NullPointerException in ResponseAssertion if "JMeter Variable" is not existing

[asfimport]

christopher.roscoe (Bug 55773):
Apache JMeter Version 2.10 r1533061

I was adding a Reponse Assertion element to my existing JDBC-Sampler and ran my test.
If failed with "Assertion failure message: java.lang.NullPointerException".
In the log i saw this message.

2013/11/13 10:47:33 ERROR - jmeter.threads.JMeterThread: Exception processing Assertion java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.apache.jmeter.assertions.ResponseAssertion.evaluateResponse(ResponseAssertion.java:337)
at org.apache.jmeter.assertions.ResponseAssertion.getResult(ResponseAssertion.java:201)
at org.apache.jmeter.threads.JMeterThread.processAssertion(JMeterThread.java:706)
at org.apache.jmeter.threads.JMeterThread.checkAssertions(JMeterThread.java:677)
at org.apache.jmeter.threads.JMeterThread.process_sampler(JMeterThread.java:440)
at org.apache.jmeter.threads.JMeterThread.run(JMeterThread.java:257)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)

Only with debugging JMeter i found out, that i had a typo in the "JMeter Variable" parameter.

See the attached testcase to reproduce the exception.

I would expect an errormessage, that tells me exactly what is wrong.
e.g. "variable x not found in current scope"

Created attachment ResponseAssertion.jmx: Testcase to reproduce

ResponseAssertion.jmx

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<jmeterTestPlan version="1.2" properties="2.5" jmeter="2.10 r1533061">
  <hashTree>
    <TestPlan guiclass="TestPlanGui" testclass="TestPlan" testname="Test Plan" enabled="true">
      <stringProp name="TestPlan.comments"></stringProp>
      <boolProp name="TestPlan.functional_mode">false</boolProp>
      <boolProp name="TestPlan.serialize_threadgroups">true</boolProp>
      <elementProp name="TestPlan.user_defined_variables" elementType="Arguments" guiclass="ArgumentsPanel" testclass="Arguments" testname="User Defined Variables" enabled="true">
        <collectionProp name="Arguments.arguments"/>
      </elementProp>
      <stringProp name="TestPlan.user_define_classpath"></stringProp>
    </TestPlan>
    <hashTree>
      <ThreadGroup guiclass="ThreadGroupGui" testclass="ThreadGroup" testname="Thread Group" enabled="true">
        <stringProp name="ThreadGroup.on_sample_error">continue</stringProp>
        <elementProp name="ThreadGroup.main_controller" elementType="LoopController" guiclass="LoopControlPanel" testclass="LoopController" testname="Loop Controller" enabled="true">
          <boolProp name="LoopController.continue_forever">false</boolProp>
          <stringProp name="LoopController.loops">1</stringProp>
        </elementProp>
        <stringProp name="ThreadGroup.num_threads">1</stringProp>
        <stringProp name="ThreadGroup.ramp_time">1</stringProp>
        <longProp name="ThreadGroup.start_time">1384336544000</longProp>
        <longProp name="ThreadGroup.end_time">1384336544000</longProp>
        <boolProp name="ThreadGroup.scheduler">false</boolProp>
        <stringProp name="ThreadGroup.duration"></stringProp>
        <stringProp name="ThreadGroup.delay"></stringProp>
      </ThreadGroup>
      <hashTree>
        <DebugSampler guiclass="TestBeanGUI" testclass="DebugSampler" testname="Debug Sampler" enabled="true">
          <boolProp name="displayJMeterProperties">false</boolProp>
          <boolProp name="displayJMeterVariables">true</boolProp>
          <boolProp name="displaySystemProperties">false</boolProp>
        </DebugSampler>
        <hashTree>
          <ResponseAssertion guiclass="AssertionGui" testclass="ResponseAssertion" testname="Response Assertion" enabled="true">
            <collectionProp name="Asserion.test_strings">
              <stringProp name="48">0</stringProp>
            </collectionProp>
            <stringProp name="Assertion.test_field">Assertion.response_data</stringProp>
            <boolProp name="Assertion.assume_success">false</boolProp>
            <intProp name="Assertion.test_type">8</intProp>
            <stringProp name="Assertion.scope">variable</stringProp>
            <stringProp name="Scope.variable">notExisting</stringProp>
          </ResponseAssertion>
          <hashTree/>
        </hashTree>
      </hashTree>
      <ResultCollector guiclass="ViewResultsFullVisualizer" testclass="ResultCollector" testname="View Results Tree" enabled="true">
        <boolProp name="ResultCollector.error_logging">false</boolProp>
        <objProp>
          <name>saveConfig</name>
          <value class="SampleSaveConfiguration">
            <time>true</time>
            <latency>true</latency>
            <timestamp>true</timestamp>
            <success>true</success>
            <label>true</label>
            <code>true</code>
            <message>true</message>
            <threadName>true</threadName>
            <dataType>true</dataType>
            <encoding>false</encoding>
            <assertions>true</assertions>
            <subresults>true</subresults>
            <responseData>false</responseData>
            <samplerData>false</samplerData>
            <xml>false</xml>
            <fieldNames>false</fieldNames>
            <responseHeaders>false</responseHeaders>
            <requestHeaders>false</requestHeaders>
            <responseDataOnError>false</responseDataOnError>
            <saveAssertionResultsFailureMessage>false</saveAssertionResultsFailureMessage>
            <assertionsResultsToSave>0</assertionsResultsToSave>
            <bytes>true</bytes>
          </value>
        </objProp>
        <stringProp name="filename"></stringProp>
      </ResultCollector>
      <hashTree/>
    </hashTree>
  </hashTree>
</jmeterTestPlan>

Severity: normal
OS: All

Duplicated by:

• Assertions and Extractors : Avoid NullPointerException when scope is variable and variable is missing #3259

[asfimport]

@pmouawad (migrated from Bugzilla):
See duplicate bug which scope has been enlarged to better handle scope variable

This bug has been marked as a duplicate of #3259