Stacktrace with out Proguard:

E  java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.pinapps.greekandroidapps/com.pinapps.greekandroidapps.Splash}: java.lang.NullPointerException
...
E  Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
E  	at com.pinapps.greekandroidapps.Tools.DataHandler.init(DataHandler.java:58)
E  	at com.pinapps.greekandroidapps.Splash.onCreate(Splash.java:81)
E  	at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1047)
E  	at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2627)

Stacktrace with standard Proguard configuration:

E  java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.pinapps.greekandroidapps/com.pinapps.greekandroidapps.Splash}: java.lang.NullPointerException
...
E  Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
E  	at com.pinapps.greekandroidapps.Tools.c.c(Unknown Source)
E  	at com.pinapps.greekandroidapps.Splash.onCreate(Unknown Source)
E  	at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1047)
E  	at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2627)

Stacktrace with some options for useful obfuscated stacktraces Proguard configuration:

E  java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.pinapps.greekandroidapps/com.pinapps.greekandroidapps.Splash}: java.lang.NullPointerException
...
E  Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
E  	at com.pinapps.greekandroidapps.Tools.c.c(SourceFile:57)
E  	at com.pinapps.greekandroidapps.Splash.onCreate(SourceFile:81)
E  	at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1047)
E  	at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2627)

-printmapping out.map

-renamesourcefileattribute SourceFile
-keepattributes SourceFile,LineNumberTable

Proguard returned with error code 1. See console
 Unexpected error while evaluating instruction:
   Class       = [org/jsoup/parser/TreeBuilder]
   Method      = [insertInFosterParent(Lorg/jsoup/nodes/Node;)V]
   Instruction = [70] aload_2 v2
   Exception   = 1 (null)
 Unexpected error while performing partial evaluation:
   Class       = [org/jsoup/parser/TreeBuilder]
   Method      = [insertInFosterParent(Lorg/jsoup/nodes/Node;)V]
   Exception   = 1 (null)
 java.lang.NullPointerException
 	at proguard.evaluation.Variables.aload(Variables.java:264)
 	at proguard.evaluation.Processor.visitVariableInstruction(Processor.java:677)
 	at proguard.classfile.instruction.VariableInstruction.accept(VariableInstruction.java:306)
 	at proguard.optimize.evaluation.PartialEvaluator.evaluateSingleInstructionBlock(PartialEvaluator.java:729)
 	at proguard.optimize.evaluation.PartialEvaluator.evaluateInstructionBlock(PartialEvaluator.java:575)
 	at proguard.optimize.evaluation.PartialEvaluator.evaluateInstructionBlockAndExceptionHandlers(PartialEvaluator.java:533)
 	at proguard.optimize.evaluation.PartialEvaluator.visitCodeAttribute0(PartialEvaluator.java:221)
 	at proguard.optimize.evaluation.PartialEvaluator.visitCodeAttribute(PartialEvaluator.java:180)
 	at proguard.optimize.evaluation.LivenessAnalyzer.visitCodeAttribute(LivenessAnalyzer.java:195)
 	at proguard.optimize.evaluation.VariableOptimizer.visitCodeAttribute(VariableOptimizer.java:102)
 	at proguard.classfile.attribute.CodeAttribute.accept(CodeAttribute.java:101)
 	at proguard.classfile.ProgramMethod.attributesAccept(ProgramMethod.java:79)
 	at proguard.classfile.attribute.visitor.AllAttributeVisitor.visitProgramMember(AllAttributeVisitor.java:95)
 	at proguard.classfile.util.SimplifiedVisitor.visitProgramMethod(SimplifiedVisitor.java:91)
 	at proguard.classfile.ProgramMethod.accept(ProgramMethod.java:71)
 	at proguard.classfile.ProgramClass.methodsAccept(ProgramClass.java:439)
 	at proguard.classfile.visitor.AllMethodVisitor.visitProgramClass(AllMethodVisitor.java:47)
 	at proguard.classfile.ProgramClass.accept(ProgramClass.java:281)
 	at proguard.classfile.ClassPool.classesAccept(ClassPool.java:114)
 	at proguard.optimize.Optimizer.execute(Optimizer.java:764)
 	at proguard.ProGuard.optimize(ProGuard.java:325)
 	at proguard.ProGuard.execute(ProGuard.java:114)
 	at proguard.ProGuard.main(ProGuard.java:499)

Fortunately, this error has been fixed at the latest proguard release (4.7), but the Android SDK still uses a previous version.
So all you have to do, it to download the latest proguard version from here, unzip it and copy paste the 3 jars from the “lib” folder to your Android-SDK folder at ANDROID_SDK_HOME/tools/proguard/lib and replace the old jars.

