Xamarin.iOS: MobileService.InvokeApiAsync skips - xamarin

I am developing an app using Xamarin.Forms to re-use as much code as possible.
Specifically, I have a static class that manages all the POST/GET requests to my Azure Web Server.
Everything single call works fantastically except for one call - this one:
public async static Task<Models.UserParkPosition> GetUserParkPositionForCurrentUserAsync()
{
var body = new JArray { App.User.Id };
var test = await AzureMobileServiceClient.Instance.MobileService.InvokeApiAsync<JArray, Models.UserParkPosition>(ConnectionsAPI, body, HttpMethod.Get, null);
return test;
}
The method above is called when the user presses a button - specifically like this:
private async Task OnGoingToTheParkClicked(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
bool success = false;
var already = await viewModel.AlreadyHavePendingRequestAsync());
Console.WriteLine("TEST");
throw new Exception();
}
When the debugger hits the "var test" line mentioned, above.... nothing happens. The code doesn't deadlock, the UI is still responsive, but the code never returns. I never see the "TEST" word and the exception is not even thrown... what happens??
All my other APIs are called in the same way, and are working correctly.
OTHER INFO:
- Same code works on UWP and Android
- The GET request arrives at the webservice, which responds in a timely fashion (< 1 sec)
Thanks to anyone who might help or even point me in the right direction!

Found the issue - InvokeApiAsync throws an exception which is not catched anywhere from any calling thread. It somehow just disappears without causing any error nor device log, nor crash. Weird, but that's how the world goes.

Related

Amazon IAP Plugin for Xamarin - crash when using TaskCompletionSource

I'm trying to implement a wrapper for the Amazon IAP Plugin for Xamarin. It uses an event based system in the following way:
You can initiate method calls and listen for events. Method calls initiate requests, some of which return a response. Events are asynchronous system-generated messages that are sent in response to method calls to return the requested data to you.
See more here
My goal is to wrap this event based system into some API which allows me to use the plugin with tasks, so I can use the async-await syntax. To achieve that I'm using the TaskCompletionSource like in the following example:
public async Task<bool> GetProductInfoAsync(params string[] productIds)
{
var iapService = AmazonIapV2Impl.Instance;
var tcs = new TaskCompletionSource<bool>();
var skus = new SkusInput { Skus = productIds.ToList() };
var requestId = iapService.GetProductData(skus).RequestId;
GetProductDataResponseDelegator delegator = null;
delegator = new GetProductDataResponseDelegator(response =>
{
if(response.Id == requestId) {
var result = GetResultFromResponse(response);
tcs.SetResult(result);
//iapService.RemoveGetProductDataResponseListener(delegator.responseDelegate);
}
});
iapService.AddGetProductDataResponseListener(delegator.responseDelegate);
return await tcs.Task;
}
This code seems to work fine if the method gets called once, but if it gets called two times in a row the app crashes immediately and the only thing printed to the console is the following message..
[mono] Unhandled Exception:
[mono] System.InvalidOperationException: Collection was modified; enumeration operation may not execute.
[mono-rt] [ERROR] FATAL UNHANDLED EXCEPTION: System.InvalidOperationException: Collection was modified; enumeration operation may not execute.
..which kinda makes no sense at all.
So is there something obvious I'm missing here? Or could it be a bug from the plugin?
I have created a repository with the code above so you can reproduce the problem. It's my playground, so please ignore the whole structure of the project and just focus on the classes AmazonIAPService and MainActivity.
Hint 1:
The commented line //iapService.RemoveGetProductDataResponseListener(delegator.responseDelegate); causes also a crash with the same message but already at the first call of the method.
Hint 2:
The AmazonIAPService contains a commented method which uses await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(1)) and solves the problem from above in a very hacky way which I really don't like.
Problem seems to be that those functions have to run asynchronously. Also mentioned here in the doc. So once you run those functions synchronously somehow they throw exception, i dont what is happening in the library but your hacky solution is the actual solution for that. If you write the function as below. it also works.
PurchaseResponseDelegator delegator = null;
delegator = new PurchaseResponseDelegator(async response =>
{
await Task.Run(() =>
{
if (response.RequestId == requestId)
{
var result = GetPurchaseEventHandler(response);
var sucess = taskCompletionSource.TrySetResult(result);
context.RemovePurchaseResponseListener(delegator.responseDelegate);
}
} );
});
// Register for an event
context.AddPurchaseResponseListener(delegator.responseDelegate);
One other exception I had despite the async-await solution, somehow, it always throws exception for the line taskCompletionSource.SetResult(result); for PurchaseUpdates functions only. if i use instead this line var sucess = taskCompletionSource.TrySetResult(result); it works fine

