Right-click on groovy script and Run as submenu does not popup. Eclipse raises an NPE instead.

It would help to see the full stack trace here.

Is this project a groovy project? It is a known problem that showing the Run As menu will cause an NPE or an AIOOBE for groovy files outside of groovy projects.

yes the project is a groovy project using groovy 1.7 compiler. I enabled the groovy 1.6.5 compiler using the workaround, now i'm at a loss because I can't reproduce the problem anymore.

stacktrace was:

!ENTRY org.eclipse.core.jobs 4 2 2009-10-29 09:56:46.669
!MESSAGE An internal error occurred during: "Compute launch button tooltip".
!STACK 0
java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.testng.eclipse.ui.util.TypeParser.parseType(TypeParser.java:25)
at org.testng.eclipse.util.TestSearchEngine.isTest(TestSearchEngine.java:221)
at org.testng.eclipse.launch.tester.JavaTypeExtender.test(JavaTypeExtender.java:31)
at org.testng.eclipse.launch.tester.TestNGPropertyTester.isTestClass(TestNGPropertyTester.java:30)
at org.testng.eclipse.launch.tester.TestNGPropertyTester.test(TestNGPropertyTester.java:21)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.expressions.Property.test(Property.java:58)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.expressions.TestExpression.evaluate(TestExpression.java:99)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.expressions.CompositeExpression.evaluateAnd(CompositeExpression.java:53)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.expressions.IterateExpression.evaluate(IterateExpression.java:150)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.expressions.CompositeExpression.evaluateAnd(CompositeExpression.java:53)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.expressions.WithExpression.evaluate(WithExpression.java:72)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.expressions.CompositeExpression.evaluateAnd(CompositeExpression.java:53)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.expressions.EnablementExpression.evaluate(EnablementExpression.java:53)
at org.eclipse.debug.internal.ui.launchConfigurations.LaunchShortcutExtension.evalEnablementExpression(LaunchShortcutExtension.java:287)
at org.eclipse.debug.internal.ui.contextlaunching.LaunchingResourceManager.getShortcutsForSelection(LaunchingResourceManager.java:439)
at org.eclipse.debug.internal.ui.contextlaunching.LaunchingResourceManager.computeLabels(LaunchingResourceManager.java:224)
at org.eclipse.debug.internal.ui.contextlaunching.LaunchingResourceManager$2.run(LaunchingResourceManager.java:138)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.jobs.Worker.run(Worker.java:55)

!ENTRY org.eclipse.ui 4 0 2009-10-29 09:56:58.434
!MESSAGE Unhandled event loop exception
!STACK 0
java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.testng.eclipse.ui.util.TypeParser.parseType(TypeParser.java:25)
at org.testng.eclipse.util.TestSearchEngine.isTest(TestSearchEngine.java:221)
at org.testng.eclipse.launch.tester.JavaTypeExtender.test(JavaTypeExtender.java:31)
at org.testng.eclipse.launch.tester.TestNGPropertyTester.isTestClass(TestNGPropertyTester.java:30)
at org.testng.eclipse.launch.tester.TestNGPropertyTester.test(TestNGPropertyTester.java:21)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.expressions.Property.test(Property.java:58)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.expressions.TestExpression.evaluate(TestExpression.java:99)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.expressions.CompositeExpression.evaluateAnd(CompositeExpression.java:53)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.expressions.IterateExpression.evaluate(IterateExpression.java:150)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.expressions.CompositeExpression.evaluateAnd(CompositeExpression.java:53)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.expressions.WithExpression.evaluate(WithExpression.java:72)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.expressions.CompositeExpression.evaluateAnd(CompositeExpression.java:53)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.expressions.EnablementExpression.evaluate(EnablementExpression.java:53)
at org.eclipse.debug.internal.ui.launchConfigurations.LaunchShortcutExtension.evalEnablementExpression(LaunchShortcutExtension.java:287)
at org.eclipse.debug.ui.actions.ContextualLaunchAction.isApplicable(ContextualLaunchAction.java:287)
at org.eclipse.debug.ui.actions.ContextualLaunchAction.fillMenu(ContextualLaunchAction.java:217)
at org.eclipse.debug.ui.actions.ContextualLaunchAction$1.menuShown(ContextualLaunchAction.java:136)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.TypedListener.handleEvent(TypedListener.java:235)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.EventTable.sendEvent(EventTable.java:84)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.sendEvent(Widget.java:1003)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.sendEvent(Widget.java:1027)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.sendEvent(Widget.java:1008)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Control.WM_INITMENUPOPUP(Control.java:4270)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Control.windowProc(Control.java:3974)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Canvas.windowProc(Canvas.java:342)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Decorations.windowProc(Decorations.java:1578)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Shell.windowProc(Shell.java:2010)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.windowProc(Display.java:4602)
at org.eclipse.swt.internal.win32.OS.TrackPopupMenu(Native Method)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Menu._setVisible(Menu.java:254)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.runPopups(Display.java:3906)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.readAndDispatch(Display.java:3467)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.runEventLoop(Workbench.java:2405)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.runUI(Workbench.java:2369)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.access$4(Workbench.java:2221)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench$5.run(Workbench.java:500)
at org.eclipse.core.databinding.observable.Realm.runWithDefault(Realm.java:332)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.createAndRunWorkbench(Workbench.java:493)
at org.eclipse.ui.PlatformUI.createAndRunWorkbench(PlatformUI.java:149)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ide.application.IDEApplication.start(IDEApplication.java:113)
at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.app.EclipseAppHandle.run(EclipseAppHandle.java:194)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.runApplication(EclipseAppLauncher.java:110)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.start(EclipseAppLauncher.java:79)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:368)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:179)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.invokeFramework(Main.java:559)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.basicRun(Main.java:514)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:1311)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.main(Main.java:1287)

This is a bug in the testng plugin. When the testng plugin is searching for test methods, it asks the Type being tested to return its source code. The specification for this method says that the method may return null. However, the testng plugin does not test for null. And that is why you are seeing the exception.

I am not exactly sure why the getSource() method for groovy types is returning null on occasion. That is something that I should look at. It likely has something to do with errors during reconciling, but I am not sure.

Regardless, the root problem is with testng, but there is still something I should look at for groovy-eclipse. I am leaving this bug open for now to see if there is anything I need to change for groovy-eclipse.

Submitted patch to testng that fixes this problem:
http://code.google.com/p/testng-eclipse/issues/detail?id=49

Not a bug with Groovy-Eclipse...closing.