Jira notification emails are not showing field changes or are showing error message after an upgrade

Summary

After the Jira application was upgraded (usually to 8.13.x or higher), the Jira notifications emails sent when issue fields are updated contain invalid/broken formatting

• either the notification email is missing the old and new value of the fields that were updated

• or the notification email will show an error similar to the ones shown below:

  • Example 1

    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 An error occurred whilst rendering this message. Please contact the administrators, and inform them of this bug. Details: ------- org.apache.velocity.exception.MethodInvocationException: Invocation of method 'diff' in class com.atlassian.jira.mail.DiffUtils threw exception java.lang.NullPointerException at templates/email/html/includes/changelog-issue-description.vm[line 10, column 39] at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTMethod.handleInvocationException(ASTMethod.java:342) at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTMethod.execute(ASTMethod.java:284) at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.execute(ASTReference.java:262) at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.value(ASTReference.java:507) at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTExpression.value(ASTExpression.java:71) at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTSetDirective.render(ASTSetDirective.java:142) at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTBlock.render(ASTBlock.java:72) at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTIfStatement.render(ASTIfStatement.java:87) at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.SimpleNode.render(SimpleNode.java:336) at org.apache.velocity.runtime.directive.Parse.render(Parse.java:263) at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTDirective.render(ASTDirective.java:175) at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.SimpleNode.render(SimpleNode.java:336) at org.apache.velocity.runtime.RuntimeInstance.render(RuntimeInstance.java:1276) at org.apache.velocity.runtime.RuntimeInstance.evaluate(RuntimeInstance.java:1215) at org.apache.velocity.runtime.RuntimeInstance.evaluate(RuntimeInstance.java:1164) at org.apache.velocity.app.VelocityEngine.evaluate(VelocityEngine.java:219) at com.atlassian.velocity.DefaultVelocityManager.writeEncodedBodyForContent(DefaultVelocityManager.java:86) at com.atlassian.jira.template.velocity.DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine$DefaultRenderRequest.toWriterImpl(DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine.java:129) at com.atlassian.jira.template.velocity.DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine$DefaultRenderRequest.asPlainText(DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine.java:108) at com.atlassian.jira.template.velocity.DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine$DefaultRenderRequest$1.with(DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine.java:92) at com.atlassian.jira.template.velocity.DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine$DefaultRenderRequest$StringRepresentation.toString(DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine.java:77) at com.atlassian.jira.template.velocity.DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine$DefaultRenderRequest.asPlainText(DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine.java:94) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.builder.EmailRenderer.renderEmailBody(EmailRenderer.java:103) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.builder.EmailRenderer.render(EmailRenderer.java:150) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.builder.EmailBuilder.renderNow(EmailBuilder.java:155) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.builder.EmailBuilder.renderNowAsQueueItem(EmailBuilder.java:145) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.MailingListCompiler$1.evaluateEmailForRecipient(MailingListCompiler.java:336) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.NotificationRecipientProcessor.evaluateEmails(NotificationRecipientProcessor.java:39) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.MailingListCompiler.evaluateEmails(MailingListCompiler.java:267) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.MailingListCompiler.access$300(MailingListCompiler.java:49) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.MailingListCompiler$NotificationCompiler.lambda$addEmailsToQueue$0(MailingListCompiler.java:466) at