How to solve a Null Pointer Exception when trying to populate a ViewStub?

Question

for quite a while I have been trying to solve an issue with a Null Pointer Exception while populating a ViewStub. What I am trying to do is within a SlidingDrawer that contains some imageButtons and ViewStubs to fill in the ViewStubs when an ImageButton is pressed. I have been following the ViewStub Class Overview to create the ViewStubs, but I still get the Null Pointer Exception. If someone could help me out here, that would be great because I really don't know anymore what I should do to solve this issue...I will post my code below

Thank you very much in advance!

---

Here is the part of my code causing the exception:

btnExposure = (ImageButton) findViewById(R.id.button_exposure);

        btnExposure.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener()
        {

         @Override
   public void onClick(View v) {
          try{   
           ViewStub stub = (ViewStub) findViewById(R.id.stub_exposure);
           importStub = stub.inflate();
          }catch (Exception e){
                 Log.e("ERROR", "Error in Code:" +e.toString());}
   }
        });

This is the DrawingSlider XML file containing the ViewStub:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

 <RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
   android:layout_height="fill_parent"
   android:background="@drawable/shape_background_gradient"
         >
     <LinearLayout
      android:layout_width="205px"
      android:layout_height="155px"
      android:background="#FFCCCCCC"
      android:id="@+id/VideoViewHolder"
      android:padding="2.5px"
      android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
      android:layout_marginTop="5px"
      android:layout_marginBottom="5px"
      >
  <VideoView
   android:layout_width="200px"
   android:layout_height="150px"
   android:id ="@+id/VideoViewEdit"
   android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"

   >
  </VideoView>
  </LinearLayout>
  <ScrollView
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_below="@id/VideoViewHolder">
   <TableLayout
     android:layout_width="fill_parent"
     android:layout_height="fill_parent"
     android:stretchColumns="0">
    <TableRow
      android:background="@drawable/shape_track_background"
      android:padding="5px"
      >
     <ImageView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
          android:layout_height="wrap_content"
          android:src="@drawable/ic_editor_videotrack"
          android:padding="5px"
          android:layout_gravity="left"/>

    </TableRow>
    <TableRow
      android:background="@drawable/shape_track_background"
      android:padding="5px"
      >
      <ImageView android:layout_width="wrap_content"
          android:layout_height="wrap_content"
          android:src="@drawable/ic_editor_audiotrack"
          android:padding="5px"
          android:layout_gravity="left"/>


    </TableRow>
    <TableRow
      android:background="@drawable/shape_track_background"
      android:padding="5px"
      >
     <ImageButton android:layout_width="wrap_content"
          android:layout_height="wrap_content"
          android:src="@drawable/ic_editor_add_media"
          android:padding="5px"
          android:layout_gravity="left"
          />
    </TableRow>
   </TableLayout>
  </ScrollView>
 <SlidingDrawer
     android:id="@+id/drawer"
     android:layout_width="wrap_content"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content"
  android:orientation="horizontal"
     android:handle="@+id/handle"
     android:content="@+id/content">

     <ImageView
         android:id="@id/handle"
         android:layout_width="wrap_content"
         android:layout_height="wrap_content"
         android:src="@drawable/slider_handle"
         />

     <LinearLayout
         android:id="@id/content"
         android:layout_width="fill_parent"
         android:layout_height="fill_parent"
         android:orientation="vertical">
        <ImageButton 
         android:id="@+id/button_exposure"
         android:layout_width="wrap_content"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:background="#77000000"
   android:src="@drawable/ic_slider_exposure"
   android:padding="5px"
   android:layout_marginBottom="1px"
   android:layout_gravity="left"/>
        <ImageButton 
         android:id="@+id/button_properties"
         android:layout_width="wrap_content"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:background="#77000000"
   android:src="@drawable/ic_slider_properties"
   android:padding="5px"
   android:layout_marginBottom="1px"
   android:layout_gravity="left"/>
        <ImageButton 
         android:id="@+id/button_special_effects"
         android:layout_width="wrap_content"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:background="#77000000"
   android:src="@drawable/ic_slider_special_effects"
   android:padding="5px"
   android:layout_marginBottom="1px"
   android:layout_gravity="left"/>
  <ImageButton 
         android:id="@+id/button_test1"
         android:layout_width="wrap_content"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:background="#77000000"
   android:src="@drawable/ic_slider_exposure"
   android:padding="5px"
   android:layout_marginBottom="1px"
   android:layout_gravity="left"/>
        <ImageButton 
         android:id="@+id/button_test2"
         android:layout_width="wrap_content"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:background="#77000000"
   android:src="@drawable/ic_slider_exposure"
   android:padding="5px"
   android:layout_marginBottom="1px"
   android:layout_gravity="left"/>
     </LinearLayout>
     <ViewStub
      android:id="@+id/stub_exposure"
      android:inflatedId="@+id/stub_exposure_view"

      android:layout="@layout/exposureview"

      android:layout_width="fill_parent"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:background="#77000000">
     </ViewStub>
     <ViewStub
      android:id="@+id/stub_properties"
      android:inflatedId="@+id/stub_properties_view"

      android:layout="@layout/propertiesview"

      android:layout_width="fill_parent"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:background="#77000000">
     </ViewStub>
     <ViewStub
      android:id="@+id/stub_special_effects"
      android:inflatedId="@+id/stub_special_effects_view"

      android:layout="@layout/specialeffectsview"

      android:layout_width="fill_parent"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:background="#77000000">
     </ViewStub>
 </SlidingDrawer>
</RelativeLayout>

And this is the ViewStub layout xml (exposureview.xml), which is called to inflate the Stub:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout  xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
 android:layout_width="fill_parent"
 android:layout_height="fill_parent"
 >
 <TextView
  android:layout_width="wrap_content"
  android:layout_height="wrap_content"
  android:text="@+String/hello"
 ></TextView>
 <SeekBar
  android:layout_width="wrap_content"
  android:layout_height="wrap_content"
  android:thumb="@drawable/seek_thumb"
  android:progress="50"
  android:max="100">
 </SeekBar>

</RelativeLayout>

Answer 1

Apparently findViewById(R.id.stub_exposure); returns null for you. Did you recompile your class properly to regenerate the R.java file?

Also, I noticed you defined one of your text view's text property in your view stub layout XML file as android:text="@+String/hello".

Don't know if it's just a typo or not, but has the R.java been properly generated? If you have an existing value in strings.xml (notice not uppercase) then the compiler should complain.

You should try to do a Project -> Clean to see if you get warnings or errors (if you're using Eclipse).

Answer 2

As JRL suspects, this is because findViewById(R.id.stub_exposure) doesn't find/see/catch stub_exposure although the ID has been well generated in R.class, and then, the method returns null and when inflate() is called nothing happens because stub is still not initialized, is just a null object. You can see this by using the debugger.

So hence we can see that maybe there is some problem with the XML parser or compiler. I solved the problem by putting the View to be used by the StubView from a single dedicated XML file to the XML file where I had the main interface with more Layouts and Views. I put it inside the first parent Layer which was a LinearLayout but I had to embed it into a FrameLayout together with my StubView to keep all the Layers appearing the same. I think this must be important because you also have your StubViews inside Layers but it doesn't work to you. So try to put the StubViews into different levels of the hierarchy.

Answer 3

Inflating or showing a ViewStub causes it to be removed from the layout (the whole point of it is to be replaced by another view). Your onClick method is only going to work properly the first time. You should (a) check for a null returned from findViewById, and (b) use the id of the view you're inflating into the stub after the inflation.