custom android.app.Application not firing onCreate event

Question

I'm deriving a custom application from android.app.Application and I can't get its onCreate event being fired. Here's the implementation

import android.app.Application;

public class MyApplication extends Application {

    public MyApplication() {
        super();
    }

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();
    }
}

And here's how I'm using it:

MyApplication ctrl = new MyApplication();

Solution 1

Add following in your AndroidManifest.xml

<application
    android:name="MyApplication"
    android:debuggable="true"
    android:icon="@drawable/icon"
    android:label="@string/app_name">
</application>

then your onCreate() will get fired.

Solution 2

I had this issue and found that in my case that the whole issue was phone side. I rebooted the phone and that fixed the issue.

Solution 3

Very simple

In your AndroidManifest.xml, within the application tag enter the name of your Application sub-class with it's path under the android:name attribute.

Example:

<application
...
android:name=".models.custom.BaseApplication"
...
> ... </application>

Solution 4

You don't actually create instances of your Activities with the newoperator. Instead you start an Intent like this:

Intent start = new Intent(context, Classname.class);
context.startActivity(start);

When creating an object with the new operator, then onCreate never will be called.

[EDIT] When creating Applications with the new operator onCreate won't be called either[/EDIT]

[EDIT2] You could create a static method that returns the application like this:

public static MyApplication getApp() {
    return mInstance;
}

[/EDIT2]

Solution 5

Don't construct it, get it from Context.

For example from Activity:

MyApplication ctrl = (MyApplication)getApplicationContext();

More info: Context.getApplicationContext()

Documentation says that onCreate() is

Called when the application is starting, before any other application objects have been created

View more solutions

Comments

[Narcís Calvet]

It doesn't work. I have the main Activity defined as an application by the fault at AndroidManifest.xml and this additional application tag. Do you think this is correct?

[Selvin]

it's not Activity it's Application

[Ben Weiss]

oops, my bad. But that also applies to an Application. If you create your application with the new operator, onCreate won't be called.

[Narcís Calvet]

Yes, I did that but I need to be able to get object instance to be able to set object properties and call its methods.

[Narcís Calvet]

Doesn't work for me either. Actually the application crashes at this line.

[Narcís Calvet]

The line you suggested: MyApplication ctrl = (MyApplication)getApplicationContext();

[pawelzieba]

stackoverflow.com/questions/708012/…

[Ben Weiss]

you could create a static method that returns the singleton of this Application.

[Narcís Calvet]

Thanks. The problem here is that I should also declare that application at AndroidManifest.xml but, according to Balaji's reply and comments, I can't have 2 applications defined there. Can you think of a solution to this?

[Dr.jacky]

@BalajiKhadake My app class extends from a library application class and onCreate in library doesn't fired!

[Jozka Jozin]

Must add class name to android:name, like android:name="your.package.com.MyApplication".

[Dr. aNdRO]

You cannot return this from a static method -_-

[Mickael Bergeron Néron]

Dude. You potentially saved me hours with this answer. Thanks.

[Shubham Mogarkar]

it is true that it is phone specific problem, but restarting the device did not solve the problem in my case.