java.util.stream.ReferencePipeline$3$1.accept(ReferencePipeline.java:193) at java.util.HashMap$EntrySpliterator.forEachRemaining(HashMap.java:1699) at java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.copyInto(AbstractPipeline.java:482) at java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.wrapAndCopyInto(AbstractPipeline.java:472) at java.util.stream.ReduceOps$ReduceOp.evaluateSequential(ReduceOps.java:708) at java.util.stream.AbstractPipeline.evaluate(AbstractPipeline.java:234) at java.util.stream.ReferencePipeline.collect(ReferencePipeline.java:566) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.MailingListCompiler$NotificationCompiler.addEmailsToQueue(MailingListCompiler.java:468) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.MailingListCompiler$NotificationCompiler.sendLists(MailingListCompiler.java:438) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.MailingListCompiler$NotificationCompiler.sendNoLevelsIgnoreGroup(MailingListCompiler.java:414) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.MailingListCompiler$NotificationCompiler.evaluateForAll(MailingListCompiler.java:410) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.MailingListCompiler.prepareEmail(MailingListCompiler.java:170) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.MailingListCompiler.sendLists(MailingListCompiler.java:101) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.IssueMailQueueItem.send(IssueMailQueueItem.java:128) at com.atlassian.mail.queue.MailQueueImpl.sendBufferUnderLock(MailQueueImpl.java:83) at com.atlassian.mail.queue.MailQueueImpl.sendBuffer(MailQueueImpl.java:47) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.JiraMailQueue$1.apply(JiraMailQueue.java:51) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.JiraMailQueue$1.apply(JiraMailQueue.java:48) at com.atlassian.jira.util.velocity.DefaultVelocityRequestContextFactory.runWithStaticBaseUrl(DefaultVelocityRequestContextFactory.java:110) at com.atlassian.jira.util.DefaultBaseUrl.runWithStaticBaseUrl(DefaultBaseUrl.java:56) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.JiraMailQueue.sendBuffer(JiraMailQueue.java:48) at com.atlassian.jira.service.services.mail.MailQueueService.run(MailQueueService.java:21) at com.atlassian.jira.service.JiraServiceContainerImpl.run(JiraServiceContainerImpl.java:68) at com.atlassian.jira.service.ServiceRunner.runService(ServiceRunner.java:62) at com.atlassian.jira.service.ServiceRunner.runServiceId(ServiceRunner.java:44) at com.atlassian.jira.service.ServiceRunner.runJob(ServiceRunner.java:32) at com.atlassian.scheduler.core.JobLauncher.runJob(JobLauncher.java:134) at com.atlassian.scheduler.core.JobLauncher.launchAndBuildResponse(JobLauncher.java:106) at com.atlassian.scheduler.core.JobLauncher.launch(JobLauncher.java:90) at com.atlassian.scheduler.caesium.impl.CaesiumSchedulerService.launchJob(CaesiumSchedulerService.java:435) at com.atlassian.scheduler.caesium.impl.CaesiumSchedulerService.executeLocalJob(CaesiumSchedulerService.java:402) at com.atlassian.scheduler.caesium.impl.CaesiumSchedulerService.executeQueuedJob(CaesiumSchedulerService.java:380) at com.atlassian.scheduler.caesium.impl.SchedulerQueueWorker.executeJob(SchedulerQueueWorker.java:66) at com.atlassian.scheduler.caesium.impl.SchedulerQueueWorker.executeNextJob(SchedulerQueueWorker.java:60) at com.atlassian.scheduler.caesium.impl.SchedulerQueueWorker.run(SchedulerQueueWorker.java:35) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748) Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException at java.util.regex.Matcher.getTextLength(Matcher.java:1283) at java.util.regex.Matcher.reset(Matcher.java:309) at java.util.regex.Matcher.<init>(Matcher.java:229) at java.util.regex.Pattern.matcher(Pattern.java:1093) at com.atlassian.diff.WordLevelDiffer.tokenize(WordLevelDiffer.java:161) at com.atlassian.diff.WordLevelDiffer.diffLine(WordLevelDiffer.java:89) at com.atlassian.diff.DiffViewBean.createWordLevelDiff(DiffViewBean.java:108) at com.atlassian.jira.mail.DiffUtils.diff(DiffUtils.java:19) at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor15181.invoke(Unknown Source) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498) at org.apache.velocity.util.introspection.UberspectImpl$VelMethodImpl.doInvoke(UberspectImpl.java:385) at org.apache.velocity.util.introspection.UberspectImpl$VelMethodImpl.invoke(UberspectImpl.java:374) at com.atlassian.velocity.htmlsafe.introspection.UnboxingMethod.invoke(UnboxingMethod.java:28) at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTMethod.execute(ASTMethod.java:270) ... 65 more

