Custom Activity onSaveInstance crash

[NickIliev]

From @jogboms on April 13, 2018 7:50

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Please, provide the details below:

Did you verify this is a real problem by searching the NativeScript Forum and the other open issues in this repo? yes

Tell us about the problem

Please, ensure your title is less than 63 characters long and starts with a capital
letter.
I created a custom activity in my {N} application. Everything works fine during development but i started noticing a crash in production involving the onSaveInstanceState method. I could attach the log if neccessary but here is a trimmed down version of it.

Calling js method onSaveInstanceState failed
Error: Cannot convert object to Landroid/util/SparseArray; at index 0

Which platform(s) does your issue occur on?

Android

Please provide the following version numbers that your issue occurs with:

• CLI: (run tns --version to fetch it) 3.4.3
• Cross-platform modules: (check the 'version' attribute in the
  node_modules/tns-core-modules/package.json file in your project) 3.4.1
• Runtime(s): (look for the "tns-android" and "tns-ios" properties in the
  package.json file of your project) 3.4.2
• Plugin(s): (look for the version number in the package.json file of your
  project)

Please tell us how to recreate the issue in as much detail as possible.

The best approach would be to get your code running in the NativeScript Playground and share the link with us, along with any additional details or steps to reproduce needed for examining the issue there.

Is there code involved? If so, please share the minimal amount of code needed to recreate the problem.

import { AndroidActivityCallbacks, setActivityCallbacks } from "ui/frame";
import { ReplaySubject } from "rxjs/ReplaySubject";
import { Observable } from "rxjs/Observable";

const _intentSubject = new ReplaySubject<android.content.Intent>();

export const onNewIntent: Observable<android.content.Intent> = _intentSubject.asObservable();

@JavaProxy("com.test.TestActivity")
class Activity extends android.app.Activity {
    private _callbacks: AndroidActivityCallbacks;

    onCreate(savedInstanceState: android.os.Bundle): void {
        if (!this._callbacks) {
            setActivityCallbacks(this);
        }
        this._callbacks.onCreate(this, savedInstanceState, super.onCreate);

        const creationIntent = this.getIntent();
        _intentSubject.next(creationIntent);
    }

    onNewIntent(intent: android.content.Intent): void {
        super.onNewIntent(intent);
        this.setIntent(intent);
        _intentSubject.next(intent);
    }

    protected onSaveInstanceState(outState: android.os.Bundle): void {
        this._callbacks.onSaveInstanceState(this, outState, super.onSaveInstanceState);
    }

    protected onStart(): void {
        this._callbacks.onStart(this, super.onStart);
    }

    protected onStop(): void {
        this._callbacks.onStop(this, super.onStop);
    }

    protected onDestroy(): void {
        this._callbacks.onDestroy(this, super.onDestroy);
    }

    public onBackPressed(): void {
        this._callbacks.onBackPressed(this, super.onBackPressed);
    }

    public onRequestPermissionsResult(requestCode: number, permissions: Array<String>, grantResults: Array<number>): void {
        this._callbacks.onRequestPermissionsResult(this, requestCode, permissions, grantResults, undefined /*TODO: Enable if needed*/);
    }

    protected onActivityResult(requestCode: number, resultCode: number, data: android.content.Intent): void {
        this._callbacks.onActivityResult(this, requestCode, resultCode, data, super.onActivityResult);
    }
}

Copied from original issue: NativeScript/NativeScript#5673

[NickIliev]

From @jogboms on April 13, 2018 8:30

@NickIliev I was able to do some more investigation on the stack trace. Narrowed it down to
This method with nativescript-carousel . Can i get more light on why this could be a problem?

[NickIliev]

@jogboms is it possible to provide the full error log and also if possible a sample application that can reproduce the issue. I am trying to hit the issue (while using this test app) but even when the onSaveInstanceState is called the application is not throwing the error.

[NickIliev]

@jogboms are you by any chance using markingMode ?

[jogboms]

@NickIliev Oh, yes i am using markingMode. Been planning to take it off soon too.

{
    "android": {
        "v8Flags": "--expose_gc",
        "memoryCheckInterval": 500,
        "freeMemoryRatio": 0.5,
        "markingMode": "none"
    },
    "main": "main.js",
    "name": "dummy-app",
    "version": "0.0.1"
}

[vtrifonov]

@jogboms did you had a chance to try with "markingMode": "full"?

[jogboms]

@vtrifonov No I didn't, I had no idea that option existed. I went ahead and removed the whole thing and everything is back to normal in production. What does setting it to "full" do exactly.

[vtrifonov]

"markingMode": "full" means that the NS Android Runtime takes care for keeping the Java objects with dependencies between them from GC collecting. "markingMode": "none" is still an experimental mode in which the developer should take care about keeping the linked JS counterparts of Java objects from GC collect and not all plugins works as expected in that mode. You can read more about it here.

[jogboms]

@vtrifonov thanks. I see now. But if that is the case, shouldn't setting it to "full" also translate to not setting it at all?

[vtrifonov]

Yep, it is the default value. If no markingMode setting is provided it will work in full mode. I’m not sure how you end up with that setting in your app/package.json file as all the templates shouldn’t change the default value.

[jogboms]

Yeah. True.