NetworkOnMainThreadException on Facebook Login with Phonegap 1.6.0

Question

I am currently creating an application using Phonegap 1.6.0 and Sencha Touch 1.1. Recently, when testing on a smartphone with Android 4.0.4, we discovered that the Facebook Login doesn't quite work as expected. We are using the Phonegap Facebook Plugin located here with patches for Cordova. What happens is that, once we try logging into Facebook on a Smartphone with Android Honeycomb or higher, the application launches a NetworkOnMainThreadException because Network operations aren't permitted on the main thread. This exception is only thrown on Android Honeycomb or above, which is why we didn't notice it on 2.3.3. The exception is thrown when calling FB.login() and the callback is not reached.

I have checked various threads and topics but all are extremely vague. I'm aware that I have to run the network operation in a seperate thread, but I am unsure how this should be done. Threading appears to happen in Java, but I'm not using any Java at all, so before monkeying around in code that wasn't written by me, I'd like some help.

I will try to narrow down what part causes the exception later. Any help would be appreciated.

Error stack:

05-25 15:42:29.018: I/Web Console(3785): Cordova Facebook Connect plugin initialized successfully. at file:///android_asset/www/cdv-plugin-fb-connect.js:24
05-25 15:42:29.120: D/OpenGLRenderer(3785): Flushing caches (mode 0)
05-25 15:42:30.479: D/ConnectPlugin(3785): authorized
05-25 15:42:30.479: D/ConnectPlugin(3785): Bundle[{expires_in=5177550, access_token=censored, code=censored}]
05-25 15:42:30.503: D/AndroidRuntime(3785): Shutting down VM
05-25 15:42:30.503: W/dalvikvm(3785): threadid=1: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x40a671f8)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785): java.lang.RuntimeException: Failure delivering result ResultInfo{who=null, request=32665, result=-1, data=Intent { (has extras) }} to activity {com.company.product/com.company.product.productActivity}: android.os.NetworkOnMainThreadException
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at android.app.ActivityThread.deliverResults(ActivityThread.java:2980)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at android.app.ActivityThread.handleSendResult(ActivityThread.java:3023)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at android.app.ActivityThread.access$1100(ActivityThread.java:123)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1177)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4424)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:511)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:784)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:551)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785): Caused by: android.os.NetworkOnMainThreadException
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at android.os.StrictMode$AndroidBlockGuardPolicy.onNetwork(StrictMode.java:1099)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at org.apache.harmony.xnet.provider.jsse.OpenSSLSocketImpl$SSLInputStream.read(OpenSSLSocketImpl.java:664)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at libcore.io.Streams.readSingleByte(Streams.java:41)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at org.apache.harmony.xnet.provider.jsse.OpenSSLSocketImpl$SSLInputStream.read(OpenSSLSocketImpl.java:655)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at libcore.net.http.HttpConnection.isStale(HttpConnection.java:256)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at libcore.net.http.HttpConnectionPool.get(HttpConnectionPool.java:71)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at libcore.net.http.HttpConnection.connect(HttpConnection.java:128)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at libcore.net.http.HttpEngine.openSocketConnection(HttpEngine.java:308)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at libcore.net.http.HttpsURLConnectionImpl$HttpsEngine.makeSslConnection(HttpsURLConnectionImpl.java:460)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at libcore.net.http.HttpsURLConnectionImpl$HttpsEngine.connect(HttpsURLConnectionImpl.java:432)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at libcore.net.http.HttpEngine.sendSocketRequest(HttpEngine.java:282)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at libcore.net.http.HttpEngine.sendRequest(HttpEngine.java:232)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at libcore.net.http.HttpURLConnectionImpl.getResponse(HttpURLConnectionImpl.java:273)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at libcore.net.http.HttpURLConnectionImpl.getInputStream(HttpURLConnectionImpl.java:168)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at libcore.net.http.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.getInputStream(HttpsURLConnectionImpl.java:270)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at com.facebook.android.Util.openUrl(Util.java:206)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at com.facebook.android.Facebook.request(Facebook.java:751)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at com.facebook.android.Facebook.request(Facebook.java:688)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at org.apache.cordova.facebook.ConnectPlugin$AuthorizeListener.onComplete(ConnectPlugin.java:271)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at com.facebook.android.Facebook.authorizeCallback(Facebook.java:433)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at org.apache.cordova.facebook.ConnectPlugin.onActivityResult(ConnectPlugin.java:196)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at org.apache.cordova.DroidGap.onActivityResult(DroidGap.java:1178)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at android.app.Activity.dispatchActivityResult(Activity.java:4649)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     at android.app.ActivityThread.deliverResults(ActivityThread.java:2976)
05-25 15:42:30.511: E/AndroidRuntime(3785):     ... 11 more

Answer 1

I managed to solve the error by putting the authentication part of ConnectPlugin.java in a separate thread. For future readers, I shall post the instructions below.

In ConnectPlugin.java, replace:

try {
    JSONObject o = new JSONObject(this.fba.facebook.request("/me"));
    this.fba.userId = o.getString("id");
    this.fba.success(getResponse(), this.fba.callbackId);
} catch (MalformedURLException e) {
    // TODO Auto-generated catch block
    e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
    // TODO Auto-generated catch block
    e.printStackTrace();
} catch (JSONException e) {
    // TODO Auto-generated catch block
    e.printStackTrace();
}

with the following code:

Thread t = new Thread(new Runnable() {
    public void run() {
        try {
            JSONObject o = new JSONObject(fba.facebook.request("/me"));
            fba.userId = o.getString("id");
            fba.success(getResponse(), fba.callbackId);
        } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (JSONException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
});
t.start();

That should fix the NetworkOnMainThreadException.