My activity's onInit()
contains a call to TextToSpeech.setEngineByPackageName()
:
tts = new TextToSpeech(this, this);
tts.setEngineByPackageName("com.ivona.tts.voicebeta.eng.usa.kendra");
It works on an Android 2.2.2 device, but on an Android 2.3.4 device it produced a NullPointerException, with the following stack trace:
E/TextToSpeech.java - setEngineByPackageName(3423): NullPointerException
W/System.err(3423): java.lang.NullPointerException
W/System.err(3423): at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:1328)
W/System.err(3423): at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:1276)
W/System.err(3423): at android.speech.tts.ITts$Stub$Proxy.setEngineByPackageName(ITts.java:654)
W/System.err(3423): at android.speech.tts.TextToSpeech.setEngineByPackageName(TextToSpeech.java:1356)
Since I am providing a hard-coded string parameter, I know that the parameter isn't what's causing the NullPointerException.
I also know that setEngineByPackageName() is deprecated but that's only since API 14, so this couldn't be the reason.
Any idea what could be causing this NullPointerException?
EDIT: I wouldn't have been concerned with the "why" if this didn't result in an endless bombardment of:
I/TextToSpeech.java(3652): initTts() successfully bound to service
Followed by calls to onInit()
(by the system, not by my code).
My hope is that if I underderstand why this is happening, I can stop the bombardment of onInit()
s and recover gracefully from the error.
Is the TTS engine you are referencing installed on the 2.3.4 device? If it is, it might be a platform bug.
EDIT:
Don't remember what results I got when I did this, but calling setEngineByPackageName()
when the package doesn't exists is not a good idea. Check if it is installed and don't try to use it if it's not. Something like:
boolean isPackageInstalled(String packageName) {
PackageManager pm = context.getPackageManager();
try {
PackageInfo pi = pm.getPackageInfo(packageName, 0);
return pi != null;
} catch (NameNotFoundException e) {
return false;
}
}
Attempting to investigate this myself, in case an expert on the subject isn't around:
The NullPointerException stack trace is printed by setEngineByPackageName()
itself in the catch handler for this try clause:
try {
result = mITts.setEngineByPackageName(enginePackageName);
if (result == TextToSpeech.SUCCESS){
mCachedParams[Engine.PARAM_POSITION_ENGINE + 1] = enginePackageName;
}
}
Which suggests that either of the following is null:
- mITts
- mCachedParams
mCachedParams is unlikely to be the null one because it is initialized in the constructor. So this leaves us with mITts
:
If I examine TextToSpeech.initTts()
I can easily spot 2 points in which mITts can remain null:
- onServiceConnected()
- onServiceDisconnected()
But why this is happening only on the 2.3.4 device? This is still a mystery.
Possible clue: The method TextToSpeech.initTts()
ends with the following comment:
mContext.bindService(intent, mServiceConnection, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE);
// TODO handle case where the binding works (should always work) but
// the plugin fails
Which may explain why I receive a barrage of onInit()
s ("initTts() successfully bound to service"): Binding always works, but since the package is not installed, "the plugin fails".
The question now is how to stop this endless loop...