Liferay Import Guest layouts from a larFile Programatically - liferay

Question

I am trying to import some guest layouts from a larFile(exported from another instance) in to a liferay instance (can be an already installed_and_configured OR can be a fresh installation) by creating a class which extends SimpleAction in a Start up Hook ( ) and then pointing 'application.startup.events' to this class in the portal-ext.properties file. I want this to run every time the server starts as my larFile version may change over the time. My Code is as follows...
File larFile=new File("/Users/grai001/Desktop/default_guest_public_new_light.lar");
//using absolute path for now -need help in accessing the relative path to ${liferay.home}??
Group guestGroup = GroupLocalServiceUtil.getGroup(1, GroupConstants.GUEST);
LayoutLocalServiceUtil.importLayouts(guestGroup.getCreatorUserId(), guestGroup.getGroupId(), false, new HashMap<String,String[]>(), larFile);
//I want them to be a public layouts which are visible to every one even when a user is not logged in - like the default WHAT-WE-DO kind ofpages in liferay6.1 - I am using 6.1GA2 at both ends
How ever this is giving me null pointer exception and the stack trace is as below..
com.liferay.portal.kernel.exception.SystemException: java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.liferay.portal.service.impl.LayoutLocalServiceImpl.importLayouts(LayoutLocalServiceImpl.java:1398)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.proceed(ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.java:122)
at com.liferay.portal.service.impl.LayoutLocalServiceVirtualLayoutsAdvice.invoke(LayoutLocalServiceVirtualLayoutsAdvice.java:197)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.proceed(ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.java:118)
at com.liferay.portal.service.impl.LayoutLocalServiceStagingAdvice.invoke(LayoutLocalServiceStagingAdvice.java:107)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.proceed(ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.java:118)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.transaction.TransactionInterceptor.invoke(TransactionInterceptor.java:71)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.proceed(ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.java:118)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ChainableMethodAdvice.invoke(ChainableMethodAdvice.java:57)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.proceed(ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.java:118)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ChainableMethodAdvice.invoke(ChainableMethodAdvice.java:57)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.proceed(ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.java:118)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ChainableMethodAdvice.invoke(ChainableMethodAdvice.java:57)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.proceed(ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.java:118)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ChainableMethodAdvice.invoke(ChainableMethodAdvice.java:57)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.proceed(ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.java:118)
at com.liferay.portal.security.pacl.PACLAdvice.invoke(PACLAdvice.java:51)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.proceed(ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.java:118)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ServiceBeanAopProxy.invoke(ServiceBeanAopProxy.java:211)
at $Proxy27.importLayouts(Unknown Source)
at com.liferay.portal.service.LayoutLocalServiceUtil.importLayouts(LayoutLocalServiceUtil.java:1037)
at com.walmart.services.mpportal.liferay.startup.StartupHook.run(StartupHook.java:88)
at com.liferay.portal.events.EventsProcessorImpl.processEvent(EventsProcessorImpl.java:106)
at com.liferay.portal.events.EventsProcessorImpl.process(EventsProcessorImpl.java:58)
at com.liferay.portal.events.EventsProcessorUtil.process(EventsProcessorUtil.java:53)
at com.liferay.portal.util.PortalInstances._initCompany(PortalInstances.java:462)
at com.liferay.portal.util.PortalInstances.initCompany(PortalInstances.java:92)
at com.liferay.portal.servlet.MainServlet.initCompanies(MainServlet.java:798)
at com.liferay.portal.servlet.MainServlet.init(MainServlet.java:355)
at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:160)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.initServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1266)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet(StandardWrapper.java:1185)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load(StandardWrapper.java:1080)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup(StandardContext.java:5015)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5302)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:895)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:871)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:615)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDescriptor(HostConfig.java:649)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployDescriptor.run(HostConfig.java:1585)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:439)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:303)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:680)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.liferay.portal.kernel.util.ParamUtil.getLong(ParamUtil.java:616)
at com.liferay.portal.service.impl.LayoutLocalServiceStagingAdvice.deleteLayout(LayoutLocalServiceStagingAdvice.java:70)
at com.liferay.portal.service.impl.LayoutLocalServiceStagingAdvice.invoke(LayoutLocalServiceStagingAdvice.java:113)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.proceed(ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.java:118)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.transaction.TransactionInterceptor.invoke(TransactionInterceptor.java:71)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.proceed(ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.java:118)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ChainableMethodAdvice.invoke(ChainableMethodAdvice.java:57)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.proceed(ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.java:118)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ChainableMethodAdvice.invoke(ChainableMethodAdvice.java:57)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.proceed(ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.java:118)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ChainableMethodAdvice.invoke(ChainableMethodAdvice.java:57)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.proceed(ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.java:118)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ChainableMethodAdvice.invoke(ChainableMethodAdvice.java:57)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.proceed(ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.java:118)
at com.liferay.portal.security.pacl.PACLAdvice.invoke(PACLAdvice.java:51)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.proceed(ServiceBeanMethodInvocation.java:118)
at com.liferay.portal.spring.aop.ServiceBeanAopProxy.invoke(ServiceBeanAopProxy.java:211)
at $Proxy27.deleteLayout(Unknown Source)
at com.liferay.portal.service.LayoutLocalServiceUtil.deleteLayout(LayoutLocalServiceUtil.java:435)
at com.liferay.portal.lar.LayoutImporter.deleteMissingLayouts(LayoutImporter.java:196)
at com.liferay.portal.lar.LayoutImporter.doImportLayouts(LayoutImporter.java:774)
at com.liferay.portal.lar.LayoutImporter.importLayouts(LayoutImporter.java:147)
at com.liferay.portal.service.impl.LayoutLocalServiceImpl.importLayouts(LayoutLocalServiceImpl.java:1382)
... 50 more
And now doing LayoutLocalServiceUtil.importLayouts(guestGroup.getCreatorUserId(), guestGroup.getGroupId(), true, new HashMap<String,String[]>(), larFile);
ie...importing them as private layouts is working fine - unfortunately I want them to be public and be visible to every one. Also logging in as portal adminstrator and
importing from the UI as public layouts is working well and good. How ever I want this to be done in an automated way.
Trying to solve this problem of mine from the past 1 week - did enough research - but still couldn't. Any kind of help is appreciated..!
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

public void larTest() {
LiferayFacesContext liferayFacesContext = LiferayFacesContext
.getInstance();
ActionRequest request = (ActionRequest) liferayFacesContext
.getPortletRequest();
ThemeDisplay td = (ThemeDisplay) request
.getAttribute(WebKeys.THEME_DISPLAY);
long userId = td.getUserId();
long groupId = td.getScopeGroupId();
File larFile=new File("C:\\Users\\youssef\\dahar\\Downloads\\ok.lar");
//using absolute path for now -need help in accessing the relative path to ${liferay.home}??
Group guestGroup = null;
try {
guestGroup = GroupLocalServiceUtil.getGroup(groupId);
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("catch 1");
e.printStackTrace();
}
try {
LayoutLocalServiceUtil.importLayouts(guestGroup.getCreatorUserId(), guestGroup.getGroupId(), false, new HashMap<String,String[]>(), larFile);
} catch (PortalException e) {
System.out.println("catch 2");
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (SystemException e) {
System.out.println("catch 3");
e.printStackTrace();
}
//I want them to be a public layouts which are visible to every one even when a user is not logged in - like the default WHAT-WE-DO kind ofpages in liferay6.1 - I am using 6.1GA2 at both ends
}
may be can help you this function
it worked for me sometimes and sometimes no :)