surfaceView.getHolder not returning SurfaceHolder

Question

I'm trying to code an app that uses the camera. I'm getting a NullPointerException when trying to get the surfaceHolder that i eventually pass to the surfaceCreated() that starts up the camera. is there any situation when the getHolder() returns NULL?

thanks.

package com.tecmark;

import java.io.IOException;

import android.app.Activity;

import android.graphics.PixelFormat;
import android.hardware.Camera;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.SurfaceHolder;
import android.view.SurfaceView;
import android.view.Window;
import android.view.WindowManager;

public class cameraView extends Activity implements SurfaceHolder.Callback{

    SurfaceView mSurfaceView;
    SurfaceHolder mSurfaceHolder;
    Camera mCamera;
    boolean mPreviewRunning;

 /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override 
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);


        getWindow().setFormat(PixelFormat.TRANSLUCENT);

        requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);

        getWindow().setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN,

        WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN);

        //setContentView(R.layout.camera_surface);   

        mSurfaceView = (SurfaceView) findViewById(R.id.surface_camera);
        Log.i("surfaceholder = ", "about to get surface holder");
        try{
        mSurfaceHolder = mSurfaceView.getHolder();
        }catch(Exception e){
         e.printStackTrace();
        }

        Log.i("surfaceholder = ", ""+mSurfaceHolder.toString());

        mSurfaceHolder.addCallback(this);

        mSurfaceHolder.setType(SurfaceHolder.SURFACE_TYPE_PUSH_BUFFERS);

        setContentView(R.layout.camera_surface);

        surfaceCreated(mSurfaceHolder);







    }

 @Override
 public void surfaceChanged(SurfaceHolder holder, int format, int w, int h) {

  if (mPreviewRunning) {

   mCamera.stopPreview();

   }

   Camera.Parameters p = mCamera.getParameters();

   p.setPreviewSize(w, h);

   mCamera.setParameters(p);

   try {

   mCamera.setPreviewDisplay(holder);

   } catch (Exception e) {

   e.printStackTrace();

   }

   mCamera.startPreview();

   mPreviewRunning = true;

   }






 @Override
 public void surfaceCreated(SurfaceHolder holder) {




  try{
   Log.i("camera ", "about to open camera");
         mCamera = Camera.open();
         Log.i("camera ", " camera opened");
         mCamera.getParameters();
         mCamera.setPreviewDisplay(holder);
         mCamera.startPreview();
   } catch (IOException e) {

    e.printStackTrace();
   }
  Log.i("camera ", "ok");
 }

 @Override
 public void surfaceDestroyed(SurfaceHolder holder) {
  mCamera.stopPreview();

  mPreviewRunning = false;

  mCamera.release();

 }




}//end of activity



01-31 15:29:17.773: WARN/System.err(9144): java.lang.NullPointerException
01-31 15:29:17.778: WARN/System.err(9144):     at com.tecmark.cameraView.onCreate(cameraView.java:42)
01-31 15:29:17.778: WARN/System.err(9144):     at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1047)
01-31 15:29:17.778: WARN/System.err(9144):     at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2459)
01-31 15:29:17.783: WARN/System.err(9144):     at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2512)
01-31 15:29:17.783: WARN/System.err(9144):     at android.app.ActivityThread.access$2200(ActivityThread.java:119)
01-31 15:29:17.783: WARN/System.err(9144):     at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1863)
01-31 15:29:17.783: WARN/System.err(9144):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
01-31 15:29:17.783: WARN/System.err(9144):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)
01-31 15:29:17.783: WARN/System.err(9144):     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4363)
01-31 15:29:17.783: WARN/System.err(9144):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
01-31 15:29:17.788: WARN/System.err(9144):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:521)
01-31 15:29:17.788: WARN/System.err(9144):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:860)
01-31 15:29:17.788: WARN/System.err(9144):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:618)
01-31 15:29:17.788: WARN/System.err(9144):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
01-31 15:29:17.793: DEBUG/AndroidRuntime(9144): Shutting down VM
01-31 15:29:17.793: WARN/dalvikvm(9144): threadid=3: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x4001b180)
01-31 15:29:17.793: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9144): Uncaught handler: thread main exiting due to uncaught exception
01-31 15:29:17.803: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9144): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.tecmark/com.tecmark.cameraView}: java.lang.NullPointerException
01-31 15:29:17.803: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9144):     at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2496)
01-31 15:29:17.803: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9144):     at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2512)
01-31 15:29:17.803: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9144):     at android.app.ActivityThread.access$2200(ActivityThread.java:119)
01-31 15:29:17.803: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9144):     at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1863)
01-31 15:29:17.803: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9144):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
01-31 15:29:17.803: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9144):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)
01-31 15:29:17.803: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9144):     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4363)
01-31 15:29:17.803: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9144):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
01-31 15:29:17.803: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9144):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:521)
01-31 15:29:17.803: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9144):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:860)
01-31 15:29:17.803: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9144):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:618)
01-31 15:29:17.803: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9144):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
01-31 15:29:17.803: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9144): Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
01-31 15:29:17.803: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9144):     at com.tecmark.cameraView.onCreate(cameraView.java:47)
01-31 15:29:17.803: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9144):     at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1047)
01-31 15:29:17.803: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9144):     at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2459)
01-31 15:29:17.803: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9144):     ... 11 more

