DatePicker crashes on my device when clicked (with personal app)

Question

Edit : I checked that the issue only appears when the phone is set with "French" language.

I'm currently building my own app and I have an issue when using the DatePicker widget on my phone (debug mode phone : Samsung S5).

The error gather is : java.util.IllegalFormatConversionException

I add more details about the issue gathered in logcat:

02-20 10:37:18.255  13029-13029/avappmobile.mytasks E/AndroidRuntime﹕ FATAL EXCEPTION: main
    Process: avappmobile.mytasks, PID: 13029
    java.util.IllegalFormatConversionException: %d can't format java.lang.String arguments
            at java.util.Formatter.badArgumentType(Formatter.java:1489)
            at java.util.Formatter.transformFromInteger(Formatter.java:1689)
            at java.util.Formatter.transform(Formatter.java:1461)
            at java.util.Formatter.doFormat(Formatter.java:1081)
            at java.util.Formatter.format(Formatter.java:1042)
            at java.util.Formatter.format(Formatter.java:1011)
            at java.lang.String.format(String.java:1803)
            at android.content.res.Resources.getString(Resources.java:1453)
            at android.content.Context.getString(Context.java:397)
            at android.widget.SimpleMonthView$MonthViewTouchHelper.getItemDescription(SimpleMonthView.java:684)
            at android.widget.SimpleMonthView$MonthViewTouchHelper.onPopulateNodeForVirtualView(SimpleMonthView.java:628)
            at com.android.internal.widget.ExploreByTouchHelper.createNodeForChild(ExploreByTouchHelper.java:377)
            at com.android.internal.widget.ExploreByTouchHelper.createNode(ExploreByTouchHelper.java:316)
            at com.android.internal.widget.ExploreByTouchHelper.access$100(ExploreByTouchHelper.java:50)
            at com.android.internal.widget.ExploreByTouchHelper$ExploreByTouchNodeProvider.createAccessibilityNodeInfo(ExploreByTouchHelper.java:711)
            at android.view.AccessibilityInteractionController$AccessibilityNodePrefetcher.prefetchDescendantsOfVirtualNode(AccessibilityInteractionController.java:1179)
            at android.view.AccessibilityInteractionController$AccessibilityNodePrefetcher.prefetchDescendantsOfRealNode(AccessibilityInteractionController.java:1091)
            at android.view.AccessibilityInteractionController$AccessibilityNodePrefetcher.prefetchDescendantsOfRealNode(AccessibilityInteractionController.java:1087)
            at android.view.AccessibilityInteractionController$AccessibilityNodePrefetcher.prefetchDescendantsOfRealNode(AccessibilityInteractionController.java:1087)
            at android.view.AccessibilityInteractionController$AccessibilityNodePrefetcher.prefetchDescendantsOfRealNode(AccessibilityInteractionController.java:1087)
            at android.view.AccessibilityInteractionController$AccessibilityNodePrefetcher.prefetchDescendantsOfRealNode(AccessibilityInteractionController.java:1087)
            at android.view.AccessibilityInteractionController$AccessibilityNodePrefetcher.prefetchDescendantsOfRealNode(AccessibilityInteractionController.java:1087)
            at android.view.AccessibilityInteractionController$AccessibilityNodePrefetcher.prefetchDescendantsOfRealNode(AccessibilityInteractionController.java:1087)
            at android.view.AccessibilityInteractionController$AccessibilityNodePrefetcher.prefetchDescendantsOfRealNode(AccessibilityInteractionController.java:1087)
            at android.view.AccessibilityInteractionController$AccessibilityNodePrefetcher.prefetchDescendantsOfRealNode(AccessibilityInteractionController.java:1087)
            at android.view.AccessibilityInteractionController$AccessibilityNodePrefetcher.prefetchDescendantsOfRealNode(AccessibilityInteractionController.java:1087)
            at android.view.AccessibilityInteractionController$AccessibilityNodePrefetcher.prefetchAccessibilityNodeInfos(AccessibilityInteractionController.java:888)
            at android.view.AccessibilityInteractionController.findAccessibilityNodeInfoByAccessibilityIdUiThread(AccessibilityInteractionController.java:155)
            at android.view.AccessibilityInteractionController.access$400(AccessibilityInteractionController.java:53)
            at android.view.AccessibilityInteractionController$PrivateHandler.handleMessage(AccessibilityInteractionController.java:1236)
            at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102)
            at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:145)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5834)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:372)
            at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:1388)
            at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1183)

Here is my DialogFragment Code:

public class DatePFragment extends DialogFragment implements DatePickerDialog.OnDateSetListener {

    DatePicker dp;
    OnDatePickedListener mCallback;
    Integer mLayoutId = null;

    // Interface definition
    public interface OnDatePickedListener {
        public void onDatePicked(int textId, int year, int month, int day);
    }

    // make sure the Activity implement the OnDatePickedListener
    public void onAttach(Activity activity) {
        super.onAttach(activity);

        try {
            mCallback = (OnDatePickedListener)activity;
        }
        catch (final ClassCastException e) {
            throw new ClassCastException(activity.toString() + " must implement OnDatePickedListener");
        }
    }

    @Override
    public Dialog onCreateDialog(Bundle savedInstanceState){
        mCallback = (OnDatePickedListener)getActivity();

        Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
        Bundle bundle = this.getArguments();
        mLayoutId = bundle.getInt("layoutId");
        int year = cal.get(Calendar.YEAR);
        int month = cal.get(Calendar.MONTH);
        int day = cal.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);

        View view = getActivity().getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.datepfragment, null);

        dp = (DatePicker) view.findViewById(R.id.datePicker);

        // Create a new instance of DatePickerDialog and return it
        return new DatePickerDialog(getActivity(),this,year, month, day);
    }

    @Override
    public void onDateSet(DatePicker view, int year, int monthOfYear, int dayOfMonth) {
        if (mCallback != null) {
            // Use the date chosen by the user.

            mCallback.onDatePicked(mLayoutId, year, monthOfYear+1, dayOfMonth);
        }
    }
}

And here is the associated xml layout :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="@string/txtDPTitle"
        android:id="@+id/txtDPTitle"
        android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:layout_alignParentStart="true"
        android:layout_marginTop="35dp" />

    <Button
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="@string/btnDPValidate"
        android:id="@+id/btnDPValidate"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:layout_marginBottom="35dp" />

    <DatePicker
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/datePicker"
        android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
        android:layout_marginLeft="0dp"
        android:datePickerMode="spinner"
        android:calendarViewShown="false"
        android:layout_centerVertical="true"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />

</RelativeLayout>

The fact is I had two kind of issues (leading to the app crash anyway):

1. When I enter my app and directly go to the DatePicker widget, the calendar is correctly displayed and as soon as I select a day (I say a day, because there's no problem changing the year for example), the app crashes.
2. If I go on other function the click to display the DatePicker, it crashes directly.

I saw other threads like : DatePicker crash in samsung with android 5.0

In this thread I don't get enough information, since the given solution allows to display only the spinner view of the calendar and furthermore the spinner displayed is not centered and presented as mine (put directly at the top of the screen).

If you need further details please ask me.

Thanks. Alex.

Answer 1

It's a Samsung bug in their Lollipop UI implementation. It affects Galaxy S4, S5, Note 3 and probably more devices. For us it occurs on de_DE and de_AT languages, but it appears to be an issue that affects multiple languages.

I fixed it by forcing Samsung devices to use the Holo theme for the date picker. In our DatePickerFragment:

@NonNull
@Override
public Dialog onCreateDialog(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    /* calendar code here */

    Context context = getActivity();
    if (isBrokenSamsungDevice()) {
        context = new ContextThemeWrapper(getActivity(), android.R.style.Theme_Holo_Light_Dialog);
    }
    return new DatePickerDialog(context, this, year, month, day);
}

private static boolean isBrokenSamsungDevice() {
    return (Build.MANUFACTURER.equalsIgnoreCase("samsung")
            && isBetweenAndroidVersions(
            Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP,
            Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP_MR1));
}

private static boolean isBetweenAndroidVersions(int min, int max) {
    return Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= min && Build.VERSION.SDK_INT <= max;
}

Thanks to Samsung, their users will not get the nice material-designed date picker.

Answer 2

I have a possible FIX PATCH that will actually let the user continue using the Lollipop library.

I could only reproduce the crash by enabling TalkBack on an S4 with Android 5.0.1 French, it seems that Samsung is passing the entire date to the item selection string used for accessability instead of the day number.

Building on @mreichelt solution of wrapping the context we can override the getString(id,args) function and actually fix the issue.

context = new ContextWrapper(getActivity()) {

    private Resources wrappedResources;

    @Override
    public Resources getResources() {
        Resources r = super.getResources();
        if(wrappedResources == null) {
            wrappedResources = new Resources(r.getAssets(), r.getDisplayMetrics(), r.getConfiguration()) {
                @NonNull
                @Override
                public String getString(int id, Object... formatArgs) throws NotFoundException {
                    try {
                        return super.getString(id, formatArgs);
                    } catch (IllegalFormatConversionException ifce) {
                        Log.e("DatePickerDialogFix", "IllegalFormatConversionException Fixed!", ifce);
                        String template = super.getString(id);
                        template = template.replaceAll("%" + ifce.getConversion(), "%s");
                        return String.format(getConfiguration().locale, template, formatArgs);
                    }
                }
            };
        }
        return wrappedResources;
    }
};

So if we provide this context to the DatePickerDialog constructor, it will fix the issue.

UPDATE: This issue also appears in webview when pages contain date input fields, the best way I found that solve both issues (dialog and webview) is to override the Activity getResources function like this:

@Override
public Resources getResources() {
    if (wrappedResources == null) {
        wrappedResources = wrapResourcesFixDateDialogCrash(super.getResources());
    }
    return wrappedResources;
}

public Resources wrapResourcesFixDateDialogCrash(Resources r) {
    return new Resources(r.getAssets(), r.getDisplayMetrics(), r.getConfiguration()) {
        @NonNull
        @Override
        public String getString(int id, Object... formatArgs) throws NotFoundException {
            try {
                return super.getString(id, formatArgs);
            } catch (IllegalFormatConversionException ifce) {
                Log.i("DatePickerDialogFix", "IllegalFormatConversionException Fixed!", ifce);
                String template = super.getString(id);
                template = template.replaceAll("%" + ifce.getConversion(), "%s");
                return String.format(getConfiguration().locale, template, formatArgs);
            }
        }
    };
}

Note: The solution includes a cached resources - which means if you have events in the app changing the resources (like language change) than you might need to update the cached resources.