Why can `applicationContext` return null? I'm getting null when calling it. This is my Application c...

# android

[Pablo]

Why can applicationContext return null? I'm getting null when calling it. This is my Application class:

class MyApplication: Application() {
    lateinit var container: AppContainer
    override fun onCreate() {
        super.onCreate()
        container = AppContainer()
    }
}

//Extension function that returns an instance of Application
fun CreationExtras.MyApplication(): MyApplication =
    (this[ViewModelProvider.AndroidViewModelFactory.APPLICATION_KEY] as MyApplication)

And this is how I get it:

MyApplication().applicationContext

[Meet]

You can get the applicationContext directly from any Context (like an Activity or Service):

val appContext = context.applicationContext as MyApplication

[Pablo]

I don't have a context at that point and I wanna make it from a context different from the current activity, so I need to do it from the applicationContext

[Pablo]

but it is null

[Pablo]

why?

[swanti]

Have you declared that MyApplication is the app's Application in the AndroidManifest? Something like:

<application
    android:name=".MyApplication"

The . is because the class is in the project root, if it's in a different package you will have to do something like .mypackage.MyApplication

[Pablo]

yes it is, and it's not null, the only null is the applicationContext variable inside Application object

[swanti]

Are you calling applicationContext in a Service? If not, the only thing I can suggest is that you implement the suggestion in https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21994612/get-application-context-returns-null which is your exact question

[Pablo]

I did it, and the first time I'm accessing it, I got this error:
kotlin.UninitializedPropertyAccessException: lateinit property context has not been initialized

[swanti]

It seems that you are accessing the applicationContext before the App has been created. When are you trying to access the context?

[Pablo]

on the init method of the viewmodel of the first screen of the first activity

[swanti]

How are you initializing the ViewModel in the Activity?

[Pablo]

@Composable
fun LoadingScreen(
    viewModel: LoadingScreenViewModel = viewModel(factory = LoadingScreenViewModel.factory(LocalContext.current)),
    modifier: Modifier = Modifier
)

in the constructor of the first Composable I'm getting it.

[swanti]

You shouldn't pass a ViewModel to Composable you should pass the parameters and stuff you need to the Composable

[swanti]

Besides that why are you passing Context to the ViewModel, but you are saying that you are also using MyApp.applicationContext instead of using the passed Context?

[Pablo]

I'm doing like that because is that how I learned in the google official codelabs

[Pablo]

they started the viewmodel variable on the parameters of the composable

[Pablo]

after doing that, they use it normally on the composable, like this val uiState = viewModel.uiState

[Pablo]

about the context passed as a parameter, is because this screen needs to do some stuff that requires the context of the current screen, but in this stuff, some other tasks are being started, tasks that are in background and must be unlinked to the current screen, because it can be closed before those tasks end, so they are initialized with the application context

[Pablo]

that shouldn't be the problem

[Pablo]

this worked perfectly and like a charm without compose

[swanti]

answer the dm I sent you man. It will make it much easier to figure out what is wrong