NullPointer Exception for googleplacesapi

Question

I am creating an app for google places. I am getting map displayed and also my current location, but when I press the find button the app crashes below is the logcat and the MainActivity :-

Logcat :-

java.lang.NullPointerException at com.example.anand.locationplacedetailstest.MainActivity$ParserTask.onPostExecute(MainActivity.java:277) at com.example.anand.locationplacedetailstest.MainActivity$ParserTask.onPostExecute(MainActivity.java:247) at android.os.AsyncTask.finish(AsyncTask.java:631) at android.os.AsyncTask.access$600(AsyncTask.java:177) at android.os.AsyncTask$InternalHandler.handleMessage(AsyncTask.java:644) at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99) at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137) at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5214) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:525) at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:739) at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:555) at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

public class MainActivity extends FragmentActivity implements LocationListener {

GoogleMap mGoogleMap;
Spinner mSprPlaceType;

String[] mPlaceType=null;
String[] mPlaceTypeName=null;

double mLatitude=0;
double mLongitude=0;

HashMap<String, String> mMarkerPlaceLink = new HashMap<String, String>();

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    // Array of place types
    mPlaceType = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.place_type);

    // Array of place type names
    mPlaceTypeName = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.place_type_name);

    // Creating an array adapter with an array of Place types
    // to populate the spinner
    ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item, mPlaceTypeName);

    // Getting reference to the Spinner
    mSprPlaceType = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spr_place_type);

    // Setting adapter on Spinner to set place types
    mSprPlaceType.setAdapter(adapter);

    Button btnFind;

    // Getting reference to Find Button
    btnFind = ( Button ) findViewById(R.id.btn_find);


    // Getting Google Play availability status
    int status = GooglePlayServicesUtil.isGooglePlayServicesAvailable(getBaseContext());


    if(status!=ConnectionResult.SUCCESS){ // Google Play Services are not available

        int requestCode = 10;
        Dialog dialog = GooglePlayServicesUtil.getErrorDialog(status, this, requestCode);
        dialog.show();

    }else { // Google Play Services are available

        // Getting reference to the SupportMapFragment
        SupportMapFragment fragment = ( SupportMapFragment) getSupportFragmentManager().findFragmentById(R.id.map);

        // Getting Google Map
        mGoogleMap = fragment.getMap();

        // Enabling MyLocation in Google Map
        mGoogleMap.setMyLocationEnabled(true);



        // Getting LocationManager object from System Service LOCATION_SERVICE
        LocationManager locationManager = (LocationManager) getSystemService(LOCATION_SERVICE);

        // Creating a criteria object to retrieve provider
        Criteria criteria = new Criteria();

        // Getting the name of the best provider
        String provider = locationManager.getBestProvider(criteria, true);

        // Getting Current Location From GPS
        Location location = locationManager.getLastKnownLocation(provider);

        if(location!=null){
            onLocationChanged(location);
        }

        locationManager.requestLocationUpdates(provider, 20000, 0, this);

        mGoogleMap.setOnInfoWindowClickListener(new OnInfoWindowClickListener() {

            @Override
            public void onInfoWindowClick(Marker arg0) {
                Intent intent = new Intent(getBaseContext(), PlaceDetailsActivity.class);
                String reference = mMarkerPlaceLink.get(arg0.getId());
                intent.putExtra("reference", reference);

                // Starting the Place Details Activity
                startActivity(intent);
            }
        });



        // Setting click event lister for the find button
        btnFind.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {

            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {


                int selectedPosition = mSprPlaceType.getSelectedItemPosition();
                String type = mPlaceType[selectedPosition];


                StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/nearbysearch/json?");
                sb.append("location="+mLatitude+","+mLongitude);
                sb.append("&radius=5000");
                sb.append("&types="+type);
                sb.append("&sensor=true");
                sb.append("AIzaSyCIyZJUKAQZY6BU6V0PSCbhEILfYr8kvQI");


                // Creating a new non-ui thread task to download Google place json data
                PlacesTask placesTask = new PlacesTask();

                // Invokes the "doInBackground()" method of the class PlaceTask
                placesTask.execute(sb.toString());


