Xamarin Essentials PhoneDialer crashes app on empty string

[starhound]

My apologies if the wrong label has been attached. Unsure what category to submit this issue under.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create Xamarin Android application
2. perform PhoneDialer.Open(""); via a Button or other method.
3. App crashes.

Expected Behavior

Phone dialer to open with no number specified.

Actual Behavior

Total app crash

Version Information

Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2019 Version 16.8.1 VisualStudio.16.Release/16.8.1+30711.63 Microsoft .NET Framework Version 4.8.03752

Installed Version: Community

Visual C++ 2019 00435-60000-00000-AA162 Microsoft Visual C++ 2019

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Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Mac SDK 14.4.1.3 (e30c41de3) Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Mac Reference Assemblies and MSBuild support.

--Please put instructions for Windows, not Mac if more information is requested.

Log File

--Once again, please provide Windows instructions. This stack trace is from the VS App Center.

Java.Lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'android.content.pm.ApplicationInfo android.content.Context.getApplicationInfo()' on a null object reference

JniEnvironment+InstanceMethods.CallNonvirtualVoidMethod (Java.Interop.JniObjectReference instance, Java.Interop.JniObjectReference type, Java.Interop.JniMethodInfo method, Java.Interop.JniArgumentValue* args)
JniPeerMembers+JniInstanceMethods.FinishCreateInstance (System.String constructorSignature, Java.Interop.IJavaPeerable self, Java.Interop.JniArgumentValue* parameters)
Android.App.AlertDialog+Builder..ctor (Android.Content.Context context) [0x0007b] in <ea75db8640d0416ab63c723597150c4c>:0
MainActivity.DisplayFailureNotice (System.String reason)
Dialer.OpenDialer (System.String number)
Dialer.OnCallMechanicClick ()
MainActivity.<ApplyButtonListeners>b__2_2 (System.Object <p0>, System.EventArgs <p1>)
AsyncMethodBuilderCore+<>c.<ThrowAsync>b__7_0 (System.Object state)
SyncContext+<>c__DisplayClass2_0.<Post>b__0 ()
Thread+RunnableImplementor.Run ()
IRunnableInvoker.n_Run (System.IntPtr jnienv, System.IntPtr native__this)
(wrapper dynamic-method) Android.Runtime.DynamicMethodNameCounter.21(intptr,intptr)
java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'android.content.pm.ApplicationInfo android.content.Context.getApplicationInfo()' on a null object reference
android.content.ContextWrapper.getApplicationInfo ContextWrapper.java:163
android.view.ContextThemeWrapper.getTheme ContextThemeWrapper.java:174
android.app.AlertDialog.resolveDialogTheme AlertDialog.java:227
android.app.AlertDialog$Builder.<init> AlertDialog.java:469
mono.android.content.DialogInterface_OnClickListenerImplementor.n_onClick(Native Method)
mono.android.content.DialogInterface_OnClickListenerImplementor.onClick DialogInterface_OnClickListenerImplementor.java:30
com.android.internal.app.AlertController$ButtonHandler.handleMessage AlertController.java:177
android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage Handler.java:107
android.os.Looper.loop Looper.java:241
android.app.ActivityThread.main ActivityThread.java:7617
java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run RuntimeInit.java:492
com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main ZygoteInit.java:941

[jpobst]

Transferring to Xamarin.Essentials repo. If the issue turns out to be in Android SDK, feel free to send it back!

[starhound]

My apologies, this issue is probably related directly to said repo. Thanks for the support in transferring the issue!

[mattleibow]

Looking at the stack trace, I see Dialer.OpenDialer. This is not part of Essentials. We have a PhoneDialer.Open and the first thing we do is check for empty and null strings. We then throw a ArgumentNullException.

Are you sure in this specific case you are using Essentials?

[jamesmontemagno]

Also 3 things..

1.) you need to try/catch it because there may not be a dialer on the device 2.) you need to ensure you initialize xamarin.essentials if you are using xamarin.essentials 3.) you need to ensure you added the query parameters: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/essentials/phone-dialer?tabs=android#get-started

[starhound]

My apologies, I have a 'Dialer' class in my project which handles getting numbers from an endpoint, here is the Dialer.OpenDialer() function, which is exactly the same function as jamesmontemagno linked.

public static void OpenDialer(string number) { MainActivity main = new MainActivity(); try { PhoneDialer.Open(number); } catch (ArgumentNullException anEx) { main.DisplayFailureNotice(anEx.Message); } catch (FeatureNotSupportedException ex) { main.DisplayFailureNotice(ex.Message); } catch (Exception ex) { main.DisplayFailureNotice(ex.Message); } }

Sorry for the unusual format, the Code markdown looked worse.

When I pass "" to PhoneDialer.Open(), no alert is shown (which is what DisplayFailureNotice() does), the app completely crashes, and the stack trace I've posted in my initial issue is given to me from the VS App center crash analytics.

For reference, my app is running on Moto z4's and some z3's and works great for what we need it to do, I simply noticed this happening during development and figured I'd mention something as I believed it wasn't intended behavior.

[mattleibow]

Maybe you are missing the queries as James mentioned. This is new I. The latest Android, so that might be why it is failing now.

Android just dies if the permissions are wrong.

[starhound]

The various permissions I use:

I also grab more phone permissions through a plugin but that's unrelated to this function.

My Dialer class works just fine when passed proper number strings, the application has a page with a few buttons that open the dialer with various numbers for employees (think Call HR, Call IT). All buttons utilize the OpenDialer() function, all work as expected when being passed a non-empty string.

My sdk min version is 28, the max being 29.

[mattleibow]

I can't seem to repro this. I have created a test sample that tries null, "" and "123". All seem to work for me.

TestPhoneDialer.zip

[starhound]

After about half a day of work I've discovered the issue to be in main.DisplayFailureNotice(), not the dialing service.

I apologize for the confusion. Thank you for your time and attention, I wish you all the best.

Closing issue now.

[mattleibow]

Glad you got it all sorted!