I'm working on a general library to use in all my iParts.  As part of that, I want to be able to log not only which iPart had an error, but which specific content item experienced a problem.

So the constructor for my library class looks like:

public MyLibrary(Asi.Business.ContentManagement.ContentItem ci)
{
    string s = ci.ContentItemName;
    ...
}

and in MyPart.Display.ascx.cs, in OnInit() I do this:

...
RSM.MyLibrary m = new RSM.MyLibrary(this.ContentItem);
...

My Display page properly inherits from Asi.Business.ContentManagement.ContentItem.  To be safe, I created the content item initially with nothing in it, saved and published.  When I try to add my part to a content item, I get this exception (red text on the Edit Content panel where my iPart should be):

The selected web part encountered an error and could not be displayed. The error message was:
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at RSM.MyLibrary..ctor(ContentItem ci) in C:\Data\WC\NonClient\RSM_Common\MyLibrary.cs:line 177
at RSM.wvActivity.DisplayClass.OnInit(EventArgs e) in C:\Data\WC\NonClient\wvSuite\trunk\wvActivity\wvActivity.Display.ascx.cs:line 60
at System.Web.UI.Control.InitRecursive(Control namingContainer)
at System.Web.UI.Control.AddedControl(Control control, Int32 index)
at System.Web.UI.ControlCollection.Add(Control child)
at System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.GenericWebPart.GenericWebPartControlCollection.AddGenericControl(Control control)
at System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.GenericWebPart.CreateChildControls()
at Asi.Web.UI.WebControls.AsiWebPart.CreateChildControls()

What am I missing here?  Here are some possibilities I've considered:

• Test for a null object and provide a default
• Bypass this part of the process when in Design mode (but then I can't check for errors while adding the iPart to a page)
• Wait until a later stage in the lifecycle to check ContentItem (which?)