Created attachment 59610 [details]
proposed patch

It happened even on regular web project without using the server library (i.e., non-shared libraries). To reproduce,

Install Portal Pack by going to Portal Pack download page (http://portalpack.netbeans.org/nb6/download.html), and
install the following 3:
    Portal-pack-plugin-2_0_Beta 3.zip
    Visual Portlet Builder Beta
    JSF Portlet Bridge Library

Steps to reproduce:
1. Create a simple web project without any framework
2. Right click on Web Pages and select New->JSF Portlet Page

Then you will see an empty designer with the same exceptions.

Is this the 6.1 branch because I am not seeing this on
installer 6.1: NetBeans IDE Dev (Build 200804030815)
Java: 1.6.0_04; Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM 10.0-b19
System: Windows XP version 5.1

Reproduced. I see it now - got a hold of a later 6.1 installer build:
NetBeans IDE Dev (Build 200804031432)

And with a clean userdir, I cannot even create a plain VW project without getting the NPE.
This should not have passed sanity test.

Looks like the patch works.

This is really a P1 as no Visualweb projects can be created.

Fixed in trunk. Waiting for review to commit and push to release61 branch.

changeset:   77201:583b3aa651e5
tag:         tip
user:        Sandip V. Chitale <sandipchitale@netbeans.org>
date:        Thu Apr 03 14:08:51 2008 -0700
summary:     Bug Fix # 131920 Unable to open visual page when using the server library

diff -r 116c526e7461 -r 583b3aa651e5 visualweb.insync/src/org/netbeans/modules/visualweb/insync/ModelSet.java
--- a/visualweb.insync/src/org/netbeans/modules/visualweb/insync/ModelSet.java  Thu Apr 03 17:41:59 2008 +0200
+++ b/visualweb.insync/src/org/netbeans/modules/visualweb/insync/ModelSet.java  Thu Apr 03 14:08:51 2008 -0700
@@ -464,10 +464,14 @@ public abstract class ModelSet implement
                 String[] j2eeJars = JsfProjectUtils.getJ2eeClasspathEntries(project);
                 for (String j2eeJar : j2eeJars) {
                     for (URL url : urls) {
-                        File file = FileUtil.toFile(URLMapper.findFileObject(url));
-                        if (j2eeJar.equals(file.getPath())) {
-                            urlSet.remove(url);
-                            break;
+                        URL fileURL = FileUtil.getArchiveFile(url);
+                        FileObject fileObj = URLMapper.findFileObject(fileURL != null ? fileURL : url);
+                        if (fileObj != null) {
+                            File file = FileUtil.toFile(fileObj);
+                            if (file != null && j2eeJar.equals(file.getPath())) {
+                                urlSet.remove(url);
+                                break;
+                            }
                         }
                     }
                 }

Pre-integration test looks good.  Applied Sandip's jar to 
the same build which had failed earlier, NetBeans IDE Dev (Build 200804031432)

1. tested created plain VW project -- AOK - no exceptions (and deployed AOK)
2. tested created VW project  checking "use dedicated folder for storing libraries" and "use dedicated library folder 
for serverJAR files" -- AOK -- no exceptions (and deployed AOK).
3. did the same for ee1.4 VW project - all AOK

Fixed in trunk. Waiting for QE verification on trunk before integration in release61.

Ok. Verified in trunk build 1479 (Build 20080404174625).

Fixed in release61.

changeset:   76978:7c475078c8ad
user:        Sandip V. Chitale <sandipchitale@netbeans.org>
date:        Thu Apr 03 14:08:51 2008 -0700
summary:     Bug Fix # 131920 Unable to open visual page when using the server library

*** Issue 132043 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

Dane, please can you verify in release61?

v. in release61