How to avoid NullPointerException when using custom Views or SurfaceViews

Question

I created a custom SurfaceView called CaptureView and tried to add it into main.xml file:

<dev.recorder.client.CaptureView android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:id="@+id/capturePreview"/>

The application seems to work fine but if I switch from main.xml tab to Layout in Eclipse the text NullPointerException appears instead of layout preview.

In the Activity I binded the controls the following way:

setContentView(R.layout.main);

    bindControls();

private void bindControls()
{
    videoPreview = (CaptureView)findViewById(R.id.capturePreview);

    txtstatus = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.txtMode);
    txtTimer = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.txtTime);
}

Does anyone know how this issue could be solved?

Answer 1

make sure that you are initializing the view in onFinishInflate and not in the constructor. the layout preview code might initialize your control through a different code path.