  • Example 2

    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 An error occurred whilst rendering this message. Please contact the administrators, and inform them of this bug. Details: ------- org.apache.velocity.exception.MethodInvocationException: Invocation of method 'formatUsername' in class com.atlassian.jira.plugin.userformat.DefaultUserFormatManager threw exception com.google.common.util.concurrent.UncheckedExecutionException: java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "com.atlassian.jira.template.soy.SoyTemplateRendererProvider.getRenderer()" because the return value of "com.atlassian.jira.component.ComponentAccessor.getOSGiComponentInstanceOfType(java.lang.Class)" is null, at templates/email/macros.vm[line 15, column 21], at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTMethod.handleInvocationException(ASTMethod.java:342), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTMethod.execute(ASTMethod.java:284), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.execute(ASTReference.java:262), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.render(ASTReference.java:342), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTBlock.render(ASTBlock.java:72), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTIfStatement.render(ASTIfStatement.java:87), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTBlock.render(ASTBlock.java:72), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.directive.VelocimacroProxy.render(VelocimacroProxy.java:212), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.directive.RuntimeMacro.render(RuntimeMacro.java:247), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTDirective.render(ASTDirective.java:175), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.SimpleNode.render(SimpleNode.java:336), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTStringLiteral.value(ASTStringLiteral.java:290), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTExpression.value(ASTExpression.java:71), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTSetDirective.render(ASTSetDirective.java:142), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTBlock.render(ASTBlock.java:72), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.SimpleNode.render(SimpleNode.java:336), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTIfStatement.render(ASTIfStatement.java:106), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTBlock.render(ASTBlock.java:72), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.directive.VelocimacroProxy.render(VelocimacroProxy.java:212), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.directive.RuntimeMacro.render(RuntimeMacro.java:247), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTDirective.render(ASTDirective.java:175), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.SimpleNode.render(SimpleNode.java:336), at org.apache.velocity.Template.merge(Template.java:328), at org.apache.velocity.Template.merge(Template.java:235), at org.apache.velocity.app.VelocityEngine.mergeTemplate(VelocityEngine.java:381), at com.atlassian.velocity.DefaultVelocityManager.writeEncodedBodyImpl(DefaultVelocityManager.java:98), at com.atlassian.velocity.DefaultVelocityManager.writeEncodedBody(DefaultVelocityManager.java:84), at com.atlassian.jira.template.velocity.DefaultDelegatingJiraVelocityManager.writeEncodedBody(DefaultDelegatingJiraVelocityManager.java:137), at com.atlassian.jira.template.velocity.DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine$DefaultRenderRequest.toWriterImpl(DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine.java:122), at com.atlassian.jira.template.velocity.DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine$DefaultRenderRequest.asPlainText(DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine.java:108), at com.atlassian.jira.template.velocity.DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine$DefaultRenderRequest$1.with(DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine.java:92), at com.atlassian.jira.template.velocity.DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine$DefaultRenderRequest$StringRepresentation.toString(DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine.java:77), at com.atlassian.jira.template.velocity.DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine$DefaultRenderRequest.asPlainText(DefaultVelocityTemplatingEngine.java:94), at com.atlassian.jira.mail.builder.EmailRenderer.renderPlainTextBody(EmailRenderer.java:137), at com.atlassian.jira.mail.builder.EmailRenderer.renderHtmlBody(EmailRenderer.java:142), at com.atlassian.jira.mail.builder.EmailRenderer.renderEmailBody(EmailRenderer.java:121), at com.atlassian.jira.mail.builder.EmailRenderer.render(EmailRenderer.java:170), at com.atlassian.jira.mail.builder.RenderingMailQueueItem.send(RenderingMailQueueItem.java:29), at com.atlassian.jira.mail.CountingMailQueueItemWrapper.send(CountingMailQueueItemWrapper.java:26), at