The following context diff shows a patch which cleans up the issue by reducing the possibility of a null pointer.

*** quickfixj/core/src/main/java/quickfix/MessageUtils.java Thu Jan 15 11:47:03 2009
--- quickfixj-svn/core/src/main/java/quickfix/MessageUtils.java Tue Jan 20 15:49:54 2009
***************
*** 104,107 ****
--- 104,116 ----
          String customApplVerID = null;
  
+ MessageFactory messageFactory = session.getMessageFactory();
+ DataDictionaryProvider ddProvider = session.getDataDictionaryProvider();
+ DataDictionary sessionDataDictionary = ddProvider.getSessionDataDictionary(beginString);
+ DataDictionary payloadDataDictionary = null;
+
+ // We check and if it's a Admin message we don't need anything more
+ if (MessageUtils.isAdminMessage(msgType)) {
+ payloadDataDictionary = sessionDataDictionary;
+ } else {
              if (FixVersions.BEGINSTRING_FIXT11.equals(beginString)) {
                  applVerID = getApplVerID(session, messageString);

***************
*** 111,128 ****
          }
          
! MessageFactory messageFactory = session.getMessageFactory();
!
! DataDictionaryProvider ddProvider = session.getDataDictionaryProvider();
! DataDictionary sessionDataDictionary = ddProvider.getSessionDataDictionary(beginString);
! DataDictionary applicationDataDictionary = ddProvider.getApplicationDataDictionary(
! applVerID, customApplVerID);
  
          quickfix.Message message = messageFactory.create(beginString, msgType);
! DataDictionary payloadDictionary = MessageUtils.isAdminMessage(msgType)
! ? sessionDataDictionary
! : applicationDataDictionary;
!
! message.parse(messageString, sessionDataDictionary, payloadDictionary,
! payloadDictionary != null);
          
          return message;

--- 120,130 ----
              }
  
! payloadDataDictionary = ddProvider.getApplicationDataDictionary(applVerID,
! customApplVerID);
! }
  
          quickfix.Message message = messageFactory.create(beginString, msgType);
! message.parse(messageString, sessionDataDictionary, payloadDataDictionary,
! payloadDataDictionary != null);
  
          return message;