Data Fetching Crashes in Xamarin Forms

I am trying to fetch Customer data to parse them into customer object to display on TableView. The following code sometimes works, sometimes not. Whenever it does crash, it shows Customer data is empty in the foreach loop even though I run the same code every time. I do not have clue what could be wrong in this circumstances. I am quite new on this platform. If I am missing anything/ extra information, please let me know.
namespace TableViewExample
{
public partial class MyDataServices : ContentPage
{
private ODataClient mODataClient;
private IEnumerable <IDictionary<string,object>> Customers;
public MyDataServices ()
{
InitializeComponent ();
InitializeDataService ();
GetDataFromOdataService ();
TableView tableView = new TableView{ };
var section = new TableSection ("Customer");
foreach (var customers in Customers) {
//System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine ((string)customers ["ContactName"]);
var name = (string)customers ["ContactName"];
var cell = new TextCell{ Text = name };
section.Add (cell);
}
tableView.Root.Add (section);
Padding = new Thickness (10, 20, 10, 10);
Content = new StackLayout () {
Children = { tableView }
};
}
private void InitializeDataService(){
try {
mODataClient = new ODataClient ("myURL is here");
}
catch {
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("ERROR!");
}
}
private void GetDataFromOdataService (){
try {
Customers = mODataClient.For ("Customers").FindEntries ();
}
catch {
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("ERROR!");
}
}
}
}
Its hard helping out here, however here are some things to consider:-
It sounds like the dataservice could either be not contactable / offline; too busy or it could even be throwing an exception itself and returning a data response that you are not expecting to receive, that then triggers an exception and crash in your application as your always expecting an exact response without catering for any abnormal responses / events.
If you are contacting an external service over the internet it may just be your internet connection is slow / faulty and not returning the information fast enough as other possibilities.
In your code you are assuming that you always get a response from the server - and that this response will always be of an anticipated structure that your expecting to decode - without factoring in any possibility of abnormal responses returned by the dataservice. I have not used ODataClient personally, so not sure how it behaves in the event of maybe no data received / timeout or in your case the dataservice and how it behaves internally in the response to a bad-request etc.
I am assuming an exception would get thrown, and you do get your debug line executed indicating a failure.
You may want to also adjust this statement so that you write out the exception as well, i.e.:-
private void GetDataFromOdataService ()
{
try
{
Customers = mODataClient.For ("Customers").FindEntries ();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("ERROR!" + ex.ToString());
}
}
If there was a bad response, then the line at Customers = ..... would throw the exception as there may be no Customers returned or some other information packaged in the response from the dataservice.
The Customers variable would also be null at this point I am assuming due to this failing.
So when you get back to your code at foreach (var customers in Customers) { it will then throw a null reference exception as Customers is infact null.
As all your current code executes in the constructor without any try and catch block around this, it will also crash your application at this point as well.
Also you are doing all of this work in the constructor. Try seperating this out. I haven't investigated exactly where the constructor gets called in an iOS page life-cycle, however, if it is in the viewDidLoad, then you have something like 10 seconds for everything to complete, otherwise it will exit automatically. I imagine in your case, this isn't applicable however.
Going forward also try putting your layout controls in the constructor, and move your data task to maybe the OnAppearing override instead.
Using async would definitely be advisable as well, but remember you need to inspect the response from your dataservice, as the error could be embedded within the response also and you will need to detect when it is OK to process the data.

