[Q] Debugging help needed - Android Software Development

I have a user of my app who is having a problem running it. My code launches another activity in the same app, and he is saying it is stopping before it should & returning to the previous activity, and he doesn't see any Force Close warnings.
I have run my code in the emulator & on my phone, I can't reproduce the error. We both run Android 2.2 on our phones, his is an HTC EVO & mine is a HTC Wildfire, as far as I can tell his specs are better than mine so shouldn't cause an issue - I deliberately chose a low spec for for my dev work so the code ought to run on anything.
As a bit of an Andoid dev noob (but been coding for years), is there any easy way I can make a special build of the app to send to him that would log any errors that happen ? I'd like to get a stack dump as well if possible, as I'm not sure exactly what routine in the activity its crashing out in. The activity that crashes is Gallery with 9 images in it, he can't flick through them or select one. I'm stumped as to whats causing it, any assistance would be gratefully received.
Thanks.

Why not point to your app and let others here try it on their phones? It could simply be other apps installed on his phone interfering with your app.

Long time programmer here too and when I get to where you're at (and I"m sure you've put some hours into this LOL), I go back to STEP 1.
I comment-out any and all code but the bare minimum; break it down to the Intent, startActivity and maybe a Toast message in the second activity. Even parse down your XML files to bare minimum.
See if that works. Then, ADD BACK ONE LINE OF CODE AT A TIME Run program and make sure it works. Yeah, it's painful, but in my 20 years of coding, I've learned to put my pride aside and to not "pretend" all the code I've written is correct.
Sometimes on bigger projects, I"ll change or add a couple of lines of code, run a back up and test. Rinse and repeat LOL. That way, I know I"m only a couple of lines of code from what "used" to work.
Good Luck!

Thanks both of you.
old_dude - Its a paid app. Only £0.99 but I don't think people would pay to help me. There is a free version of the same app (with less functionality) that this guy can get to work. If your really interested the 2 versions are -
Plink Log - Free Version
Plink Log Pro - Paid version
Rootstonian - agreed thats the approach I'd normally take if I was having problems on my dev phone or the emulator. The problem is that its OK on my HTC Wildfire/Android2.2 but on this guys HTC EVO/Android2.2 its having problems. I dont really want to keep sending him .apks with 1 or 2 lines extra enabled just to see if that fixes his specific issue. I was hoping there was something I could code to catch whatever crashes the activity & log it somewhere for me to analyse. When I do PC dev work, I have a global exception handler that catches anything I dont explicitly handle, and dumps the full call stack into a Log File I can read later.
I think I'll just have to take the existing app & put loads of debug code into it to save messages into a log file & see what bits of code are being called & what isn't & then get him to email me the results.
Thanks for the ideas guys, its always useful to get input from another perspective.
Dave

Hmmmm, just discovered setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler - might be able to use that with printStackTrace. Sounds interesting.

