Question & Answer
Question
Some users are unable to launch the IBM SPSS Modeler application and instead receive a java stack trace error that looks like this: java.lang.NullPointerException at com.spss.clementine.application.SLMTagLogger.B(Unknown Source) at com.spss.clementine.application.SLMTagLogger.(Unknown Source) at com.spss.clementine.application.AbstractApplication.startup(Unknown Source) etc....
Cause
This error occurs because the user running the Modeler client application does not have permission to create or update the *.slmtag files that are required for Modeler to function.
Answer
On Windows:
To resolve this problem you either need to grant specific permission to that user to be able to create and update files in this default directory location:
C:\ProgramData\IBM\SPSS\Modeler\18.0\log
Or alternately, change the location of the files to a different directory where the user does have appropriate permissions. To change the location of those files, you would need to go to the config directory within the installation directory of Modeler (by default C:\Program Files\IBM\SPSS\Modeler\18.0\config) and open the "log4j.properties" file in a text editor. Then find this line:
log4j.appender.MainLog.File=${ALLUSERSPROFILE}/IBM/SPSS/Modeler/18.0/log/client_logging.log
And change the location of that log file to be something else, like for example:
log4j.appender.MainLog.File=C:/temp/client_logging.log
Make sure to use forward slashes in the path that is used here. And note, even though this setting refers to the client log file, this setting does also control where the SLMTag files are written to as well.
C:\ProgramData\IBM\SPSS\Modeler\18.0\log
Or alternately, change the location of the files to a different directory where the user does have appropriate permissions. To change the location of those files, you would need to go to the config directory within the installation directory of Modeler (by default C:\Program Files\IBM\SPSS\Modeler\18.0\config) and open the "log4j.properties" file in a text editor. Then find this line:
log4j.appender.MainLog.File=${ALLUSERSPROFILE}/IBM/SPSS/Modeler/18.0/log/client_logging.log
And change the location of that log file to be something else, like for example:
log4j.appender.MainLog.File=C:/temp/client_logging.log
Make sure to use forward slashes in the path that is used here. And note, even though this setting refers to the client log file, this setting does also control where the SLMTag files are written to as well.
On Mac:
To resolve this problem you either need to grant specific permission to that user to be able to create and update files in these default directory locations:
/Applications/IBM/SPSS/.Modeler/18.2/SPSSModeler.app/Contents/log
and
/Application/IBM/SPSS/Modeler/18.2/properties/18.2.0.0/ibm.com_IBM_SPSS_Modeler_Desktop_-_IBM_SPSS_Modeler_Professional-18.2.0.swidtag
/Applications/IBM/SPSS/.Modeler/18.2/SPSSModeler.app/Contents/log
and
/Application/IBM/SPSS/Modeler/18.2/properties/18.2.0.0/ibm.com_IBM_SPSS_Modeler_Desktop_-_IBM_SPSS_Modeler_Professional-18.2.0.swidtag
Alternately, grant permissions to the .swidtag file directory and file and then also change the location of the log files to a different directory where the user does have appropriate permissions.
To change the location of those files, go to the config directory within the installation directory of Modeler (by default /Applications/IBM/SPSS/Modeler/18.2/SPSSModeler.app/Contents/config/log4j.properties) and open the "log4j.properties" file in a text editor. Find this line.
To change the location of those files, go to the config directory within the installation directory of Modeler (by default /Applications/IBM/SPSS/Modeler/18.2/SPSSModeler.app/Contents/config/log4j.properties) and open the "log4j.properties" file in a text editor. Find this line.
log4j.appender.MainLog.File=${application.home}/log/client_logging.log
Make a copy of this line and comment out the original line using #.
Alter the copied entry to point to a location the user has permissions and you want the logs files to populate.
Make sure to use forward slashes in the above path.
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Document Information
Modified date:
01 May 2019
UID
swg22004593