            }
        });

    }
}

/** A method to download json data from url */
private String downloadUrl(String strUrl) throws IOException{
    String data = "";
    InputStream iStream = null;
    HttpURLConnection urlConnection = null;
    try{
        URL url = new URL(strUrl);


        // Creating an http connection to communicate with url
        urlConnection = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();

        // Connecting to url
        urlConnection.connect();

        // Reading data from url
        iStream = urlConnection.getInputStream();

        BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(iStream));

        StringBuffer sb  = new StringBuffer();

        String line = "";
        while( ( line = br.readLine())  != null){
            sb.append(line);
        }

        data = sb.toString();

        br.close();

    }catch(Exception e){
        Log.d("Exception while downloading url", e.toString());
    }finally{
        iStream.close();
        urlConnection.disconnect();
    }

    return data;
}


/** A class, to download Google Places */
private class PlacesTask extends AsyncTask<String, Integer, String>{

    String data = null;

    // Invoked by execute() method of this object
    @Override
    protected String doInBackground(String... url) {
        try{
            data = downloadUrl(url[0]);
        }catch(Exception e){
            Log.d("Background Task",e.toString());
        }
        return data;
    }

    // Executed after the complete execution of doInBackground() method
    @Override
    protected void onPostExecute(String result){
        ParserTask parserTask = new ParserTask();

        // Start parsing the Google places in JSON format
        // Invokes the "doInBackground()" method of the class ParseTask
        parserTask.execute(result);
    }

}

/** A class to parse the Google Places in JSON format */
private class ParserTask extends AsyncTask<String, Integer, List<HashMap<String,String>>>{

    JSONObject jObject;

    // Invoked by execute() method of this object
    @Override
    protected List<HashMap<String,String>> doInBackground(String... jsonData) {

        List<HashMap<String, String>> places = null;
        PlaceJSONParser placeJsonParser = new PlaceJSONParser();

        try{
            jObject = new JSONObject(jsonData[0]);

            /** Getting the parsed data as a List construct */
            places = placeJsonParser.parse(jObject);

        }catch(Exception e){
            Log.d("Exception",e.toString());
        }
        return places;
    }

    // Executed after the complete execution of doInBackground() method
    @Override
    protected void onPostExecute(List<HashMap<String,String>> list){

        // Clears all the existing markers
        mGoogleMap.clear();

        // this is line 277
        for(int i=0;i<list.size();i++){

            // Creating a marker
            MarkerOptions markerOptions = new MarkerOptions();

            // Getting a place from the places list
            HashMap<String, String> hmPlace = list.get(i);

            // Getting latitude of the place
            double lat = Double.parseDouble(hmPlace.get("lat"));

            // Getting longitude of the place
            double lng = Double.parseDouble(hmPlace.get("lng"));

            // Getting name
            String name = hmPlace.get("place_name");

            // Getting vicinity
            String vicinity = hmPlace.get("vicinity");

            LatLng latLng = new LatLng(lat, lng);

            // Setting the position for the marker
            markerOptions.position(latLng);

            // Setting the title for the marker.
            //This will be displayed on taping the marker
            markerOptions.title(name + " : " + vicinity);

            // Placing a marker on the touched position
            Marker m = mGoogleMap.addMarker(markerOptions);

            // Linking Marker id and place reference
            mMarkerPlaceLink.put(m.getId(), hmPlace.get("reference"));


        }

    }

}

Answer 1

It looks like your URL for hitting Google Maps API isn't quite right. I think you left off the "key" query parameter.

Try changing:

sb.append("AIzaSyCIyZJUKAQZY6BU6V0PSCbhEILfYr8kvQI");

To:

sb.append("&key=AIzaSyCIyZJUKAQZY6BU6V0PSCbhEILfYr8kvQI");

FYI: You can hit the URL in your browser to see the structure of the JSON object (as it looks like the keys you attempt to retrieve may not exist).

For example, https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/nearbysearch/json?location=32.7478,97.0928&radius=5000&sensor=true&key=AIzaSyCIyZJUKAQZY6BU6V0PSCbhEILfYr8kvQI.