Optaplanner: NullPointerException when calling scoreDirector.beforeVariableChanged in a simple custom move - optaplanner

Question

I am building a Capacited Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows, but with one small difference when compared to the one provided in examples from the documentation: I don't have a depot. Instead, each order has a pickup step, and a delivery step, in two different locations.
(like in the Vehicle Routing example from the documentation, the previousStep planning variable has the CHAINED graph type, and its valueRangeProviderRefs includes both Drivers, and Steps)
This difference adds a couple of constraints:
the pickup and delivery steps of a given order must be handled by the same driver
the pickup must be before the delivery
After experimenting with constraints, I have found that it would be more efficient to implement two types of custom moves:
assign both steps of an order to a driver
rearrange the steps of a driver
I am currently implementing that first custom move. My solver's configuration looks like this:
SolverFactory<RoutingProblem> solverFactory = SolverFactory.create(
new SolverConfig()
.withSolutionClass(RoutingProblem.class)
.withEntityClasses(Step.class, StepList.class)
.withScoreDirectorFactory(new ScoreDirectorFactoryConfig()
.withConstraintProviderClass(Constraints.class)
)
.withTerminationConfig(new TerminationConfig()
.withSecondsSpentLimit(60L)
)
.withPhaseList(List.of(
new LocalSearchPhaseConfig()
.withMoveSelectorConfig(CustomMoveListFactory.getConfig())
))
);
My CustomMoveListFactory looks like this (I plan on migrating it to an MoveIteratorFactory later, but for the moment, this is easier to read and write):
public class CustomMoveListFactory implements MoveListFactory<RoutingProblem> {
public static MoveListFactoryConfig getConfig() {
MoveListFactoryConfig result = new MoveListFactoryConfig();
result.setMoveListFactoryClass(CustomMoveListFactory.class);
return result;
}
#Override
public List<? extends Move<RoutingProblem>> createMoveList(RoutingProblem routingProblem) {
List<Move<RoutingProblem>> moves = new ArrayList<>();
// 1. Assign moves
for (Order order : routingProblem.getOrders()) {
Driver currentDriver = order.getDriver();
for (Driver driver : routingProblem.getDrivers()) {
if (!driver.equals(currentDriver)) {
moves.add(new AssignMove(order, driver));
}
}
}
// 2. Rearrange moves
// TODO
return moves;
}
}
And finally, the move itself looks like this (nevermind the undo or the isDoable for the moment):
#Override
protected void doMoveOnGenuineVariables(ScoreDirector<RoutingProblem> scoreDirector) {
assignStep(scoreDirector, order.getPickupStep());
assignStep(scoreDirector, order.getDeliveryStep());
}
private void assignStep(ScoreDirector<RoutingProblem> scoreDirector, Step step) {
StepList beforeStep = step.getPreviousStep();
Step afterStep = step.getNextStep();
// 1. Insert step at the end of the driver's step list
StepList lastStep = driver.getLastStep();
scoreDirector.beforeVariableChanged(step, "previousStep"); // NullPointerException here
step.setPreviousStep(lastStep);
scoreDirector.afterVariableChanged(step, "previousStep");
// 2. Remove step from current chained list
if (afterStep != null) {
scoreDirector.beforeVariableChanged(afterStep, "previousStep");
afterStep.setPreviousStep(beforeStep);
scoreDirector.afterVariableChanged(afterStep, "previousStep");
}
}
The idea being that at no point I'm doing an invalid chained list manipulation:
However, as the title and the code comment indicate, I am getting a NullPointerException when I call scoreDirector.beforeVariableChanged. None of my variables are null (I've printed them to make sure). The NullPointerException doesn't occur in my code, but deep inside Optaplanner's inner workings, making it difficult for me to fix it:
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.drools.core.common.NamedEntryPoint.update(NamedEntryPoint.java:353)
at org.drools.core.common.NamedEntryPoint.update(NamedEntryPoint.java:338)
at org.drools.core.impl.StatefulKnowledgeSessionImpl.update(StatefulKnowledgeSessionImpl.java:1579)
at org.drools.core.impl.StatefulKnowledgeSessionImpl.update(StatefulKnowledgeSessionImpl.java:1551)
at org.optaplanner.core.impl.score.stream.drools.DroolsConstraintSession.update(DroolsConstraintSession.java:49)
at org.optaplanner.core.impl.score.director.stream.ConstraintStreamScoreDirector.afterVariableChanged(ConstraintStreamScoreDirector.java:137)
at org.optaplanner.core.impl.domain.variable.inverserelation.SingletonInverseVariableListener.retract(SingletonInverseVariableListener.java:96)
at org.optaplanner.core.impl.domain.variable.inverserelation.SingletonInverseVariableListener.beforeVariableChanged(SingletonInverseVariableListener.java:46)
at org.optaplanner.core.impl.domain.variable.listener.support.VariableListenerSupport.beforeVariableChanged(VariableListenerSupport.java:170)
at org.optaplanner.core.impl.score.director.AbstractScoreDirector.beforeVariableChanged(AbstractScoreDirector.java:430)
at org.optaplanner.core.impl.score.director.AbstractScoreDirector.beforeVariableChanged(AbstractScoreDirector.java:390)
at test.optaplanner.solver.AssignMove.assignStep(AssignMove.java:98)
at test.optaplanner.solver.AssignMove.doMoveOnGenuineVariables(AssignMove.java:85)
at org.optaplanner.core.impl.heuristic.move.AbstractMove.doMove(AbstractMove.java:35)
at org.optaplanner.core.impl.heuristic.move.AbstractMove.doMove(AbstractMove.java:30)
at org.optaplanner.core.impl.score.director.AbstractScoreDirector.doAndProcessMove(AbstractScoreDirector.java:187)
at org.optaplanner.core.impl.localsearch.decider.LocalSearchDecider.doMove(LocalSearchDecider.java:132)
at org.optaplanner.core.impl.localsearch.decider.LocalSearchDecider.decideNextStep(LocalSearchDecider.java:116)
at org.optaplanner.core.impl.localsearch.DefaultLocalSearchPhase.solve(DefaultLocalSearchPhase.java:70)
at org.optaplanner.core.impl.solver.AbstractSolver.runPhases(AbstractSolver.java:98)
at org.optaplanner.core.impl.solver.DefaultSolver.solve(DefaultSolver.java:189)
at test.optaplanner.OptaPlannerService.testOptaplanner(OptaPlannerService.java:68)
at test.optaplanner.App.main(App.java:13)
Is there something I did wrong? It seems I am following the documentation for custom moves fairly closely, outside of the fact that I am using exclusively java code instead of drools.
The initial solution I feed to the solver has all of the steps assigned to a single driver. There are 15 drivers and 40 orders.
In order to bypass this error, I have tried a number of different things:
remove the shadow variable annotation, turn Driver into a problem fact, and handle the nextStep field myself => this makes no difference
use Simulated Annealing + First Fit Decreasing construction heuristics, and start with steps not assigned to any driver (this was inspired by looking up the example here, which is more complete than the one from the documentation) => the NullPointerException appears on afterVariableChanged instead, but it still appears.
a number of other things which were probably not very smart
But without a more helpful error message, I can't think of anything else to try.
Thank you for your help