Strange Behavior - VideoViewer Fragment not working with MediaController

Question

I am trying to create a VideoViewer fragment. Below are the 2 cases I have tried and the observations. For both the cases the fragment's view is inflated from the following layout:

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent" 
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:gravity="center">

<VideoView android:id="@+id/fragment_video_viewer_video"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:layout_gravity="center" />
</RelativeLayout>

Case 1: VideoView without media controller - works fine. Below is the code for the onActivityCreated method

/* Initialize the variables here, retrieve views and  */
@Override
public void onActivityCreated(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState);
    // Assignment for the local variables
    mVideoView = (VideoView) getView().findViewById(R.id.fragment_video_viewer_video);
    mVideoView.setVideoPath("/sdcard/family_guy_test.3gp");//(videoUri);
    mVideoView.requestFocus();
    mVideoView.start();
}

Case 2: VideoView with media controller - App Crashes when I touch on the VideoView. Below is the code for the onActivityCreated method

/* Initialize the variables here, retrieve views and  */
@Override
public void onActivityCreated(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState);
    // Assignment for the local variables
    mVideoView = (VideoView) getView().findViewById(R.id.fragment_video_viewer_video);
    mVideoView.setVideoPath("/sdcard/family_guy_test.3gp");//(videoUri);
    MediaController mediaController = new MediaController(getActivity().getApplicationContext());
    mediaController.setAnchorView(mVideoView);
    mVideoView.setMediaController(mediaController);
    mVideoView.requestFocus();
}

The logcat output is given below :

WARN/WindowManager(124): Failed looking up window
WARN/WindowManager(124): java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Requested window null does not exist
WARN/WindowManager(124):     at com.android.server.WindowManagerService.windowForClientLocked(WindowManagerService.java:9398)
WARN/WindowManager(124):     at com.android.server.WindowManagerService.addWindow(WindowManagerService.java:1906)
WARN/WindowManager(124):     at com.android.server.WindowManagerService$Session.add(WindowManagerService.java:6876)
WARN/WindowManager(124):     at android.view.IWindowSession$Stub.onTransact(IWindowSession.java:66)
WARN/WindowManager(124):     at com.android.server.WindowManagerService$Session.onTransact(WindowManagerService.java:6848)
WARN/WindowManager(124):     at android.os.Binder.execTransact(Binder.java:288)
WARN/WindowManager(124):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.run(Native Method)
WARN/WindowManager(124): Attempted to add window with token that is not a window: null.  Aborting.
WARN/dalvikvm(8144): threadid=1: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x400287f0)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144): android.view.WindowManager$BadTokenException: Unable to add window -- token null is not valid; is your activity running?
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.view.ViewRoot.setView(ViewRoot.java:505)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.view.WindowManagerImpl.addView(WindowManagerImpl.java:177)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.view.WindowManagerImpl.addView(WindowManagerImpl.java:91)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.widget.MediaController.show(MediaController.java:304)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.widget.MediaController.show(MediaController.java:249)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.widget.VideoView.toggleMediaControlsVisiblity(VideoView.java:567)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.widget.VideoView.onTouchEvent(VideoView.java:518)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.view.View.dispatchTouchEvent(View.java:3766)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:863)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:863)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:863)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:863)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:863)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.superDispatchTouchEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1671)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow.superDispatchTouchEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1107)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.app.Activity.dispatchTouchEvent(Activity.java:2086)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.dispatchTouchEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1655)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:863)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:863)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:863)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:863)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:863)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.superDispatchTouchEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1671)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow.superDispatchTouchEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1107)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.app.Activity.dispatchTouchEvent(Activity.java:2086)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.dispatchTouchEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1655)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.view.ViewRoot.handleMessage(ViewRoot.java:1785)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4627)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:521)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:868)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:626)
ERROR/AndroidRuntime(8144):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
WARN/ActivityManager(124):   Force finishing activity com.comp.ias/.MainActivity
WARN/ActivityManager(124): Activity pause timeout for HistoryRecord{43f755b0 com.comp.ias/.MainActivity}
WARN/WindowManager(124): No window to dispatch pointer action 1

Answer 1

I figured out that the problem was actually in the context I was using. I had to use, Activity context instead of the application context. More specifically, I had to do :

MediaController mediaController = new MediaController(getActivity());

The documentation on when to use which context is very sparse. Sometimes, any of the context can be used. Sometimes, we need to use a specific context. I think the intuition behind usage of context is that, "if an instance of a class is binded to an activity, use activity context, else use application context".