NullPointerException on WebView (WebView.requestFocus())

Question

I've got a question:

In my Android app there is an activity containing a WebView. This WebView contains Flash content which is played back. When I switch out of this App to my Homescreen, the Flash contents is running smooth in the background. When I switch to the Homescreen an then turn the screen off, the Flash content is also running. But when I turn the screen off, while I'm in the App itself, the WebView throws a NullPointerException like the following at the end of the text. I have seriously no clue how to fix this issue. I hope that somebody might help me out.

Edit: I develop for Android 2.2. After some testing I found something special. When I turn off the screen while I'am running the app I get the mentioned exception, but when I turn the screen back on in time, I get "only" the following exception. I know it's nothing special and already known, but maybe it helps.

05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064): java.lang.NullPointerException
05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064):     at android.webkit.WebView.requestFocus(WebView.java:6737)
05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064):     at android.view.ViewGroup.onRequestFocusInDescendants(ViewGroup.java:1085)
05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064):     at android.view.ViewGroup.requestFocus(ViewGroup.java:1041)
05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064):     at android.view.ViewGroup.onRequestFocusInDescendants(ViewGroup.java:1085)
05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064):     at android.view.ViewGroup.requestFocus(ViewGroup.java:1041)
05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064):     at android.view.ViewGroup.onRequestFocusInDescendants(ViewGroup.java:1085)
05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064):     at android.view.ViewGroup.requestFocus(ViewGroup.java:1044)
05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064):     at android.view.View.requestFocus(View.java:3671)
05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064):     at android.view.ViewRoot.performTraversals(ViewRoot.java:1224)
05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064):     at android.view.ViewRoot.handleMessage(ViewRoot.java:1870)
05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:130)
05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064):     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:3694)
05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:507)
05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:841)
05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:599)
05-27 07:46:10.067: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8064):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

And here is the the method where the WebView is created:

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState){
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE);
    requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
    this.getWindow().setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN, WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN);
    setContentView(R.layout.externalplayer);

    final Intent j = this.getIntent();

    webview = (WebView)findViewById(R.id.webview);
    webview.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
    webview.getSettings().setAllowFileAccess(true);
    webview.getSettings().setPluginsEnabled(true);
    webview.freeMemory();
    webview.setPictureListener(new picListener());

    webview.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient(){
        @Override
        public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url){
            return true;
        }   
    });

    if(Controller.unbuggedStart == true){
        Controller.unbuggedStart = false;
        webview.destroy();
    } else{
        Controller.unbuggedStart = true;
        d = ProgressDialog.show(externalPlayer.this, "Loading...", "Wait a moment...");
        webview.loadUrl(j.getCharSequenceExtra("link").toString());
    }
}


05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{xxxApp}: java.lang.NullPointerException
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:1655)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:1671)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at android.app.ActivityThread.handleRelaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2840)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at android.app.ActivityThread.access$1600(ActivityThread.java:117)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:935)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:130)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:3694)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:507)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:841)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:599)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754): Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at android.webkit.WebView.requestFocus(WebView.java:6737)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at android.view.View.requestFocus(View.java:3671)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at android.view.View.requestFocus(View.java:3649)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow.restoreHierarchyState(PhoneWindow.java:1497)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at android.app.Activity.onRestoreInstanceState(Activity.java:844)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at android.app.Activity.performRestoreInstanceState(Activity.java:816)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnRestoreInstanceState(Instrumentation.java:1096)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:1633)
05-26 20:13:29.825: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(4754):     ... 12 more

Answer 1

Ok guys, I solved this problem.

The clue to the solution was the screen orientation. Like you can see in the code of the first post, I called in the onCreate() method: setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE);

The result of this call was, that the activity was called twice because of the orientation change. Thats the reason why I used:

if(Controller.unbuggedStart == true){
        Controller.unbuggedStart = false;
        webview.destroy();
    } else{
        Controller.unbuggedStart = true;
        d = ProgressDialog.show(externalPlayer.this, "Loading...", "Wait a moment...");
        webview.loadUrl(j.getCharSequenceExtra("link").toString());
    }

This code prevents the WebView for being started twice. You can see that I destroy one of the two created WebViews. Now, when I turned off the screen, the OS wants to call the destroyed WebView which leads to the NullPointerException.

I overthougt the mechanisms of my onCreate method and changed it. Now, the orientation is discribed in the manifest:

android:screenOrientation="landscape"

After this modification, the problem wasn't truley solved. When I turned off the screen, the OS launched the Activity with the WebView in it again, because the orientation switched from Landscape to Portrait when I switched off the screen. I added in the Manifest the following:

android:configChanges="keyboardHidden|orientation"

and now everything works perfectly.