Where to findViewById in a Drawer MainActivity?

Question

I'm using the Android Studio template for the Drawer Navigation. I wanted to add a click event to the drawer's header, but when I try to findViewById in the onCreate() method, I get a null exception. I'm guessing it's because it hasn't been inflated yet.

Interesting to me is that findViewById on the drawer_layout and the nav_view returned an object. I tried to do this:

drawer.findViewById;

and this:

navigationView.findViewById;

But that still gives me an exception.

So my question is two fold:

1. Why is it that findViewById on drawer_layout and nav_view returned an object while findViewById on iv_profile did not?
2. Where and how do I avoid the NullPointerException in this case?

MainActivity.java

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity
        implements NavigationView.OnNavigationItemSelectedListener {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
        setSupportActionBar(toolbar);

        FloatingActionButton fab = (FloatingActionButton) findViewById(R.id.fab);
        fab.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View view) {
                Snackbar.make(view, "Replace with your own action", Snackbar.LENGTH_LONG)
                        .setAction("Action", null).show();
            }
        });

        DrawerLayout drawer = (DrawerLayout) findViewById(R.id.drawer_layout);
        ActionBarDrawerToggle toggle = new ActionBarDrawerToggle(
                this, drawer, toolbar, R.string.navigation_drawer_open, R.string.navigation_drawer_close);
        drawer.setDrawerListener(toggle);
        toggle.syncState();

        NavigationView navigationView = (NavigationView) findViewById(R.id.nav_view);
        navigationView.setNavigationItemSelectedListener(this);

        ImageView profile = (ImageView) navigationView.findViewById(R.id.iv_profile);
        profile.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() { // Null Pointer Exception
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                Toast.makeText(v.getContext(), "Profile", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            }
        });
    }

    @Override
    public void onBackPressed() {
        DrawerLayout drawer = (DrawerLayout) findViewById(R.id.drawer_layout);
        if (drawer.isDrawerOpen(GravityCompat.START)) {
            drawer.closeDrawer(GravityCompat.START);
        } else {
            super.onBackPressed();
        }
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main, menu);
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
        // Handle action bar item clicks here. The action bar will
        // automatically handle clicks on the Home/Up button, so long
        // as you specify a parent activity in AndroidManifest.xml.
        int id = item.getItemId();

        //noinspection SimplifiableIfStatement
        if (id == R.id.action_settings) {
            return true;
        }

        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }

    @SuppressWarnings("StatementWithEmptyBody")
    @Override
    public boolean onNavigationItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
        // Handle navigation view item clicks here.
        int id = item.getItemId();

        if (id == R.id.nav_camera) {
            // Handle the camera action
        } else if (id == R.id.nav_gallery) {

        } else if (id == R.id.nav_slideshow) {

        } else if (id == R.id.nav_manage) {

        } else if (id == R.id.nav_share) {

        } else if (id == R.id.nav_send) {

        }

        DrawerLayout drawer = (DrawerLayout) findViewById(R.id.drawer_layout);
        drawer.closeDrawer(GravityCompat.START);
        return true;
    }
}

activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:id="@+id/drawer_layout"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:fitsSystemWindows="true"
    tools:openDrawer="start">

    <include
        layout="@layout/app_bar_main"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"/>

    <android.support.design.widget.NavigationView
        android:id="@+id/nav_view"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_gravity="start"
        android:fitsSystemWindows="true"
        app:headerLayout="@layout/nav_header_main"
        app:menu="@menu/activity_main_drawer"/>

</android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout>

app_bar_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.design.widget.CoordinatorLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:fitsSystemWindows="true"
    tools:context="com.example.heng.progressnfitness.MainActivity">

    <android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme.AppBarOverlay">

        <android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
            android:id="@+id/toolbar"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
            android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
            app:popupTheme="@style/AppTheme.PopupOverlay"/>

    </android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout>

    <include layout="@layout/content_main"/>

    <android.support.design.widget.FloatingActionButton
        android:id="@+id/fab"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="bottom|end"
        android:layout_margin="@dimen/fab_margin"
        android:src="@android:drawable/ic_dialog_email"/>

</android.support.design.widget.CoordinatorLayout>

nav_header_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
              android:layout_width="match_parent"
              android:layout_height="@dimen/nav_header_height"
              android:background="@drawable/side_nav_bar"
              android:gravity="bottom"
              android:orientation="vertical"
              android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
              android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
              android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
              android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
              android:theme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Dark">

    <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/iv_profile"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:paddingTop="@dimen/nav_header_vertical_spacing"
        android:src="@android:drawable/sym_def_app_icon"/>

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:paddingTop="@dimen/nav_header_vertical_spacing"
        android:text="Android Studio"
        android:textAppearance="@style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Body1"/>

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="[email protected]"/>

</LinearLayout>

content_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    app:layout_behavior="@string/appbar_scrolling_view_behavior"
    tools:context="com.example.heng.progressnfitness.MainActivity"
    tools:showIn="@layout/app_bar_main">

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Hello World!"/>
</RelativeLayout>

Answer 1

All you need to replace is:

ImageView profile = (ImageView) navigationView.getHeaderView(0).findViewById(R.id.iv_profile);

and everything will work fine.

Pay attention to the navigationView.getHeaderView(0) part... Where you get a reference to the headerLayout you set in xml.