Class not found when unmarshalling when passing Parcelable through Messenger to remote service

Question

I have a Parcelable object which I use to pass it from Activity to remote service. When I pass it using AIDL interface, everything sounds fine.

Recently, I try to pass it through Messenger from Activity.

// TEST TEST TEST!
StockInfo stockInfo0 = new StockInfo(Code.newInstance("code0"), Symbol.newInstance("symbol0"));
StockInfo stockInfo1 = new StockInfo(Code.newInstance("code1"), Symbol.newInstance("symbol1"));
StockInfo stockInfo2 = new StockInfo(Code.newInstance("code2"), Symbol.newInstance("symbol2"));
List<StockInfo> stockInfos = new ArrayList<StockInfo>();
stockInfos.add(stockInfo0);
stockInfos.add(stockInfo1);
stockInfos.add(stockInfo2);
StockInfosEx stockInfosEx = new StockInfosEx(stockInfos, "abc");
msg.obj = stockInfosEx;

try {
    mService.send(msg);
} catch (RemoteException e) {
    // TODO Auto-generated catch block
    e.printStackTrace();
}

I'm getting the following exception in remote service.

02-21 22:55:16.546: E/Parcel(8365): Class not found when unmarshalling: com.example.testonmessenger.StockInfosEx, e: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.example.testonmessenger.StockInfosEx

I was wondering, what can get wrong in between? Here is my Parcelable object.

public class StockInfosEx implements Parcelable {
    public final List<StockInfo> stockInfos;
    public final String searchedString;

    public StockInfosEx(List<StockInfo> stockInfos, String searchedString) {
        this.stockInfos = stockInfos;
        this.searchedString = searchedString;
    }

    ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    // Handling Parcelable nicely.

    public static final Parcelable.Creator<StockInfosEx> CREATOR = new Parcelable.Creator<StockInfosEx>() {
        public StockInfosEx createFromParcel(Parcel in) {
            return new StockInfosEx(in);
        }

        public StockInfosEx[] newArray(int size) {
            return new StockInfosEx[size];
        }
    };

    private StockInfosEx(Parcel in) {
        stockInfos = new ArrayList<StockInfo>();
        in.readTypedList(stockInfos, StockInfo.CREATOR);
        searchedString = in.readString();
    }

    @Override
    public int describeContents() {
        return 0;
    }

    @Override
    public void writeToParcel(Parcel parcel, int flags) {
        parcel.writeTypedList(stockInfos);
        parcel.writeString(searchedString);
    }

    // Handling Parcelable nicely.    
    ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////        
}

To get complete source code, kindly download from https://www.dropbox.com/s/n69yuhddpb8vedz/testonmessenger.zip

Answer 1

Not Workable Approach (Because our Parcelable is custom, not part of Framework like Rect)

Activity

msg.obj = stockInfosEx;

Remote Service

StockInfosEx stockInfosEx = (StockInfosEx)msg.obj;

Workable Approach

Activity

msg.getData().putParcelable("data", stockInfosEx);

Remote Service

msg.getData().setClassLoader(StockInfosEx.class.getClassLoader());
StockInfosEx stockInfosEx = (StockInfosEx)msg.getData().getParcelable("data");

---

Now, after I read back the documentation of msg.obj (http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/Message.html#obj) again, only I understand what it really mean by Parcelable of a framework class

An arbitrary object to send to the recipient. When using Messenger to send the message across processes this can only be non-null if it contains a Parcelable of a framework class (not one implemented by the application). For other data transfer use setData(Bundle).

Note that Parcelable objects here are not supported prior to the FROYO release.