Calling New Activity From ActionBar

Question

When attempting to call a new activity (settings) from the action bar, I get the error java.lang.NullPointerException. I'm not too sure where I'm going wrong, below is the code I am using. Everything compiles fine, when I test the application and press the "Settings" button, the app then crashes.

MainActivity.java

package liam.lbee.com.test1;

import android.content.Intent;
import android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Toast;



public class MainActivity extends ActionBarActivity implements View.OnClickListener {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
    }


    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_main, menu);
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
        // Handle action bar item clicks here. The action bar will
        // automatically handle clicks on the Home/Up button, so long
        // as you specify a parent activity in AndroidManifest.xml.
        int id = item.getItemId();
        if (id == R.id.action_settings) {
            startActivity(new Intent(getApplicationContext(),SettingsActivity.class));
            return true;
        }
        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }

}

Menu_Main.xml

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools" tools:context=".MainActivity">



    <item android:id="@+id/action_settings"
        android:title="@string/action_settings"
        app:showAsAction="never" />


</menu>

AndroidManifest.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="liam.lbee.com.test1" >

    <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
        <activity
            android:name=".MainActivity"
            android:label="@string/app_name" >
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
        <activity
            android:name=".SettingsActivity"
            android:label="@string/title_activity_settings"
            android:parentActivityName=".MainActivity" >
            <meta-data
                android:name="android.support.PARENT_ACTIVITY"
                android:value="liam.lbee.com.test1.MainActivity" />
        </activity>
    </application>

</manifest>

LogCat Files

java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{liam.lbee.com.test1/liam.lbee.com.test1.SettingsActivity}: java.lang.NullPointerException
            at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2292)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2350)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.access$800(ActivityThread.java:163)
            at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1257)
            at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102)
            at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:157)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5335)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:515)
            at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:1265)
            at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1081)
            at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
     Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
            at liam.lbee.com.test1.SettingsActivity.setupActionBar(SettingsActivity.java:58)
            at liam.lbee.com.test1.SettingsActivity.onCreate(SettingsActivity.java:48)
            at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:5389)
            at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1105)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2256)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2350)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.access$800(ActivityThread.java:163)
            at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1257)
            at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102)
            at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:157)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5335)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:515)

setupActionBar (As requested)

private void setupActionBar() {
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB) {
            // Show the Up button in the action bar.
            getActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
        }
    }

Answer 1

Final summary: The issue was with the SettingsActivity not using the getSupportActionBar() method from ActionBarActivity. Once the class was updated to extend from ActionBarActivity and the called method was changed, this worked.

Another example of this: getActionBar() returns Null (AppCompat-v7 21)