NullPointerException when I changed all my methods to static - eclipse

Question

Using Selenium w Java and Test NG (POM format) Switched everything from not static to static and changed everything accordingly, getting NullPointerException. It worked when everything was not static, but making everything static requires less code so I'd prefer to have it that way.
Here is my code.. while trying to paste my code for some reason it did not recognize the import statements as code so I just did not include them, but rest assured everything has been imported that is needed! :)
Package pages;
public class locationPage {
WebDriver driver;
static #FindBy (id="btn_bogota") WebElement chooseBogota;
static #FindBy (id="btn_medellin") WebElement chooseMedellin;
static #FindBy (xpath="//title") WebElement pageTitle;
public locationPage (WebDriver driver){
this.driver=driver;
PageFactory.initElements(driver, this);
}
public static void chooseLocation (String location) {
if (location.equals("Bogota"))
{
chooseBogota.click();
}
else if (location.equals("Medellin")){
chooseMedellin.click();
}
}
}
Package testcases;
public class selectLocation {
WebDriver driver;
#BeforeClass
public void setup() throws InterruptedException{
driver = new FirefoxDriver();
driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
driver.get("http://dev01.juanregala.com.co/");
//Generating Alert Using Javascript Executor
JavascriptExecutor javascript = (JavascriptExecutor) driver;
javascript.executeScript("alert('Select Location');");
Thread.sleep(2000);
driver.switchTo().alert().accept();
}
#AfterTest
public void quit(){
driver.quit();
}
#Test (priority=0)
public void location(){
locationPage.chooseLocation("Medellin");
}
}
It keeps giving me a NullPointerException referring to
chooseMedellin.click();
and
locationPage.chooseLocation("Medellin");
I am not really sure how else to describe my issue :( Please help!

Answer 1

You are getting a NullPointerException because the fields are not initialized. You can't use a page object in this way. Even if you could, you probably wouldn't want to since a page object is tied to a particular web driver and that would mean you could never use the same page object among multiple tests and run them in parallel.
Basically, the PageFactory only works on object instances. It won't initialize static fields and, even if it did, you are only calling the page factory from the constructor of your page and that is never being called since you only call a static method on that class.
You need to create an instance of the page object and then pass it to the PageFactory along with the driver that will be running the page object.
Simple example:
public class FooTest {
private WebDriver driver;
private FooPage page;
#BeforeMethod
public void setup() {
driver = new FirefoxDriver();
page = PageFactory.initElements(driver, FooPage.class);
}
#AfterMethod
public void tearDown() {
try {
driver.quit();
} catch ( Exception ignore ) { }
driver = null;
page = null;
}
#Test
public void testFoo() {
}
}
public class FooPage {
#FindBy(id="foo")
private WebElement fooElement;
public void clickFoo() {
fooElement.click();
}
}
Note the line:
page = PageFactory.initElements(driver, FooPage.class);
That method will actually call the default construct of FooPage. You can also instantiate the object yourself and pass it to the page factory like this:
page = new FooPage();
PageFactory.initElements(driver, page);