Getting a java.lang.NullPointerException with Spring Boot JdbcTemplate

General Information: New to Spring Boot and wanted to test out my JDBC connections via unit tests. I made a simple class to connect to my database and a simple test class to follow up with the proper test case.

Problem: Continuously receiving a java.lang.NullPointerException when performing jdbcTemplate.getDataSource().getConnection(); I am having a hard time understanding why. I tried using different databases, and ensured that I could make a connection with the regular JDBC. I have referred to numerous other questions on Stack Overflow but I have still been stuck on this for the past two days without any progress. I even tried to use different types of DataSource libraries but all of them yield the same result.

Question: How do I solve this? If anyone can also explain why the issue is happening, and why do we need to use the Spring JDBC on an enterprise level, that would be great.

My code:

DatabaseTableService.java

import org.springframework.jdbc.core.JdbcTemplate;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ResponseBody;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

import com.vertica.jdbc.DataSource;

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/databaseServices")
public class DatabaseTableService {

    private JdbcTemplate jdbcTemplate;
    private DataSource dataSource;


    public void setDataSource(DataSource dataSource) {
        this.dataSource= dataSource;
        this.jdbcTemplate = new JdbcTemplate(dataSource);
    }


    @RequestMapping("/testConnection")
    @ResponseBody
    public boolean canConnectToDB() {
        boolean result;
        try {
            jdbcTemplate.getDataSource().getConnection();
            result = true;
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            result = false;
        }
        return result;
    }

}

beans.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
       xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc.xsd http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context.xsd">

    <context:component-scan base-package="com.company.project"></context:component-scan>

    <mvc:annotation-driven/>

    <bean id="dataSource"
          class="com.vertica.jdbc.DataSource">
        <property name="URL" value="DBURLHERE"/>
        <property name="userID" value="USERIDHERE"/>
        <property name="password" value="PASSWORDHERE"/>
    </bean>






    <bean id="databaseTableService"
          class="com.company.project.services.DatabaseTableService">
        <property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"></property>
    </bean>


    <bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
        <property name="prefix">
            <value>/WEB-INF/</value>
        </property>
        <property name="suffix">
            <value>.jsp</value>
        </property>
    </bean>

</beans>

DatabaseTableServiceTest.java

import org.junit.After;
import org.junit.Assert;
import org.junit.Before;
import org.junit.Test;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.SpringApplicationConfiguration;
import org.springframework.jdbc.core.JdbcTemplate;
import org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner;
import org.springframework.test.context.web.WebAppConfiguration;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.MockMvc;
import org.springframework.test.web.servlet.setup.MockMvcBuilders;
import org.springframework.web.context.WebApplicationContext;

import com.vertica.jdbc.DataSource;


@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@SpringApplicationConfiguration(classes = ApplicationController.class)
@WebAppConfiguration
public class DatabaseTableServiceTest {

    @Autowired
    private WebApplicationContext webApplicationContext;

    private JdbcTemplate jdbcTemplate;
    private MockMvc mockMvc;
    DatabaseTableService databaseTableServiceObject;
    DataSource testDataSource = new DataSource();

    @Before
    public void setUp() throws Exception {
        mockMvc = MockMvcBuilders.webAppContextSetup(webApplicationContext)
                .build();

        databaseTableServiceObject = new DatabaseTableService();
    }




    @Test
    public void setDataSource() throws Exception {
        databaseTableServiceObject.setDataSource(testDataSource);
    }

    @Test
    public void validateCanConnectToDB() throws Exception {
        Assert.assertTrue(databaseTableServiceObject.canConnectToDB());
    }


    @After
    public void tearDown() throws Exception {
        mockMvc = null;
        databaseTableServiceObject = null;
        testDataSource = null;
    }

}

ApplicationController.java

import org.springframework.boot.*;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.*;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan;
import org.springframework.stereotype.*;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.*;


@SpringBootApplication
@ImportResource({"beans.xml"})
@ComponentScan(basePackages = "com.company.project")
public class ApplicationController {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

        SpringApplication.run(ApplicationController.class, args);
    }
}

Folder Structure

Spring Application Context Information