class member returns null after osgi bind method - service

Question

My problem is that in the main class I have some osgi references that work just fine when the class is call. But after that all the references became null. When I close the main windows and call shutdown method, the hubService reference returns null. What do I do wrong here?
private void shutdown() {
if(hubService == null) {
throw new NullPointerException();
}
hubService.shutdownHub(); // why is hubService null?
}
// bind hub service
public synchronized void setHubService(IHubService service) {
hubService = service;
try {
hubService.startHub(PORT, authenticationHandler);
} catch (Exception e) {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(mainFrame, e.toString(), "Server", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
System.exit(0);
}
}
// remove hub service
public synchronized void unsetHubService(IHubService service) {
hubService.shutdownHub();
hubService = null;
}

Answer 1

If a field can be read and written by multiple threads, you must protect access to read as well as write. Your first method, shutdown, does not protect the read of hubService so that the value of hubService can change between the first read and the second read. You don't show the declaration of the hubService field. You could make it volatile or only read when synchronized (on the same object used to synchronized when writing the field). Then your shutdown implementation could look like:
private volatile IHubService hubService;
private void shutdown() {
IHubService service = hubService; // make a copy of the field in a local variable
if (service != null) // use local var from now on since the field could have changed
service.shutdownHub();
}

Answer 2

I assume your shutdown method is the DS deactivate method? If so, why do you shutdown in the unset method as well in the shutdown method?
Overall the design does not seem very sound. The IHubService is used as a factory and should return some object that is then closed in the deactivate method. You made the IHubService effectively a singleton. Since it must come from another bundle, it should handle its life cycle itself.
Since you also do not use annotations, it is not clear if your set/unset methods are static/dynamic and/or single/multiple. The following code should not have your problems (exammple code with bnd annotations):
#Component public class MyImpl {
IHubService hub;
#Activate
void activate() {
hubService.startHub(PORT, authenticationHandler);
}
#DeActivate
void deactivate() {
hubService.shutdown();
}
#Reference
void setHub(IHubService hub) { this.hub = hub; }
}