Related

[help from universal owner needed] GSMbeam

It seems like I have been working on this for a very long time. This is the most complicated thing I have ever done yet at the same time easy to use.
http://odeean.veritel.com.au/programming_files/gsmbeam.htm
http://odeean.veritel.com.au/downloads_files/GSMbeam.exe
GSMbeam is what it sounds like. Two people can use it to beam stuff over the phone. No gprs, no special lines needed. Most sims from most networks (here in Australia anyway), prepaid or account will do this no problems.
The idea is that you leave it on all the time. Don't worry about wasted cpu time or battery life because most of the time the threads are in wait states doing nothing. When you push off there is no processing by GSMbeam, the hardware "wakes up" the device when a call comes in, and then it does its thing.
This beta release has an expiration date at the end of September. After that time it will do nothing.
It can send very small or large files. I have been using it to send pictures from my camera, about 150KB. I have not tested it with VERY large files. One reason why it's beta is that I have not tested it in critically low memory environments. So if you run out of memory the theory is that it will just stop doing what its doing.
I do not recommend changing most of the settings, but if you do, remember that the gsm phone network is slow so it will not get you a miraculous speed increase.
If your phone plan has no flag fall then to send 22kb (mms size) is cheaper. To send a GSMbeam long text message is not worth it for small messages because the connection time of the two modems outways the savings. For long messages it can be cheaper. If you pay 15 cents a message then 10 messages is a $1.50, the same amount of characters costs me about 50 cents.
This also has the built in shortcut generator.
The object this creates is more versatile than what I have used it for here. In future versions I am considering opening it up to be accessed from other programs. I have done a couple of tests using a file as a buffer for data then some named events to signal read and write times. Because of this there is file in the config folder that is only getting flushed when the program is turned off and restarted. if you were to go a month without doing so and had received a lot of data in that time it could grow too big.
..Enjoy.
<edit>
this is embaressing but...
I found a bug alredy. If a file comes in the phone is not getting restarted until after the accept/reject dialog is dismissed. This means that if you receive a file but do not notice you can't receive another call until the os restarts the phone. This normally is about 3 minutes. I will fix for next version.
wow nice app thanks!
i posted it in my blog.
I added a list of known problems at the bottom of its page. If any other bugs pop up just post them here.
oldsap - Thanks for putting it on your site. I would not describe it as freeware. Freeware would not have an expiration date. That is in the about dialog, but I added it to the GSMbeam page to make sure people know whats going on.
OdeeanRDeathshead said:
I added a list of known problems at the bottom of its page. If any other bugs pop up just post them here.
oldsap - Thanks for putting it on your site. I would not describe it as freeware. Freeware would not have an expiration date. That is in the about dialog, but I added it to the GSMbeam page to make sure people know whats going on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool software. Now all I need is more people who I can transfer with.
Thats why the core functionality will always be free (ie receiving any size file/message + sending messages and small size file). When it gets a final release you would be able to purchase a copy to send your big stuff ang give all your friends a copy so you have someone to send to. Can I take it that it worked on your device?.
I have fixed the bug where the phone is not restarted for 3 minutes. The phone now gets restarted about 10 seconds after a call ends. Incoming files get qued for acceptence. The user sees a dialog asking to accept/reject. If more than 1 is in the que a series of dialogs pops up, each in turn after the result of the first (not all at once). also I fixed a bug where the minimize was malfunctioning after one of the modal dialogs was displayed. Hopefully now when GSMbeam is minimised it dose so without disrupting the ok button in other programs. version 0.194 is now at the link.
OdeeanRDeathshead said:
I added a list of known problems at the bottom of its page. If any other bugs pop up just post them here.
oldsap - Thanks for putting it on your site. I would not describe it as freeware. Freeware would not have an expiration date. That is in the about dialog, but I added it to the GSMbeam page to make sure people know whats going on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh sorry, ill try to change it to shareware
