NPE when configuring Subversion in JDeveloper

I haven't been using the SVN capabilities built in to JDeveloper for my local dev environment, but instead have been using Smart SVN (I'm on OS X, and wish I could Tortoise SVN). The trial version of Smart SVN does not enable some features, such as Branching and Tagging. I have a need to do this from my local machine and would prefer to do so in a GUI. Anwyay, I'm trying to do a check out from JDeveloper (11.1.1.1.0 Build JDEVADF_11.1.1.1.0_GENERIC_090615.0017.5407), and since I have not done so in this install of JDev, I have to first configure the SVN connection. Well, as soon as I click the 'Test Connection' button I get a Null Pointer Exception:

"Performing action Check Out...[ from oracle.ide.ceditor.CodeEditor ]
Invoking command: [ from oracle.ide.ceditor.CodeEditor ]
Uncaught exception
java.lang.NullPointerException
o.ji.vcs.svn.util.SVNRepositoryInfoValidator.validate(SVNRepositoryInfoValidator.java:58)
o.ji.vcs.svn.nav.ui.ConnectionPanel$ConnectionTesterThread.run(ConnectionPanel.java:412)

The solution is to remove/rename the existing preferences.xml (and possibly the repositories.xml) under the JDeveloper install directory:

%JDEV_HOME%/jdeveloper/system11.1.1.1.33.54.07/o.jdeveloper.subversion

Many Thanks to Nick for help on resolving this issue.