Java/.NET/Python: Unable to use SecretValue

[jousby]

Describe the bug
Prior to 0.28.0 I was retrieving my github user token from SecretsManager for using in a build pipeline with the following code:

SecretString secretString = new SecretString(this, "oauth", SecretStringProps.builder()
         .withSecretId("jousby/github")
         .build());

Secret githubToken = new Secret(secretString.jsonFieldValue("oauthToken"));

I can see from the changelog for 0.28.0 that this approach has been removed in favour of the more elegant SecretValue class.

My attempt to refactor to use SecretValue in Java looks like this:

SecretValue githubToken = SecretValue.secretsManager("jousby/github", SecretsManagerSecretOptions.builder()
        .withJsonField("oauthToken")
        .build());

When i run cdk synth on this though I get the following exception:

$ cdk synth
Exception in thread "main" software.amazon.jsii.JsiiException: Cannot read property 'cfnDynamicReference' of null
TypeError: Cannot read property 'cfnDynamicReference' of null
    at secretsManager (/private/var/folders/6k/6fp51jbx3xg83p3fs4vnr4l4t8strm/T/jsii-kernel-n1SyPd/node_modules/@aws-cdk/cdk/lib/secret-value.js:48:21)
    at _wrapSandboxCode (/private/var/folders/6k/6fp51jbx3xg83p3fs4vnr4l4t8strm/T/jsii-java-runtime7834811835378697967/jsii-runtime.js:6349:51)
    at Kernel._wrapSandboxCode (/private/var/folders/6k/6fp51jbx3xg83p3fs4vnr4l4t8strm/T/jsii-java-runtime7834811835378697967/jsii-runtime.js:6975:19)
    at ret._ensureSync (/private/var/folders/6k/6fp51jbx3xg83p3fs4vnr4l4t8strm/T/jsii-java-runtime7834811835378697967/jsii-runtime.js:6349:25)
    at Kernel._ensureSync (/private/var/folders/6k/6fp51jbx3xg83p3fs4vnr4l4t8strm/T/jsii-java-runtime7834811835378697967/jsii-runtime.js:6943:20)
    at Kernel.sinvoke (/private/var/folders/6k/6fp51jbx3xg83p3fs4vnr4l4t8strm/T/jsii-java-runtime7834811835378697967/jsii-runtime.js:6348:26)
    at KernelHost.processRequest (/private/var/folders/6k/6fp51jbx3xg83p3fs4vnr4l4t8strm/T/jsii-java-runtime7834811835378697967/jsii-runtime.js:6023:28)
    at KernelHost.run (/private/var/folders/6k/6fp51jbx3xg83p3fs4vnr4l4t8strm/T/jsii-java-runtime7834811835378697967/jsii-runtime.js:5997:14)
    at processRequest (/private/var/folders/6k/6fp51jbx3xg83p3fs4vnr4l4t8strm/T/jsii-java-runtime7834811835378697967/jsii-runtime.js:5997:45)
    at KernelHost.processRequest (/private/var/folders/6k/6fp51jbx3xg83p3fs4vnr4l4t8strm/T/jsii-java-runtime7834811835378697967/jsii-runtime.js:6065:16)
    at KernelHost.run (/private/var/folders/6k/6fp51jbx3xg83p3fs4vnr4l4t8strm/T/jsii-java-runtime7834811835378697967/jsii-runtime.js:5997:14)
    at processRequest (/private/var/folders/6k/6fp51jbx3xg83p3fs4vnr4l4t8strm/T/jsii-java-runtime7834811835378697967/jsii-runtime.js:5997:45)
    at KernelHost.processRequest (/private/var/folders/6k/6fp51jbx3xg83p3fs4vnr4l4t8strm/T/jsii-java-runtime7834811835378697967/jsii-runtime.js:6065:16)
	at software.amazon.jsii.JsiiRuntime.processErrorResponse(JsiiRuntime.java:112)
	at software.amazon.jsii.JsiiRuntime.requestResponse(JsiiRuntime.java:84)
	at software.amazon.jsii.JsiiClient.callStaticMethod(JsiiClient.java:169)
	at software.amazon.jsii.JsiiObject.jsiiStaticCall(JsiiObject.java:76)
	at software.amazon.awscdk.SecretValue.secretsManager(SecretValue.java:126)
	at com.myorg.PipelineStack.<init>(PipelineStack.java:50)
	at com.myorg.PipelineStack.<init>(PipelineStack.java:39)
	at com.myorg.PipelineApp.main(PipelineApp.java:9)
Subprocess exited with error 1

For what its worth i spun up a test project in typescript and tried a similiar usage of SecretValue which worked fine:

const secret = cdk.SecretValue.secretsManager('jousby/github', {
  jsonField: 'oauthToken'
});

To Reproduce
In a post 0.28.0 Java CDK project add a snippet to retrieve a SecretValue from SecretsManager (as per description above) and try to run cdk synth.

Expected behavior
CDK Stack successfully synthesises to CloudFormation.

Version:

• OS = MacOS High Sierra (10.13.6)
• Programming Language = Java
• CDK Version = 0.28.0

[RomainMuller]

I suspect this might be a symptom of a known/fixed bug in the JSII Runtime 0.8.1 (fixed in 0.8.2), but I'm attempting a repro before I push this point forward too much... 😅

[RomainMuller]

Alright - I did manage to reproduce this bug (BTW - thanks @jousby for providing all the details about the specific code that breaks). So this is either not the 0.8.1 bug, or some new edge case.

[RomainMuller]

Found the root cause... The JSII kernel is not binding a this context when invoking a static method, causing a different behavior than what happens when done in "pure" Javascript. This is an easy fix (yay!).