could you explain a little more on how many sms equivalent is uses per kb of file sent?
I don't know exactly what you mean. It dose not use any sms to send anything. It uses the same kind of call you would talk over, except instead of talking the modems talk. The numbers of characters in an sms could be sent in much less than 1 second. The only problem is that the modems need around 10-15 seconds to connect with each other. On my phone account I pay 20 flag fall and 1 cent per second. So for a page of text in a message it would cost me around 21 cents. For a much longer message, say 5 pages (on the ppc screen) it would cost me 22-25 cents.
If you are sending files that are bigger than the packet size (most would be) then there is some overhead. There are two "layers" working in GSMbeam each with its own small amount of headder information in a packet for that layer. This is really insignificant though. For sending images the cost is higher. Images are normally relitively large in relation to text. You would have to test it with your own account to see what it costs. with many phone accounts there are free times or free minute from phones in the same network. If you have such free periods then GSMbeam costs nothing to use. When I call my wife it costs me nothing if I have "vodafone to vodafone minutes" left that month.
oh now i get it. ( sorry for being so stupid )
so it uses call time. great! i have free unlimited calls to the same network as mine so that means it would be free to send files to the same netowrk?
Correct. Thats beautiful hey! In Australia they make us pay through the nose for anything to do with data, but now there is a way around it. Imagine, here it cost 75c for a 22kb mms. The picture quality is not that good and there is complication in getting the correct sim and configuring it.
this is a very useful app. thanks again. btw, any chance of porting it to smartphones and also nokia phones?
I can't do smartphone because I do not have one. This kind of thing dose not work properly on the mulator. As for nokia, I have no idea how to program one.
Thanks a bunch
Great Shareware
works on MIO A701
NAdavi.
Thank you for the confirmation assasins. The hope of definite works/fails feedback on the functionality is the main reason I post here. If anyone finds it dose not work, thats what the diagnostic logging mode is for in the settings. After veiwing the log it may be possible for me to find any bugs.
I just found a new bug. In 2003 and 2005 devices, if you change the settings it crashes. It looks like it still works but really its kapoot and needs to be turned off then on again. I was testing on an old xda a lot and it did not happen there so I failed to notice it. I will update with a fix soon. I also thought I fixed the problem hiding the main window, but again its popped back up, but it only seems to happen on my mini.
<edit>
I have fixed this. Version 0.195 is on my site now. The problem was I was calling free on a pointer pointing to memory not allocate by malloc or realloc. I wouldn't have expected it to go so badly.
The OK button thing has really beaten me. I have changed the main dialog minimize to the X and it seems to work. The funny thing is, it is still producing an IDOK and I am still responding to it in the same way. Only now when the dialog get hidden so dose the menu.
version 0.196 is now at the link.
This fixes the on/off functionality of the call filtering so now you can set up the black list and turn it off at will. I also streamlined code in various threads to allow a more swift response to incoming calls. This lets the phone be turned off faster on slower devices so there is less chance of the phone giving a ring.
Get GSMbeam for FREE
I think GSMbeam is finished now. I have fixed many bugs including a malfunction in the stop button. I have added functionality like a que for incomming text messages so more than one can be stored. The incoming messages can now be sent to the clipboard or log file after reading. I added the option to have a sound notification. I added a preview window for image files in the file open dialog. I also put in the password registration. Its based on the hardware ID of the device.
I would like more people to use this before I feel happy calling it finished. If anyone would like to download this and post their hardware ID in this thread (the one generated by GSMbeam) I will pm the first 20-30 a registration code - that is if there is anyone interested.
http://odeean.veritel.com.au/programming_files/gsmbeam.htm
Hi
Great work! Ill try this later. Thanks! You are great!
My Hardware ID
3570360001858401680BF3F51730
i really wish you could develop the same app for WM5 smartphones
this is a nice app. great work!
i'll try this.
My Hardware ID is: 0087687800303051380BF3F51730
Thanks for this app.
BTW, i have a BA running on WM5. It's running ok. but i still have to test sending and receiving files. will post feedback soon.

