');
        for (Project__c project: [SELECT id, Name FROM Project__c WHERE 
                Project__c.Account__r.id =: accountID]) {
                projOptions.add(new SelectOption(project.id, project.Name));
            }
        return null;
    }
}

 The only debug statement that is not displayed in the System log is:

System.debug('Added first item');

so I believe that the problem lies in what happens before this line. Being new to the Salesforce platform I am finding it difficult to work it out.

Thanks in advance.

nav