The problem doesn't seemed to have anything to do with Hibernate. As I've commented the Hibernate stuff but I'm still getting it.

If I comment out this line

message = staffDAO.searchForStaff(search);

in my controller file, it goes through ok. But I don't see anything wrong with searchForStaff function. It's a very simple function that just returns the string "test" and run system.out.println("test").

Can you please help? thanks

But this is the error that I'm getting:

SEVERE: Servlet.service() for servlet [spring] in context with path [/directorymaven] threw exception [Request processing failed; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException] with root cause
java.lang.NullPointerException
    at org.flinders.staffdirectory.controllers.SearchController.showSearchResults(SearchController.java:25)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:601)
    at org.springframework.web.method.support.InvocableHandlerMethod.invoke(InvocableHandlerMethod.java:219)
    at org.springframework.web.method.support.InvocableHandlerMethod.invokeForRequest(InvocableHandlerMethod.java:132)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.ServletInvocableHandlerMethod.invokeAndHandle(ServletInvocableHandlerMethod.java:100)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.invokeHandlerMethod(RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.java:604)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.handleInternal(RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.java:565)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.AbstractHandlerMethodAdapter.handle(AbstractHandlerMethodAdapter.java:80)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:923)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:852)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:882)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet(FrameworkServlet.java:778)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:621)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:728)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:305)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:222)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:123)
    at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:472)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:171)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:99)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:931)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:118)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:407)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1004)
    at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:589)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:310)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1110)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:603)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722)

My spring-servlet xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans
    xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
    xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
    xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p"
    xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx.xsd">

    <context:component-scan base-package="org.flinders.staffdirectory.controllers" />

    <mvc:annotation-driven />
    <mvc:resources mapping="/resources/**" location="/resources/" />

    <tx:annotation-driven />

    <bean
        id="propertyConfigurer"
        class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer"
        p:location="/WEB-INF/spring.properties" />
    <bean
        id="dataSource"
        class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource" destroy-method="close"
        p:driverClassName="${jdbc.driverClassName}"
        p:url="${jdbc.databaseurl}"
        p:username="${jdbc.username}"
        p:password="${jdbc.password}" />
    <bean
        id="sessionFactory"
        class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate4.LocalSessionFactoryBean"
        p:dataSource-ref="dataSource"
        p:configLocation="${hibernate.config}"
        p:packagesToScan="org.flinders.staffdirectory"/>
    <bean
        id="transactionManager"
        class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate4.HibernateTransactionManager"
        p:sessionFactory-ref="sessionFactory" />

    <bean id="viewResolver" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.UrlBasedViewResolver"
        p:viewClass="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesView" />
    <bean id="tilesConfigurer" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesConfigurer"
        p:definitions="/WEB-INF/tiles.xml" />

    <bean
        id="staffDAO"
        class="org.flinders.staffdirectory.dao.StaffDAO"
        p:sessionFactory-ref="sessionFactory" />
    <!-- <bean
        id="staffService"
        class="org.flinders.staffdirectory.services.StaffServiceImpl"
        p:staffDAO-ref="staffDAO" />-->
</beans>

This is my controller file

package org.flinders.staffdirectory.controllers;

import java.util.List;

//import org.flinders.staffdirectory.models.database.SearchResult;
import org.flinders.staffdirectory.models.misc.Search;
import org.flinders.staffdirectory.dao.StaffDAO;

//import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ModelAttribute;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ModelAndView;

@Controller
public class SearchController {
    //@Autowired
    private StaffDAO staffDAO;
    private String message;

    @RequestMapping("/SearchStaff")
    public ModelAndView showSearchResults(@ModelAttribute Search search) {

        //List<SearchResult> searchResults =
        message = staffDAO.searchForStaff(search);

        //System.out.println(search.getSurname());
        return new ModelAndView("search/SearchForm", "Search", new Search());
        //return new ModelAndView("search/SearchResults", "searchResults", searchResults);
    }

    @RequestMapping("/SearchForm")
    public ModelAndView showSearchForm() {
        return new ModelAndView("search/SearchForm", "search", new Search());
    }
}

my dao class

package org.flinders.staffdirectory.dao;

import java.util.List;

import org.hibernate.SessionFactory;

//import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;

import org.flinders.staffdirectory.models.database.SearchResult;
import org.flinders.staffdirectory.models.misc.Search;

public class StaffDAO {
    //@Autowired
    private SessionFactory sessionFactory;

    public void setSessionFactory(SessionFactory sessionFactory) {
        this.sessionFactory = sessionFactory;
    }

    public String searchForStaff(Search search) {
        /*String SQL = "select distinct telsumm_id as id, telsumm_parent_id as parentId, telsumm_name_title as title, (case when substr(telsumm_surname, length(telsumm_surname) - 1, 1) = ',' then substr(telsumm_surname, 1, length(telsumm_surname) - 1) else telsumm_surname end) as surname, telsumm_preferred_name as firstname, nvl(telsumm_tele_number, '-') as telephoneNumber, nvl(telsumm_role, '-') as role, telsumm_display_department as department, lower(telsumm_entity_type) as entityType from teldirt.teld_summary where (telsumm_search_surname is not null) and not (nvl(telsumm_tele_directory,'xxx') IN ('N','S','D')) and not (telsumm_tele_number IS NULL AND telsumm_alias IS NULL) and (telsumm_alias_list = 'Y' OR (telsumm_tele_directory IN ('A','B'))) and ((nvl(telsumm_system_id_end,sysdate+1) > SYSDATE and telsumm_entity_type = 'P') or (telsumm_entity_type = 'N')) and (telsumm_search_department NOT like 'SPONSOR%')";

        if (search.getSurname().length() > 0) {
            SQL += " and (telsumm_search_surname like '" + search.getSurname().toUpperCase() + "%')";
        }
        if (search.getSurnameLike().length() > 0) {
            SQL += " and (telsumm_search_soundex like soundex(('%" + search.getSurnameLike().toUpperCase() + "%'))";
        }
        if (search.getFirstname().length() > 0) {
            SQL += " and (telsumm_search_preferred_name like '" + search.getFirstname().toUpperCase() + "%' or telsumm_search_first_name like '" + search.getFirstname() + "%')";
        }
        if (search.getTelephoneNumber().length() > 0) {
            SQL += " and (telsumm_tele_number like '" + search.getTelephoneNumber() + "%')";
        }
        if (search.getDepartment().length() > 0) {
            SQL += " and (telsumm_search_department like '" + search.getDepartment().toUpperCase() + "%')";
        }
        if (search.getRole().length() > 0) {
            SQL += " and (telsumm_search_role like '" + search.getRole().toUpperCase() + "%')";
        }
        SQL += " order by surname, firstname";

        List<Object[]> list = (List<Object[]>) sessionFactory.getCurrentSession().createQuery(SQL).list();

        for(int j=0;j<list.size();j++){
            Object [] obj= (Object[])list.get(j);
            for(int i=0;i<obj.length;i++)
                System.out.println(obj[i]);
        }*/
                System.out.println("test");
             return "test";
    }
}