Flexilis Mobile Security Beta

Hey Everyone,
Wanted to tell all of you about a neat app we're developing, called Flexilis.
It's a mobile security suite for Windows Mobile devices, that keeps your device and data safe from loss, theft, hackers, viruses, malware, spam, and more.
We've currently opened signups for our private beta testing, if you're interested in checking it out, just hit up http://beta.flexilis.com and sign up, and feel free to chat about the product here
If anyone has questions or runs into trouble, just shoot us an email at [email protected] and we'll help you out!
-Chris
Community Director,
Flexilis Inc.
[email protected]
Also, if any of you request an invite and it hasnt gotten granted within a day or so, let me know and I'll take care of it.
If you weren't asking for so much personal information, you might actually get people to try your app...
we're actually working on revising that, the reason we ask for the phone number is because it's used to sms you your download link for the software later on in the process, we're in the process of moving that to later on in the process, as well as an explanation of why we ask for it.
Thanks for the feedback!
-Chris
NRGZ28 said:
If you weren't asking for so much personal information, you might actually get people to try your app...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey man,
nice thing with this soft, that we give the phone number is not so a big problem i think. could you post a little bit infos about the program? Cause on your side there a not many informations.
But i ithink i'll give it a try...
I just have one little question, on you privacy page you write:
When you use the Flexilis Services, our servers automatically record certain information about your usage. These logs may include information such as the IP address, mobile device identification number, phone number, operating system, version information, wireless carrier, web requests, browser type, browser language, referring pages, landing pages, pages viewed, or other usage information.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do record the pages we visit?
we're still working on a little bit of a tour/walkthrough area of the software on the front page, as we get closer to public beta, but for now there's nothing there yet. My first post in this thread gives a brief summary of it though. Feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected] with any questions!
-Chris
There's nothing in the software that tracks the pages you view or anything, what that refers to is on our end we track what pages users use on the flexilis website the most, much the same way other websites do, to track what pages and content on our site our most popular, etc.
JeckyllHavok said:
I just have one little question, on you privacy page you write:
Why do record the pages we visit?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm still not sure what your program do, but it certainly doesn't behave the way I expect.
1) Why to require authorization so often?
2) Contrary to the stated phone number is not accepted for authorization. Only email.
3) I don't really know what you mean by "a few minutes", but currently Flexilis is authorizing my phone already for more than two hours. I see no progress bar and I don't understan what's going.
4) I can't stop authorization process.
5) Why the authorization process continues even when I close all connections? Did you invent new method of communication?
6) The program is hidden from task managers and process viewers. What for?
I didn't sniff the traffic but currently behavior of your program reminds more of malware rather than security software.
My conclusion: As I don't understand what your program is doing, I'm not going to test it anymore until additional guidance is provided.
Sorry, if I'm sounding harsh. It's just writing style (tough work, you know )
No worries
1] once it's authorized the first time, it shouldnt have to authorize again, what kind of phone are you authorizing it on? we're making some fixes to the authorization process to make it even simpler that should roll out in the next release.
2] if you're outside of the US, you might need to add your country code and such if that's the case, let me know, or send me an email to [email protected] so we can look into it.
3] per all authorization questions, it'll try til its authorized, again we're fixing this.
4] per the it being hidden from task managers, we've given this some discussion, for right now it's a security feature to try to prevent theives from disabling the software, though we might fix that in the future to have the app visible in there somehow.
As far as being more indepth on all of the features, we are working on a tour of sorts to explain it all before the beta goes public.
Thanks for the feedback!
-Chris
mrcaze said:
I'm still not sure what your program do, but it certainly doesn't behave the way I expect.
1) Why to require authorization so often?
2) Contrary to the stated phone number is not accepted for authorization. Only email.
3) I don't really know what you mean by "a few minutes", but currently Flexilis is authorizing my phone already for more than two hours. I see no progress bar and I don't understan what's going.
4) I can't stop authorization process.
5) Why the authorization process continues even when I close all connections? Did you invent new method of communication?
6) The program is hidden from task managers and process viewers. What for?
I didn't sniff the traffic but currently behavior of your program reminds more of malware rather than security software.
My conclusion: As I don't understand what your program is doing, I'm not going to test it anymore until additional guidance is provided.
Sorry, if I'm sounding harsh. It's just writing style (tough work, you know )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Authorizing a device ... what a hassle. I finally gave up since I couldn't tell if it was doing anything. No more testing for or feedback from me.
fredcatsmommy: sorry it didnt work out for you. hopefully in the future when that's fixed (should be less than a week), we can lure you back, it does some amazing stuff, but we do run into bugs from time to time due to the vast number of windows mobile devices out there, and only having a small test bed of them to work with. Keep your eyes peeled, and we'll have that fixed soon!
fredcatsmommy said:
Authorizing a device ... what a hassle. I finally gave up since I couldn't tell if it was doing anything. No more testing for or feedback from me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you need to tell us what the app actually does?
I have read this and your site and still don't know what it does?
Will hold off on trying it till I know.
How long is the initializing and activating supposed to take?
seriously, the authorizing bugs should have been worked out before releasing a beta here. we cant even tell if its running, authorizing, stealing information from our devices, etc.. I surely hope this is a legit app youre pushing, if so, FIX IT, so we can at least see what it does.
thx
I installed and authorized with no issues what-so-ever... contrary to what everyone else is saying everything seems to work just fine. works great and doesn't seem to take much memory... not a single complaint here!
Advertising your application for beta purposes is usually not a problem. But, it seems you are here more for "recruiting" testers than anything else. Looks like you joined for this purpose only.
My suggestion to you, is to give a little more description on your develpoment. Seems there are too many questions going unanswered here.
jhw549 said:
I installed and authorized with no issues what-so-ever... contrary to what everyone else is saying everything seems to work just fine. works great and doesn't seem to take much memory... not a single complaint here!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what device do you have? did you do anything special to get it working?
I have a sprint vogue and installed to main mem and the data conn. is constantly active.
Polargoat said:
what device do you have? did you do anything special to get it working?
I have a sprint vogue and installed to main mem and the data conn. is constantly active.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have an HTC Mobul/Titan using default Rom/Radio with WinMo 6.1
To install it I just did what I would any other and installed it onto internal memory...
Correction: The application works just fine if you don't have push e-mail (aren't connected to a remote exchange server), I have been having problems all day with my push e-mail from mail2web which I use to forward my work e-mail to my phone. I have therefore decided to remove it as I can't afford to have it interfere with work.