Switch Screens in BlackBerry

I have a BlackBerry App that has a Listener for the Send Button implemented in the CheckIn Screen. Data is sent through a web service. If the data is sent successfully, a confirmation message of "OK" is received. I am trying to switch screens in my BlackBerry App depending on the response received.
FieldChangeListener sendBtnListener = new FieldChangeListener() {
public void fieldChanged(Field field, int context)
{
try {
String alertMsg=sendTextCheckIn();
if(alertMsg.equals("OK"))
{
UiApplication.getUiApplication().invokeLater( new Runnable()
{
public void run ()
{
UiApplication.getUiApplication().pushScreen(new MyScreen());
}
} );
}
} catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
};
However, the above is throwing an App Error 104: IllegalStateException. Can anyone please guide on how to switch screens between a BlackBerry App.
EDIT: I can switch to any other screen but I CAN NOT switch to MyScreen. NOTE: MyScreen is the main (first) screen of the App. The above method sendTextCheckIn() calls another method that is placed inside MyScreen. Has this got anything to do with the error? Please advice.
The 'fieldChanged' event is already running on the UI event thread, so you shouldn't need to do the invokeLater call within it, just call pushScreen directly.
You mention that your problem with IllegalStateException only happens for MyScreen. That makes it sound like something specific with the implementation of MyScreen. Start narrowing down the problem - look at what happens in the constructor of MyScreen, and any events that might get called before the screen is visible. Some of that code is what is causing the problem.
Wrap everything that could possibly raise in exception in try/catch.
Don't do e.printStackTrace() - that won't give you much.
Instead do something like System.err.println ("KABOOM in method abc() - " + e); - seems like more effort, but trust me, that becomes INVALUABLE when debugging issues like this.
Catch Exception, unless you have a VERY good reason to catch a specific a subtype - otherwise you WILL end up with unexpected, and uncaught exceptions, which you will hunt for DAYS.

Out of Range exception while accessing the files in Windows 8 Metro app

Below is the code I used to access the asset file for a metro app I am working on.
async void readFileFromDisk (string fileName, string fileType)
{
string fileContent;
StorageFile file = await Windows.ApplicationModel.Package.Current.InstalledLocation.GetFileAsync(fileName);
using (IRandomAccessStream readStream = await file.OpenAsync(FileAccessMode.Read))
{
using (DataReader dataReader = new DataReader(readStream))
{
UInt32 numBytesLoaded = await dataReader.LoadAsync((UInt32)readStream.Size);
fileContent = dataReader.ReadString(numBytesLoaded);
}
}
This code is run in the handler for Loaded event for the page. I am currently getting an exception saying "Value does not fall in range". The error occurs at the first line itself, where I try to get storagefile handle from the installation folder.
On debugging, the fileName string comes out to be Null. I guess, I should be moving the code to some event which is fired at a later stage in page lifecycle, but can't seem to figure out what is the best place to do it. Suggestions??
P.S. I need to read this file before any interaction from user, as it reads the data for the level, that user will be interacting with.
Edit:
Missed a couple things.
The below function is called from the handler for loaded event.
void Game_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
//read all level files to the strings
readFileFromDisk("//Assets/Levels/Start" + selectedLevel + ".txt", "Start");
This handler basically calls above function for different file paths, in similar manner. The string selected level is static variable, while the fileName string is created from the same.
Edit 2:
Found the issue, but solution is still far away. The return type of readFileFromDist method is causing trouble. Changed it to Task, and this part works fine, but I get "Object reference not set to an instance" error. Tried to convert Game_Loaded event handler to async too, to use await operators, but that gives me compiler error for "wrong return type".
SO, I tried removing async completely, but I guess I can't do that. There is no way to open files without using async function. So, I essentially need a way to call the readFileFromDisk function, using await, and continue with rest of the code execution once the task is completed. Something like, "IsCompleted" event for the awaited calls for the function.
Solved! Needed to use "ms:appx///Assets/filename.txt" instead of "//Assets/filename.txt".

WP7 & Skydrive WaitOne blocking everything

I'm trying to download a file from SkyDrive and have wrapped the Asynchronous calls in a Synchronous class. However when I'm call WaitOne everything is blocked and the EventHandeler never gets called.
_client = new LiveConnectClient(connection.Session);
_client.GetCompleted += new EventHandler<LiveOperationCompletedEventArgs>(client_GetCompleted);
_client.GetAsync("me/skydrive/files");
_autoEvent.WaitOne(); //get's stuck here client_GetCompleted never called.
....
void client_GetCompleted(object sender, LiveOperationCompletedEventArgs e)
{
///do stuff
_autoEvent.Set();
}
Remove the _autoEvent.WaitOne() call and the get completed event will be raised.
More than likely you are blocking the UI thread. (posting more code would help)
Try running the first part in a new non-ui thread:
System.Threading.ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(o =>
{
_client = new LiveConnectClient(connection.Session);
_client.GetCompleted +=
new EventHandler<LiveOperationCompletedEventArgs>(client_GetCompleted);
_client.GetAsync("me/skydrive/files");
_autoEvent.WaitOne(); //get's stuck here client_GetCompleted never called.
<other code>
});

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