com.atlassian.mail.queue.MailQueueImpl.sendBufferUnderLock(MailQueueImpl.java:83), at com.atlassian.mail.queue.MailQueueImpl.sendBuffer(MailQueueImpl.java:47), at com.atlassian.jira.mail.JiraMailQueue.lambda$sendAndUpdateIpdMetric$0(JiraMailQueue.java:154), at com.atlassian.jira.util.velocity.DefaultVelocityRequestContextFactory.runWithStaticBaseUrl(DefaultVelocityRequestContextFactory.java:110), at com.atlassian.jira.util.DefaultBaseUrl.runWithStaticBaseUrl(DefaultBaseUrl.java:56), at com.atlassian.jira.mail.JiraMailQueue.sendAndUpdateIpdMetric(JiraMailQueue.java:153), at com.atlassian.jira.mail.JiraMailQueue.sendBuffer(JiraMailQueue.java:70), at com.atlassian.jira.service.services.mail.MailQueueService.run(MailQueueService.java:21), at com.atlassian.jira.service.JiraServiceContainerImpl.run(JiraServiceContainerImpl.java:68), at com.atlassian.jira.service.ServiceRunner.runService(ServiceRunner.java:62), at com.atlassian.jira.service.ServiceRunner.runServiceId(ServiceRunner.java:44), at com.atlassian.jira.service.ServiceRunner.runJob(ServiceRunner.java:32), at com.atlassian.scheduler.core.JobLauncher.runJob(JobLauncher.java:134), at com.atlassian.scheduler.core.JobLauncher.launchAndBuildResponse(JobLauncher.java:106), at com.atlassian.scheduler.core.JobLauncher.launch(JobLauncher.java:90), at com.atlassian.scheduler.caesium.impl.CaesiumSchedulerService.launchJob(CaesiumSchedulerService.java:500), at com.atlassian.scheduler.caesium.impl.CaesiumSchedulerService.executeLocalJobWithRetryOnFailure(CaesiumSchedulerService.java:463), at com.atlassian.scheduler.caesium.impl.CaesiumSchedulerService.executeQueuedJob(CaesiumSchedulerService.java:413), at com.atlassian.scheduler.caesium.impl.SchedulerQueueWorker.executeJob(SchedulerQueueWorker.java:66), at com.atlassian.scheduler.caesium.impl.SchedulerQueueWorker.executeNextJob(SchedulerQueueWorker.java:60), at com.atlassian.scheduler.caesium.impl.SchedulerQueueWorker.run(SchedulerQueueWorker.java:35), at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source) Caused by: com.google.common.util.concurrent.UncheckedExecutionException: java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "com.atlassian.jira.template.soy.SoyTemplateRendererProvider.getRenderer()" because the return value of "com.atlassian.jira.component.ComponentAccessor.getOSGiComponentInstanceOfType(java.lang.Class)" is null, at com.google.common.cache.LocalCache$Segment.get(LocalCache.java:2086), at com.google.common.cache.LocalCache.get(LocalCache.java:4012), at com.google.common.cache.LocalCache$LocalManualCache.get(LocalCache.java:4920), at com.atlassian.jira.plugin.userformat.CachingUserFormat.formattedUserProfileFromCacheIfAny(CachingUserFormat.java:69), at com.atlassian.jira.plugin.userformat.CachingUserFormat.format(CachingUserFormat.java:62), at com.atlassian.jira.plugin.userformat.UserFormatterImpl.formatUsername(UserFormatterImpl.java:44), at com.atlassian.jira.plugin.userformat.DefaultUserFormatManager.formatUsername(DefaultUserFormatManager.java:60), at jdk.internal.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor30775.invoke(Unknown Source), at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source), at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source), at org.apache.velocity.util.introspection.UberspectImpl$VelMethodImpl.doInvoke(UberspectImpl.java:385), at org.apache.velocity.util.introspection.UberspectImpl$VelMethodImpl.invoke(UberspectImpl.java:374), at com.atlassian.velocity.htmlsafe.introspection.UnboxingMethod.invoke(UnboxingMethod.java:28), at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTMethod.execute(ASTMethod.java:270) ... 59 more Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "com.atlassian.jira.template.soy.SoyTemplateRendererProvider.getRenderer()" because the return value of "com.atlassian.jira.component.ComponentAccessor.getOSGiComponentInstanceOfType(java.lang.Class)" is null, at com.atlassian.jira.plugin.userformat.ProfileLinkUserFormat.getSoyRenderer(ProfileLinkUserFormat.java:113), at com.atlassian.jira.plugin.userformat.ProfileLinkUserFormat.getInitialParams(ProfileLinkUserFormat.java:108), at com.atlassian.jira.plugin.userformat.ProfileLinkUserFormat.format(ProfileLinkUserFormat.java:67), at com.atlassian.jira.plugin.userformat.CachingUserFormat$1.call(CachingUserFormat.java:85), at com.atlassian.jira.plugin.userformat.CachingUserFormat$1.call(CachingUserFormat.java:82), at com.google.common.cache.LocalCache$LocalManualCache$1.load(LocalCache.java:4925), at com.google.common.cache.LocalCache$LoadingValueReference.loadFuture(LocalCache.java:3571), at com.google.common.cache.LocalCache$Segment.loadSync(LocalCache.java:2313), at com.google.common.cache.LocalCache$Segment.lockedGetOrLoad(LocalCache.java:2190), at com.google.common.cache.LocalCache$Segment.get(LocalCache.java:2080) ... 72 more

