Google Tag Manager for Android NullPointerException

Question

I'm trying to setup a Universal Analytics tag via Google Tag Manager for Android. I have a blank activity (nothing in the layout) as follows:

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

    // Start GTM code

    try
    {
        TagManager tagManager = TagManager.getInstance(this);
        tagManager.setVerboseLoggingEnabled(true);
        PendingResult<ContainerHolder> pending = tagManager.loadContainerPreferNonDefault("GTM-XXXXXX", R.raw.default_gtm_container);
        pending.setResultCallback(new ResultCallback<ContainerHolder>()
        {
            @Override
            public void onResult(ContainerHolder containerHolder)
            {
                ContainerHolderSingleton.setContainerHolder(containerHolder);
                if (!containerHolder.getStatus().isSuccess())
                {
                    Log.e("GoogleTagManager", "failure loading container");
                    return;
                }
                ContainerHolderSingleton.setContainerHolder(containerHolder);
                containerHolder.setContainerAvailableListener(new ContainerHolder.ContainerAvailableListener()
                {

                    @Override
                    public void onContainerAvailable(ContainerHolder containerHolder, String containerVersion)
                    {
                        containerHolder.getContainer();
                    }
                });
            }
        }, 2, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
    } catch (Exception e)
    {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    // End GTM code
}

@Override
public void onStart()
{
    super.onStart();
    DataLayer dataLayer = TagManager.getInstance(this).getDataLayer();
    dataLayer.pushEvent("openScreen", DataLayer.mapOf("screenName", "Verification"));
}

All I'm trying to do is have the Universal Analytics tag fire when this activity starts. As you can see from the log output:

04-23 06:49:56.745: D/dalvikvm(4334): Not late-enabling CheckJNI (already on)
04-23 06:49:56.855: V/GoogleTagManager(4334): Atttempting to load container from resource ID 2131034112
04-23 06:49:56.855: W/GoogleTagManager(4334): Resource is a UTF-8 encoded string but doesn't contain a JSON container
04-23 06:49:56.865: V/GoogleTagManager(4334): Deleted 0 expired items
04-23 06:49:56.875: V/GoogleTagManager(4334): Start loading resource from disk ...
04-23 06:49:56.875: W/dalvikvm(4334): threadid=13: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0xb2d4fb20)
04-23 06:49:56.885: W/GoogleTagManager(4334): GooglePlayServicesNotAvailableException getting Advertising Id Info
04-23 06:49:56.885: E/AndroidRuntime(4334): FATAL EXCEPTION: pool-2-thread-1
04-23 06:49:56.885: E/AndroidRuntime(4334): Process: com.outing.planner, PID: 4334
04-23 06:49:56.885: E/AndroidRuntime(4334): java.lang.NullPointerException
04-23 06:49:56.885: E/AndroidRuntime(4334):     at com.google.android.gms.tagmanager.o$b.a(Unknown Source)
04-23 06:49:56.885: E/AndroidRuntime(4334):     at com.google.android.gms.tagmanager.o$b.i(Unknown Source)
04-23 06:49:56.885: E/AndroidRuntime(4334):     at com.google.android.gms.tagmanager.cq.jC(Unknown Source)
04-23 06:49:56.885: E/AndroidRuntime(4334):     at com.google.android.gms.tagmanager.cq$1.run(Unknown Source)
04-23 06:49:56.885: E/AndroidRuntime(4334):     at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1112)
04-23 06:49:56.885: E/AndroidRuntime(4334):     at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:587)
04-23 06:49:56.885: E/AndroidRuntime(4334):     at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:841)
04-23 06:49:56.915: D/dalvikvm(4334): GC_FOR_ALLOC freed 239K, 9% free 2999K/3292K, paused 17ms, total 17ms
04-23 06:49:57.225: D/(4334): HostConnection::get() New Host Connection established 0xb8c8e590, tid 4334
04-23 06:49:57.245: W/EGL_emulation(4334): eglSurfaceAttrib not implemented
04-23 06:49:57.245: D/OpenGLRenderer(4334): Enabling debug mode 0
04-23 06:50:01.945: V/GoogleTagManager(4334): connecting to Analytics service
04-23 06:50:01.945: V/GoogleTagManager(4334): connect: bindService returned false for Intent { act=com.google.android.gms.analytics.service.START cmp=com.google.android.gms/.analytics.service.AnalyticsService (has extras) }
04-23 06:50:01.945: W/GoogleTagManager(4334): Service unavailable (code=1), will retry.
04-23 06:50:01.945: V/GoogleTagManager(4334): Loaded clientId
04-23 06:50:01.945: I/GoogleTagManager(4334): No campaign data found.
04-23 06:50:01.945: V/GoogleTagManager(4334): Initialized GA Thread
04-23 06:50:01.945: W/GoogleTagManager(4334): GooglePlayServicesNotAvailableException getting Ad Id Info
04-23 06:50:01.945: V/GoogleTagManager(4334): putHit called
04-23 06:50:06.965: V/GoogleTagManager(4334): connecting to Analytics service
04-23 06:50:06.965: V/GoogleTagManager(4334): connect: bindService returned false for Intent { act=com.google.android.gms.analytics.service.START cmp=com.google.android.gms/.analytics.service.AnalyticsService (has extras) }
04-23 06:50:06.965: W/GoogleTagManager(4334): Service unavailable (code=1), using local store.
04-23 06:50:06.965: V/GoogleTagManager(4334): falling back to local store
04-23 06:50:06.965: V/GoogleTagManager(4334): Sending hit to store  PATH: https:  PARAMS: v=1,  ul=en-us,  t=appview,  ht=1398250196938,  sr=480x800,  an=OutingPlannerAndroid,  tid=UA-XXXXXXXX-Y,  aid=com.outing.planner,  cid=c5f3e490-a578-49d6-b0e7-eaf3bce8dfe6,  av=1.0,  _u=.4nL,  cd=Verification,  
04-23 06:50:06.965: V/GoogleTagManager(4334): PowerSaveMode initiated.
04-23 06:50:06.975: V/GoogleTagManager(4334): PowerSaveMode terminated.
04-23 06:50:06.975: V/GoogleTagManager(4334): Dispatch running...
04-23 06:50:07.405: D/dalvikvm(4334): GC_FOR_ALLOC freed 336K, 11% free 3177K/3568K, paused 6ms, total 6ms
04-23 06:50:08.215: V/GoogleTagManager(4334): sent 1 of 1 hits
04-23 06:50:08.225: V/GoogleTagManager(4334): PowerSaveMode initiated.

although a NullPointerException is thrown, the Google Analytics hit is actually sent and I see the hit in the realtime reports. The NullPointerException is causing my application to crash and the Google Analytics hit is sent even after the application crashes.

Why is the NullPointerException being thrown? It seems to be thrown by the Google Tag Manager classes, but I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I followed the CuteAnimalV4 sample project down to the last letter.

Please note I've hidden the Google Tag Manager container ID and the Google Analytics account ID. These are valid values in real life.

Answer 1

According to this thread https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/tag-manager/87Kb_TZv79w

It will be fixed in next Google Play Service version. For now you can add uncaught exception handler as the workaround.