Symptoms

When accessing the Permission Scheme configuration page for a project, a blank page will be displayed and the following error will be thrown in the logs:

java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.atlassian.jira.projectconfig.contextproviders.ProjectPermissionContextProvider.getContextMap(ProjectPermissionContextProvider.java:85)
at com.atlassian.jira.plugin.webfragment.CacheableContextProviderDecorator.initContextMap(CacheableContextProviderDecorator.java:70)
at com.atlassian.jira.plugin.webfragment.CacheableContextProviderDecorator.getContextMap(CacheableContextProviderDecorator.java:46)
at com.atlassian.plugin.web.descriptors.DefaultWebPanelModuleDescriptor$ContextAwareWebPanel.getHtml(DefaultWebPanelModuleDescriptor.java:141)
at com.atlassian.jira.projectconfig.tab.WebPanelTab.getTab(WebPanelTab.java:75)
at com.atlassian.jira.projectconfig.servlet.PanelServlet.outputTab(PanelServlet.java:163)
at com.atlassian.jira.projectconfig.servlet.PanelServlet.doGet(PanelServlet.java:136)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:617)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
at com.atlassian.plugin.servlet.DelegatingPluginServlet.service(DelegatingPluginServlet.java:42)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
at com.atlassian.plugin.servlet.ServletModuleContainerServlet.service(ServletModuleContainerServlet.java:52)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)

[......]

And also, the following exceptions in the atlassian-jira.log:

TP-Processor10 ERROR      [500ErrorPage.jsp] Exception caught in 500 page null
java.lang.NullPointerException
	at com.atlassian.jira.projectconfig.contextproviders.ProjectPermissionContextProvider.getContextMap(ProjectPermissionContextProvider.java:85)
	at com.atlassian.jira.plugin.webfragment.CacheableContextProviderDecorator.initContextMap(CacheableContextProviderDecorator.java:70)
	at com.atlassian.jira.plugin.webfragment.CacheableContextProviderDecorator.getContextMap(CacheableContextProviderDecorator.java:46)
	at com.atlassian.plugin.web.descriptors.DefaultWebPanelModuleDescriptor$ContextAwareWebPanel.getHtml(DefaultWebPanelModuleDescriptor.java:141)
	at com.atlassian.jira.projectconfig.tab.WebPanelTab.getTab(WebPanelTab.java:75)
	at com.atlassian.jira.projectconfig.servlet.PanelServlet.outputTab(PanelServlet.java:163)
	at com.atlassian.jira.projectconfig.servlet.PanelServlet.doGet(PanelServlet.java:136)

Cause

• The affected project do not have any permission scheme associated to it. 
• Project database information is corrupt. See Jira server displays a blank page when viewing Notifications page in Project Administration, or throws a NullPointerException when adding a new mail server for a different Resolution

Resolution 1, preferred

1) Identify the affected project ID: JIRA -> Administration -> Projects -> In the list of Project in the Actions Column Icon click triple dots menu and hover the mouse cursor over the "Edit Menu", see screen shot below:

In the status bar of the browser in the URL string you will see the actual PROJECT ID (highlighted in red rectangle - project ID 10202 in this example)

2) Use another, working project to navigate to Project Permissions, i.e. JIRA -> Another Project -> Project Settings -> Permissions -> Use a different scheme. This will take you to the "Associate Permission Scheme to Project" of the working project. For example:

Here the project ID is 10100 – this is for the working project

3) Now the trick is to change that project ID in the URL string of the working project, from the good project ID to the one of non working one. In this example change 10100 to 10202 and hit Enter. This will take you to the "Associate Permission Scheme to Project" screen of the non working project.

4) Set the default permission scheme and click associate -- this should fix the issue.

Resolution 2 – if Resolution 1 doesn't work for some reason, then the same can be done via a direct database update

1. Identify which projects do not have a Permission Scheme associated with them: 

   SELECT * FROM project WHERE ID NOT IN (SELECT source_node_id FROM nodeassociation WHERE sink_node_entity='PermissionScheme');

2. Get the ID of the project(s) returned; (if the result is null, try Jira server displays a blank page when viewing Notifications page in Project Administration, or throws a NullPointerException when adding a new mail server )

3. STOP JIRA

4. Insert the project permission scheme association data into nodeassociation table:

   INSERT INTO nodeassociation VALUES (<project_id>, 'Project', 0, 'PermissionScheme', 'ProjectScheme', NULL);

    Replace <project_id> with the id from query in step 1.

   This will map the Default Permission Scheme to the project

5. Start JIRA.