support.v7 ShareActionProvider crashes if showAsAction=“always”

Question

Trying to use ShareActionProvider from the support library (v7), my app works fine if I don't set the showAsAction attribute for the menu item. My intention is to display this menu item as an icon and not as an overflow item.

If, however, I set it to show always, the app crashes with NullPointerException.

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07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853): java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'void android.widget.ImageView.setImageDrawable(android.graphics.drawable.Drawable)' on a null object reference
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at android.support.v7.internal.widget.ActivityChooserView.updateAppearance(ActivityChooserView.java:510)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at android.support.v7.internal.widget.ActivityChooserView$3.onChanged(ActivityChooserView.java:247)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at android.database.DataSetObservable.notifyChanged(DataSetObservable.java:37)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at android.widget.BaseAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged(BaseAdapter.java:50)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at android.support.v7.internal.widget.ActivityChooserView$ActivityChooserViewAdapter.setDataModel(ActivityChooserView.java:647)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at android.support.v7.internal.widget.ActivityChooserView.setActivityChooserModel(ActivityChooserView.java:260)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at android.support.v7.widget.ShareActionProvider.onCreateActionView(ShareActionProvider.java:182)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at android.support.v4.view.ActionProvider.onCreateActionView(ActionProvider.java:109)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at android.support.v7.internal.view.menu.MenuItemWrapperJB$ActionProviderWrapperJB.onCreateActionView(MenuItemWrapperJB.java:44)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at com.android.internal.view.menu.MenuItemImpl.getActionView(MenuItemImpl.java:583)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at com.android.internal.view.menu.ActionMenuPresenter.getItemView(ActionMenuPresenter.java:161)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at com.android.internal.view.menu.ActionMenuPresenter.flagActionItems(ActionMenuPresenter.java:438)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at com.android.internal.view.menu.MenuBuilder.flagActionItems(MenuBuilder.java:1062)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at com.android.internal.view.menu.BaseMenuPresenter.updateMenuView(BaseMenuPresenter.java:87)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at com.android.internal.view.menu.ActionMenuPresenter.updateMenuView(ActionMenuPresenter.java:216)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at com.android.internal.view.menu.MenuBuilder.dispatchPresenterUpdate(MenuBuilder.java:244)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at com.android.internal.view.menu.MenuBuilder.onItemsChanged(MenuBuilder.java:956)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at com.android.internal.view.menu.MenuBuilder.startDispatchingItemsChanged(MenuBuilder.java:979)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow.preparePanel(PhoneWindow.java:479)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow.doInvalidatePanelMenu(PhoneWindow.java:800)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$1.run(PhoneWindow.java:221)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at android.view.Choreographer$CallbackRecord.run(Choreographer.java:761)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at android.view.Choreographer.doCallbacks(Choreographer.java:574)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at android.view.Choreographer.doFrame(Choreographer.java:543)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at android.view.Choreographer$FrameDisplayEventReceiver.run(Choreographer.java:747)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:733)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:136)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5001)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:785)
07-30 01:23:37.778: E/AndroidRuntime(25853):    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:601)

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My menu layout: 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="com.example.myapp.MainActivity" >

    <item
        android:id="@+id/menu_item_share"
        android:title="Share"
        app:actionProviderClass="android.support.v7.widget.ShareActionProvider"
        app:showAsAction="always"/>

</menu>

---

My inflation code in the activity:

import android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity;
import android.support.v7.widget.ShareActionProvider;

public class MainActivity extends ActionBarActivity 
{
    ...

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

        // Locate MenuItem with ShareActionProvider
        MenuItem item = menu.findItem(R.id.menu_item_share);

        // Fetch and store ShareActionProvider
        _shareActionProvider = (ShareActionProvider) MenuItemCompat.getActionProvider(item);
        setShareIntent();

        return true;
    }
}

Thanks.

Answer 1

Today I have met this problem, this is a support v7 lib bug.

I found two ways to solve this problem if you have to use support v7 lib.

1. update your support lib to the latest version. the current latest is android 5.0 v7 lib, I have test this lib have fix this bug.

2. If you don't want to update support v7 lib, you should change app:showAsAction to android:showAsAction in your share item menu xml. I spend lots of time to found this solution.

Answer 2

I think your shareintent isn't set properly (but am only guessing from the code you posted). You should call setShareIntent on the actionprovider itself, where you are now calling some unknown function setShareIntent() on a line by itself. Instead, try

    _shareActionProvider().setShareIntent(/*some intent*/);

I think that the NPE is when the shareintent provider tries to load the icon for the first share option, and can't handle having no intents to pull an image from. You only have this issue if the provider is displayed in the action bar.

Answer 3

set the xml item like this:

   <item
    android:id="@+id/menu_item_share"
    android:title="Share" 
    support:actionProviderClass="android.support.v7.widget.ShareActionProvider"
    support:showAsAction="always"/>

Answer 4

the xml item

 <item
    android:id="@+id/action_share"
    android:title="@string/anction_share"
    android:orderInCategory="2"
    app:showAsAction="always"
  app:actionProviderClass="android.support.v7.widget.ShareActionProvider" />

The value declaration

 private android.support.v7.widget.ShareActionProvider shareActionProvider;

In code use

MenuItem menuItem = menu.findItem(R.id.action_share);
shareActionProvider = (android.support.v7.widget.ShareActionProvider) MenuItemCompat.getActionProvider(menuItem);
setIntent("Example text.");

setIntent method

  private void setIntent(String text){
    Intent shareIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
    shareIntent.setType("text/plain");
    shareIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, text);
    shareActionProvider.setShareIntent(shareIntent);
}