AutoCompleteTextView OnItemClickListener null param (landscape mode on HTC Desire S) - landscape

Question

My Problem : I have an AutoCompleteTextView with an OnItemClickListener. This has been working fine for 18 months, but I have now noticed it throws a NullPointerException when I select an item in landscape mode on my HTC Desire S. (There is no error in portrait mode or on any other phone or emulator I've tested it on).
The AdapterView<?> av parameter is coming through as null. Why would this be, and how can I get around it?
Code :
myAutoCompleteTextView = (AutoCompleteTextView) findViewById(R.id.myAutoCompleteTextView);
myAutoCompleteTextView.setSingleLine();
myAutoCompleteTextView.setOnItemClickListener(new OnItemClickListener() {
public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> av, View v, int index, long arg) {
String selectedItem = (String)av.getItemAtPosition(index);
//Do stuff with selected item ...
}
}
Error :
java.lang.NullPointerException
at uk.co.myCompany.mobile.android.myCompanymobile.pages.groups.AbstractGroupSelectionPage$3.onItemClick(AbstractGroupSelectionPage.java:228)
at android.widget.AutoCompleteTextView.onCommitCompletion(AutoCompleteTextView.java:993)
at com.android.internal.widget.EditableInputConnection.commitCompletion(EditableInputConnection.java:76)
at com.android.internal.view.IInputConnectionWrapper.executeMessage(IInputConnectionWrapper.java:368)
at com.android.internal.view.IInputConnectionWrapper$MyHandler.handleMessage(IInputConnectionWrapper.java:86)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:150)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4385)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:507)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:849)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:607)
at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
Extra Code - my custom adapter inner class :
/**
* An inner class to simply make a custom adapter in which we can alter the on-screen look of selected groups.
*/
private class SelectedGroupAdapter extends ArrayAdapter<Group> {
private ArrayList<Group> items;
private int layout;
public SelectedGroupAdapter(Context context, int layout, ArrayList<Group> items) {
super(context, layout, items);
this.items = items;
this.layout = layout;
}
#Override
public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
View v = convertView;
if (v == null) {
LayoutInflater vi = (LayoutInflater)getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
v = vi.inflate(layout, null);
}
Group o = items.get(position);
//Display the group name and number of contacts
if (o != null) {
TextView groupName = (TextView) v.findViewById(R.id.groupName);
TextView noOfContacts = (TextView) v.findViewById(R.id.noOfContacts);
if (groupName != null) {
groupName.setText(o.getGroupName());
}
if(noOfContacts != null) {
if (o.isDynamic())
noOfContacts.setText(getString(R.string.dynamic));
else {
int contactsCount = o.getGroupSize();
if(contactsCount == 1) noOfContacts.setText(contactsCount + " " + getString(R.string.contact));
else noOfContacts.setText(contactsCount + " " + getString(R.string.contacts));
}
}
}
return v;
}
}

Answer 1

My hunch is that since you are declaring android:configChanges="orientation" in your manifest, then when you rotate the old OnItemClickListener is still sticking around, and since you technically have a new layout, the AdapterView that was being used prior to orientation change doesn't exist anymore, thus is null when you click on an item.
There's 2 things I think that would solve this if this is the case:
Remove the orientation option in your manifest. Any events you place in configChanges tells Android "I'm taking care of this configuration change, so let me handle it" as opposed to letting Android handle it. The normal operation for Android in the event of an orientation change is to destroy and recreate your Activity (it will take care of repopulating some Views with data automatically).
If you decide you need to handle orientation changes, then override onConfigurationChanged() and set the OnItemClickListener to the new AdapterView object (ListView, GridView, whichever you are using) that should have been recreated in the onCreate method.