score 15 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 01 '11 at 21:16

Starting a new answer to hopefully be more clear. Again, I think the root issue is the amount of stuff youre doing in onCreate vs. onResume.

I think the root issue youre having is that some parts of the view/activity lifecycle need to run their course before you start dealing with the surfaceView and starting prevew with it.

I'm not certain of that but here's the breakdown of the various places I deal with various camera and surface view stuff in an augmented reality app that works:

onCreate()
{
    // just set content view. do nothing with the camera or surfaceView yet
    setContentView(R.layout.main);
}

onResume()
{
        // open camera
    mCamera = Camera.open();

    // init surface view
    sv = (SurfaceView)this.findViewById(R.id.SurfaceView01);
            mHolder = sv.getHolder(); 
            mHolder.setType(SurfaceHolder.SURFACE_TYPE_PUSH_BUFFERS); 
            mHolder.setSizeFromLayout();
            mHolder.addCallback(this); 
}

surfaceChanged(SurfaceHolder holder, int format, int w, int h)
{
    mCamera.setPreviewDisplay(holder);
    // set any cam params you need...

    mCamera.startPreview();
}

Try restructuring your code to do similar. My eyes got bleary trying to count out where the NPE was happening from your source but I think a few problems are:

you seem to be trying to get reference to the surfaceview BEFORE youve called setContentView()
youre directly calling the surfaceCreated method, rather than letting it be called via the callback.

Hope that helps. We'll get this figured out yet!

hey thanks alot, i really apreciate your help. The camera is now working. I'm trying to get the app to include face recognition, so going to have a look at that now. i need to have a better look at the surfaceview and surfaceholder callback classes to understand which methods need implementing and where to put my code. again thanks alot — turtleboy, Feb 03 '11 at 19:04
if i want to post the new code how do i do that? do i need to edit the originl question or can i post code in a comment? thanks — turtleboy, Feb 03 '11 at 19:09
I think you are spot on.. The main issue is that he is doing something like : mSurfaceView = (SurfaceView) findViewById(R.id.surface_camera); before calling setContentView(R.layout.camera_surface); That would probably return mSurfaceView = null. — Chrispix, Dec 23 '12 at 19:58
I found a lot of problems were fixed by setting up the preview from the `SurfaceHolder.Callback`—that way you only pass in the `Holder` after it's been created (which can take some time). — Andrew Wyld, Jun 19 '13 at 09:57

mmeyer · Answer 2 · 2011-02-01T19:03:05.413

0

Off the top of my head, I think you'll need to do the surfaceView stuff in onResume rather than in onCreate, otherwise it looks fine.

Also, you should try calling:

mSurfaceHolder.setType(SurfaceHolder.SURFACE_TYPE_PUSH_BUFFERS); 
mSurfaceHolder.setSizeFromLayout();

right after you get a ref to the holder, but before starting preview.

edited Feb 01 '11 at 19:03

answered Jan 31 '11 at 16:09

mmeyer

3,598
1
19
22

ok i've put the surface stuff in onResume(); still not working. i've logged the surfaceholder and surfaceview object and they have been instantiated. The camera.open() method is logged as ok. i'm getting errors saying cannot connect to camera service, app passed null service and surface not set yet. there's also a surface.OutOfResourcesException. it seems that the surface is not being set from the xml – turtleboy Feb 01 '11 at 18:48
see updated answer about PUSH_BUFFERS. If that doesnt work, I'll take a deeper look and compare to some AR apps I have working. – mmeyer Feb 01 '11 at 19:04
ok tried that before regarding setSizeFromLayout(). here's what debug is spitting out. thanks. – turtleboy Feb 01 '11 at 19:31

surfaceView.getHolder not returning SurfaceHolder

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