Environment

Jira Data Center 8.13.x

Diagnosis

• The issue only occurs when Batched Notifications are disabled in ⚙ > System > Batching email notifications

• The issue usually occurs after an upgrade to Jira 8.13.0 or higher

• The velocity templates for the non-batched notifications were manually modified (Jira is not using the templates that ship out-of-the-box), which can be verified in the Jira application logs, right after a Jira re-start:

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 ___ Modifications ___________________________ Modified Files : templates/email/subject/issueresolved.vm, templates/email/subject/issuecreated.vm, templates/email/subject/issuereopened.vm, templates/email/subject/issueclosed.vm, templates/email/html/includes/fields/worklogchanges.vm, templates/email/subject/issueworkstopped.vm, templates/email/html/issuecommentedited.vm, templates/jira/issue/field/issuetype-columnview.vm, templates/email/html/includes/changelog-issue-description.vm, templates/email/subject/issuegenericevent.vm, templates/email/subject/issuearchived.vm, templates/email/subject/issueassigned.vm, templates/email/subject/issueworkstarted.vm, templates/email/subject/issuedeleted.vm, templates/email/html/includes/set-issue-details-context.vm, templates/email/html/includes/patterns/worklog-top.vm, templates/email/subject/issueworklogdeleted.vm, templates/email/subject/issuecommentedited.vm, templates/email/subject/issueworklogupdated.vm, templates/email/subject/issueupdated.vm, templates/email/subject/issueworklogged.vm, templates/email/subject/issuerestored.vm, templates/email/subject/issuecommented.vm, templates/email/html/includes/fields/changelog.vm, templates/email/subject/issuemoved.vm Removed Files : None

• The 3rd party add-on JEditor - Rich Text Editor for Jira might be installed in the Jira application:

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 <plugin> <key>com.jiraeditor.jeditor</key> <name>JEditor</name> <version>3.9.10.1</version> <vendor>Bobronix</vendor> <status>ENABLED</status> <vendor-url>https://bobronix.com</vendor-url> <framework-version>2</framework-version> <bundled>User installed</bundled> </plugin>

Cause

The velocity templates used by the Jira non-batched notifications have been manually customized (or some of these templates are coming from the 3rd party add-on JEditor), and the customization is no longer working in Jira 8.13.0.

Any customization of these velocity templates falls outside of Jira Support Offerings, therefore Atlassian cannot guarantee that these customizations will work in any Jira version.

Solution

Revert all the velocity templates to the original ones that ship with Jira out-of-the-box:

• Go to the Jira Server download page and download the zip file from the Jira version that your Jira application was last upgraded to

• Unzip the Jira installer

• Go to the Jira installation directory and backup the entire folder <JIRA_INSTALL_DIRECTORY>/atlassian-jira/WEB-INF/classes/templates/email/

• Stop the Jira application

• Replace this folder with the fresh folder that ships with the unzipped Jira installer

• Start the Jira application

• Repeat these steps for each Jira node, in case Jira is using Data Center with multiple nodes

• Trigger a few Jira notifications by editing some fields in Jira issues, and verify that the notifications now have the correct content