Question

I have a preference activity which contains a checkbox and a list preference. The main activity of this application gets the current value of the list preference and uses it as the url to gain data from. My problem is that on a fresh install the default value is not being set, thus the value being null and the app instantly crashes before being able to get to the preference screen. Any fixes??

CODE:

public class Preferences extends PreferenceActivity implements OnSlideMenuItemClickListener {
private SlideMenu slidemenu;
private final static int News = 1;
private final static int Library = 2;
private final static int Photos = 3;
private final static int Videos = 4;
private final static int Maps = 5;
private final static int Prefs = 6;
private final static int About = 7;
GoogleAnalyticsTracker tracker;
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.preferences);
    setContentView(R.layout.show_settings_layout);
    tracker = GoogleAnalyticsTracker.getInstance();
    tracker.startNewSession("UA-35087731-1", 10, this);
    Typeface blockFonts = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(),"FUTURAM.TTF");
    TextView lblTitle = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.actionbar); 
    lblTitle.setText("Preferences");
    lblTitle.setTypeface(blockFonts);


          ListPreference listPreference = (ListPreference) findPreference("news_feed");
            if(listPreference.getValue()==null) {

                    listPreference.setValueIndex(1);
                final CheckBoxPreference checkboxPref = (CheckBoxPreference) getPreferenceManager().findPreference("french");

                checkboxPref.setOnPreferenceChangeListener(new Preference.OnPreferenceChangeListener() {            
                    public boolean onPreferenceChange(Preference preference, Object newValue) {
                        if(newValue.toString().equals("true")) {
                            ListPreference newsPref = (ListPreference) findPreference("news_feed");

                            String[] values = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.newsfeedfr);
                                    newsPref.setEntryValues(values);
                                    newsPref.setDefaultValue(values[1]);

                        }
                        else {
                            ListPreference news2Pref = (ListPreference) findPreference("news_feed");                                
                            String[] values2 = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.newsfeed);                                     news2Pref.setEntryValues(values2);                                  news2Pref.setDefaultValue(values2[1]);

                        }      
                        return true;
                    }
            }); }
}
    }

---

 SharedPreferences sharedPrefs = 
                PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(getBaseContext());
     URL= sharedPrefs.getString("news_feed", "N/A");
        if(URL==null) {
            URL = "http://scout.org/rss/feed/all";
        }

And this is how I retrieve the value in the News Class

---

LOGCAT OUTPUT

10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305): Activity org.scouts.android.news.News has  leaked window com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView@44eb8558 that was originally added here
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305): android.view.WindowLeaked: Activity org.scouts.android.news.News has leaked window com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView@44eb8558 that was originally added here
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at android.view.ViewRoot.<init>(ViewRoot.java:247)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at android.view.WindowManagerImpl.addView(WindowManagerImpl.java:148)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at android.view.WindowManagerImpl.addView(WindowManagerImpl.java:91)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at android.view.Window$LocalWindowManager.addView(Window.java:424)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at android.app.Dialog.show(Dialog.java:241)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at org.scouts.android.news.News$MyAsyncgTask.onPreExecute(News.java:171)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at android.os.AsyncTask.execute(AsyncTask.java:391)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at org.scouts.android.news.News.onCreate(News.java:100)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1047)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2627)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2679)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at android.app.ActivityThread.access$2300(ActivityThread.java:125)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:2033)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4627)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:521)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:868)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:626)
10-08 00:52:06.569: E/WindowManager(305):   at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
10-08 00:52:35.980: I/Process(305): Sending signal. PID: 305 SIG: 9

Answer 1

The problem was a little silly, but in the line

URL= sharedPrefs.getString(“news_feed”, “N/A”);

it return N/A for the value, when there is no user selected one, instead of null hence the fix being

URL= sharePrefs.getString(“news_feed”, null);