Backing up is always a smart and proper move.

I May Not Be There Yet But I Am Closer Than I Was Yesterday

Today I was interviewed by the Digital life program at Athens 9.84 FM about the GreekAndroidApps application.

I was a little bit nervous, but I believe the result is fine!
I hope that you forgive my mistake with the number of downloads through our app, it is 12357.

You can listen it or download it here. (7MB)
(The interview is in greek)

Check it live here! (the statistics are updated every hour, the page refreshes every five minutes.

Really impressive stats for GreekAndroidApps.gr application, 5.038 unique users & 7.118 applications that have been downloaded from our app in 2 weeks!
I have written another related post about why I want to keep track of everything “If you can’t measure it…”.

check it out: http://sysv-rc-conf.sourceforge.net/

aptitude install sysv-rc-conf

80% of success is “showing up”

Showing up: As Allen famously stated: 80% of success is “showing up”. Nothing more really needs to be added there except it might be changed to “99% of success for the entrepreneur is showing up”. What do you have to show up for: you have to find the investors, you have to manage development, you have to find the first customers, You have to find the buyers. They don’t show up at your door. You show up at their door. Otherwise your business will just not work out. Let’s take Microsoft as one example among many: Bill Gates tracked down the guy in New Mexico to build BASIC. Bill Gates put himself in the middle when IBM wanted to license an operating system. He just kept showing up while everyone else was skiing.

I read it at techcrunch

SELECT *, COUNT(*) c FROM tablename GROUP BY searchablefield HAVING c > 1;

Full Stacktrace
0 android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDiskIOException: error code 10: disk I/O error
1 at android.database.sqlite.SQLiteStatement.native_execute(Native Method)
2 at android.database.sqlite.SQLiteStatement.execute(SQLiteStatement.java:55)
3 at android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDatabase.execSQL(SQLiteDatabase.java:1881)
4 at android.webkit.WebViewDatabase.removeCache(WebViewDatabase.java:668)
5 at android.webkit.CacheManager.createCacheFile(CacheManager.java:430)
6 at android.webkit.WebViewWorker.handleMessage(WebViewWorker.java:134)
7 at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
8 at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)
9 at android.os.HandlerThread.run(HandlerThread.java:60)

You’re trying to figure out what is happening, how can this be your fault, especially when you are absolutely sure that you are not using SQLite in your project!
Well, I have good news for you, it’s not your fault, but then again I have bad news for you, even if you have done serious testing, shit happens and your application is going to crash, no matter what. And I mean it. It is going to crash. Even Gmail or Facebook crashes!

Trying to catch every possibility or corner case may lead to a large and complicated source code, leading to even more crashes. General exception handling on the other side will make your application slow, so make sure you keep the balance on this.

You cannot predict what the user will do, you cannot predict the behavior of the devices out there and allow me to make it more clear with 2 examples:

The Huawei IDEOS X5 constantly crashes with random Resources NotFound Exceptions.
The Sony Ericsson X10 mini simply does not run apps, they do not even start sometimes.

The list goes on and you must accept that your application will crash, what you can do is minimize the crashes that are your fault.

Your app crashes, live with it.

(Image from Wired.com)

When it comes to analytics, I want to keep track of everything. Literally everything. From our website uptime, to our server response time. From our website unique visits, post reads, to where users click. From our apps users number, to the daily sessions and the number of bugs that may occur in a release.

There are thousands of tools (most of them are open source or free) to do this, so there are no excuses.

This is how you can be 100% aware of what is happening, this is how you can be sure that you will handle any situation as soon as possible to prevent a catastrophic failure.

One of my favorite quote is this:

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
-Peter Drucker

(photo credit: dragonart)