Linked List passing

I load a linked list of objects (i.e. a struct) at start of app. I want to pass the whole linked list to other Activity(s).
I can do linkListName.toArray() and pass via put.extra and re-create linked list in next Activity, but it just doesn't "feel" clean! ROFL
And most likely it's pass by value, not by reference (not sure if that makes a difference in my app yet, but I bet I'll need a pass by reference call). I've also read about Serialization and Parcels, but I think those are pass by value implementations too.
What I want to avoid is passing a linked list around my app; I would like to load it once, be able to have my custom class do whatever I need (adds, edits, deletes, moves etc.) on it.
Any ideas? I know I could probably just do everything in ONE Activity and just change my ContentViews as required, but I've read that can be troublesome. And note that I"m trying very hard to stay away from any database implementation just because I've done the database thing too many times.
TIA,
Roots
You could make the linked list protected instead of private and just pass a flag that tells your other activity to just access it via SomeActivity.myLinkedList
Protected makes the variable accessible by other classes in your package but not outside
From something awesome
And static...
From something awesome
Well ****, should have known that....THANKS! Guess my OOP is a bit rusty :-( ugh, I got it....seems to be ok...that is, I can see my methods when I do "ClassName.LinkedListName. "
Thank you so very much!!!!
Its happened to me before. Ive gotten caught up in Android Intents, Bundles, Extras, etc and was struggling to pass something till i stepped back and realized im still in Java... Its more of a mindset thing than anything else
From something awesome
08-06 15:46:27.354: INFO/System.out(408): This default is true
08-06 15:46:27.354: INFO/System.out(408): This default is false
Ha! My setter and getter methods are working across Activities! Woo Frikkn' Woo...I could send you $100 for that reply I'm so happy! Note to self: Must remember to write changes to file.
Just a note to ALL programmers, new and old: If you're trying to do something and it seems extremely difficult, you're probably doing it wrong. Go back to the basics and keep it simple stupid!

Help with finishing my App (ROM Control)

Hey, so I have made an app for customizing some stuff on my Droid 3, but it works on my nexus 7, and cannot get it to load right on my D3 at the momment but that's not the issue. So what it does right now is I have a settings pannel and the only one I have actually coded is Notification background color. It sends the RGB to AccellerometerRotation in Settings.System. I will make it send to custom places once it is done. But I can then retrieve that in app, and use it to set color filter on a preview I have in my app, so bottom line, my code works.
Now, I need to add this code into the SystemUI.apk so that it will automatically run at some point (any point really) like a change in wallpaper or a reboot. I cannot figure out how to acomplish this. I have tried copypasting from JD GUI, adding my code, building apk for smali, and replacing the smali, but it doesn't work, either force crash or no systembar. I have tried to do this method on both ImageWallpaper class and the SystemUIService class, neither worked. At this point I'm totally stumped as to what to do. I assume adding my own class that would run but TBH, I am totally beat with trying anymore alone. Sometimes, its best to just let someone else take the wheel for a bit haha.
If anyone can help me finish my app, I am rewarding $40 Via PayPal for completion, which Is hopefully insentive enough for all you greedy people to assist haha.
So if any of you know how to do this, i can post the code (will be annoying till I get internet back) if needed, but ide prefer not until I get power and internet. Thanks in advance for all the responses!
I see you all viewing lol, can I get some responses <3 still stuck. I might try to just convert my java to smali and insert it into the existing smali but idk

[Q]i think my ex has hacked , cloned my number and is messing with my phone.

Gday all . I have noticed strange activity with my phone for the past 3 months . Passwords getting changed , weird apps getting loaded , calls to numbers i dont know etc etc. I downloaded catlog to find even stranger activity with audio commands , as i dont know much about linex or android as im new to this scene. I thought id post on here for some needed advise. Hope you members can help me out a little. When i look at this in text form it says that there was calls made am i being paranoid or is there something im actually reading right..
You didn't give many details, only a summary of ostensibly erratic application behaviour. It's nigh impossible to reach any conclusion in the absence of abundant details. So for peace of mind, I'd suggest resetting everything and start over.
So back up any files, photos, etc that you wish to keep. Then use the Odin program to write a 100% stock firmware to your phone. Followed by a factory data reset. That should remove any spyware, malware, malicious apps or anything else short of physical modifications to your phone - which is an unlikely scenario.
As to a cloned number.. that seems unlikely. But if you believe so, then have your provider change your number, get a new SIM card, etc. Or better yet, simply change providers.
Then you will have a stable base to proceed from.
.
Cjayz77 said:
Gday all . I have noticed strange activity with my phone for the past 3 months . Passwords getting changed , weird apps getting loaded , calls to numbers i dont know etc etc. I downloaded catlog to find even stranger activity with audio commands , as i dont know much about linex or android as im new to this scene. I thought id post on here for some needed advise. Hope you members can help me out a little. When i look at this in text form it says that there was calls made am i being paranoid or is there something im actually reading right..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you downloaded black (not from Play or official) apps or cracked games from websites? They often are used to mess with your phone and can even cost you a lot of money. I recommend to flash a stock rom and data factory reset afterwards to rule out that option.
Edit: Oeps! Allready mentioned above by @fffft

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