2 files changed, 13 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/scalding/src/main/scala/sandcrawler/Scorable.scala b/scalding/src/main/scala/sandcrawler/Scorable.scala
index 736c175..ce4fdca 100644
--- a/scalding/src/main/scala/sandcrawler/Scorable.scala
+++ b/scalding/src/main/scala/sandcrawler/Scorable.scala
@@ -45,12 +45,17 @@ object Scorable {
   }
 
   def titleToSlug(title : String) : String = {
-    val slug = StringUtilities.removePunctuation(
-      StringUtilities.removeAccents(title).split(":")(0).toLowerCase())
-    if (slug.isEmpty) {
+    if (title == null || title.isEmpty) {
       NoSlug
     } else {
-      slug
+      val unaccented = StringUtilities.removeAccents(title)
+      // Remove punctuation after splitting on colon.
+      val slug = StringUtilities.removePunctuation((unaccented.split(":")(0).toLowerCase()))
+      if (slug.isEmpty || slug == null) {
+        NoSlug
+      } else {
+        slug
+      }
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/scalding/src/test/scala/sandcrawler/ScorableTest.scala b/scalding/src/test/scala/sandcrawler/ScorableTest.scala
index 713a7e5..40801a0 100644
--- a/scalding/src/test/scala/sandcrawler/ScorableTest.scala
+++ b/scalding/src/test/scala/sandcrawler/ScorableTest.scala
@@ -71,6 +71,10 @@ class ScorableTest extends FlatSpec with Matchers {
       Scorable.titleToSlug("") shouldBe Scorable.NoSlug
     }
 
+    it should "return Scorable.NoSlug if given null" in {
+      Scorable.titleToSlug(null) shouldBe Scorable.NoSlug
+    }
+
     "titleToSlug()" should "strip punctuation" in {
       Scorable.titleToSlug("HELLO!:the:re") shouldBe "hello"
       Scorable.titleToSlug("a:b:c") shouldBe "a"