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)

The following exception can also appear 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)

Environment

Jira Server / Data Center on any version from 8.0.0.

Root Cause

• The affected Project does not have any permission scheme associated with it. 
• Project database information is corrupt.
  • See Jira displays a blank page when viewing the Notifications page in Project Administration, or throws a NullPointerException when adding a new SMTP mail server for further SQL queries to investigate project schemes not being associated with projects.

We aim to resolve the previous permission scheme that has been corrupted or otherwise removed to a working Permission Scheme. Below are a few resolution steps to associate a new Permission Scheme.

Resolution 1 - Edit via the Jira project admin UI

The preferred resolution is to navigate to your Jira SelectProjectPermissionScheme page and associate your broken Project with a new Permission Scheme.

The steps below detail how to navigate to the URL to associate Permission Schemes.

1. Identify the affected project ID.
   • Go to ⚙ > Projects
   • Search for the Key or Name of the affected Project
   • In the Actions Column Icon, click the triple dots menu and hover the mouse cursor over the "Edit Menu"
   • In the status bar of the browser in the URL string, you will see the actual PROJECT ID
     • (In the example below, this ID is highlighted in red rectangle - project ID 10202):
       
2. Use a known working project to navigate to the page where you associate Project Permissions
   • You can navigate to this page via ⚙ > Projects > Another Project > Project Settings > Permissions > Use a different scheme
   • This will take you to the "Associate Permission Scheme to Project" of the working Project.
   • In the same URL for associating a permission scheme to your working project, capture the URL associated.
     For example:
     
3. With this URL, change the project ID of the working Project to the project ID identified in Step 1.
   • In this article, the correct URL would be HTTP://<jira-base-url>/secure/project/SelectProjectPermissionScheme!default.jspa?projectId=10202
   • You will be redirected to associate a Permission Scheme against your affected Project.
4. Set the default Permission Scheme or any known working Permission Scheme and associate it with your Project.

Resolution 2 – Direct database update with Default Permission Scheme

This problem can also be fixed by manually associating the Project to the Default Permission Scheme: 

1. Identify which projects don't 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 this query is empty, also view Jira displays a blank page when viewing the Notifications page in Project Administration, or throws a NullPointerException when adding a new SMTP mail server for more details.)

3. Stop Jira

   1. If you are running a cluster environment, please stop all nodes.

4. Verify you have a Default Permission Scheme:
   

   SELECT * FROM schemepermissions WHERE scheme = 0;

   • If you don't have a result from this query, please follow Resolution 3.

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

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

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

   The query above will map the Default Permission Scheme to the Project.

6. Start Jira
   

Resolution 3 - Create a new Default Permission Scheme in your database

If you have followed step 4 from Resolution 2 to verify if a Default Permission Scheme is extant and there is no results, you will need to re-create a Default Permission Scheme to return normal functionality for any new projects. Below are the steps to restore the Default Permission Scheme via the database:

1. Find a currently working Permission Scheme in your Jira application and copy it.
   •  You can do this as a Jira Administrator via ⚙ > Issues  > Permission Schemes > Actions (Copy)
   • Rename this new scheme to be appropriate as a default Permission Scheme.
2. Navigate to the new Permission Scheme via the Actions (Permissions) link, and check the schemeID value that has been created.
   • In the below example, the new SchemeID is 10001
     
3. Stop Jira

4. Update the new schemeID of your cloned permission scheme to 0 (the default permission scheme value)

   UPDATE schemepermissions SET scheme = 0 WHERE scheme = <cloned-schemeid>;

5. Start Jira