Losing intent extras between activities

Question

I'm having an issue where I'm losing Extras between activites.

I'm sending a ChatObject from a MainActivity Recyclerview to a ChatActivity, and it works fine.

I then send the same ChatObject from the ChatActivity to a GroupSettingsActivity, which also works fine.

My issue is when I try to return from the GroupSettingsActivity to the ChatActivity from my topAppBar home button, I get a nullPointerException trying to getChatId from the ChatObject.

java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.example.shotgunnot/com.example.shotgunnot.ChatActivity}: 
java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'java.lang.String com.example.shotgunnot.Chat.ChatObject.getChatId()' on a null object reference

I've tried using onResume, and Navutils but I keep getting the same error, I think it's something in the life cycle im not getting. Androids built in back nav button works as expected.

Here's my MainActivity recyclerview adapter

    @Override
    public void onBindViewHolder(@NonNull final ChatListViewHolder holder, final int position) {
        ChatObject data = chatList.get(position);

        holder.mTitle.setText(data.getChatId());
        holder.mGroup.setText(data.getGroupId());

        System.out.println("GroupPic" + data.getGroupPic());
        Glide.with(context)
                .load(data.getGroupPic())
                .diskCacheStrategy(DiskCacheStrategy.ALL)
                .placeholder(R.drawable.ic_group_24dp)
                .apply(RequestOptions.circleCropTransform().circleCrop())
                .into(holder.mGroupPic);

        holder.mLayout.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                Intent intent = new Intent(v.getContext(), ChatActivity.class);
                intent.putExtra("chatObject", chatList.get(holder.getBindingAdapterPosition()));
                v.getContext().startActivity(intent);
            }
        });
    }

This is the chatActivity

public class ChatActivity extends AppCompatActivity  {

    ChatObject mChatObject;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_chat);

        Intent intent = getIntent(); >> 
        mChatObject = (ChatObject) intent.getSerializableExtra("chatObject");

        BottomAppBar bottomAppBar = findViewById(R.id.bottomAppBar);
        bottomAppBar.replaceMenu(R.menu.group_menu);
        bottomAppBar.setOnMenuItemClickListener(new Toolbar.OnMenuItemClickListener() {
            @Override
            public boolean onMenuItemClick(MenuItem item) {
                switch (item.getItemId()) {
                    case R.id.settings:
                        Intent intent = new Intent(ChatActivity.this, GroupSettingsActivity.class);
                        intent.putExtra("chatObject", mChatObject);
                        startActivity(intent);
                        return true;
                    case android.R.id.home:
                        Intent home = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), MainPageActivity.class);
                        startActivity(home);
                }
                return false;
            }
        });

    }

    @Override
    protected void onResume() {
        super.onResume();

        Intent intent = getIntent();
        mChatObject = (ChatObject) intent.getSerializableExtra("chatObject");

    }

}

And finally the GroupSetting Activity

public class GroupSettingsActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
    ChatObject mChatObject;


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

        Intent intent = getIntent(); 

        mChatObject = (ChatObject) intent.getSerializableExtra("chatObject");
        chatId = mChatObject.getChatId();

    }

    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
        // Handle item selection
        switch (item.getItemId()) {
            case android.R.id.home:
                Intent intent = new Intent(this, ChatActivity.class);
                intent.putExtra("chatObject", mChatObject);
                startActivity(intent);
                //NavUtils.navigateUpFromSameTask(this);
                finish();
            default:
                return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
        }
    }

Any help would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

You should check if the value that is arriving in the second activity is different from null before using it. Try to do something like this and put a breakpoint to debug what's coming up in your second activity:

1st Activity:

Intent i = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), NewActivity.class);
i.putExtra("user_id", "1234");
i.putExtra("user_name", "John Doe");

startActivity(i);

2nd Activity:

Bundle extras = getIntent().getExtras();

if (extras != null) {
    Integer id= extras.getInt("user_id");
    String username= extras.getString("user_name");
}

Answer 2

Try to add these flags before starting ChatActivity, to clear the stack and make sure you're creating a new ChatActivity rather then recreating an old one:

intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK);

Answer 3

I found a workaround using sharedPrefs based off this answer How do you save/store objects in SharedPreferences on Android?

saving prefs

    @Override
    protected void onPause() {
        super.onPause();
        SharedPreferences.Editor prefsEditor = mPrefs.edit();
        Gson gson = new Gson();
        String json = gson.toJson(mChatObject);
        prefsEditor.putString("mChatObject", json);
        prefsEditor.commit();
    }

And retrieving them in onCreate

        mChatObject = (ChatObject) intent.getSerializableExtra("chatObject");
        if(mChatObject != null){
            chatId = mChatObject.getChatId();
            groupId = mChatObject.getGroupId();
            groupPic = mChatObject.getGroupPic();
        }else{
            Gson gson = new Gson();
            String json = mPrefs.getString("mChatObject", "");
            mChatObject = (ChatObject) gson.fromJson(json, ChatObject.class);
            chatId = mChatObject.getChatId();
            groupId = mChatObject.getGroupId();
            groupPic = mChatObject.getGroupPic();
        }

It feels like a bit of hack though, so if anyone has a better solution that'd be great.

Thanks