authorize() returns error 'Data intent is null' on Android

Issue

Every time I call authorize() method I get Error: Data intent is null, whenever running on an Android emulator with ‘R’ operating system. Any idea what could be causing this error and how to fix it?

const config = {
  warmAndPrefetchChrome: Platform.OS === 'android',
  issuer,
  clientId,
  redirectUrl: 'testSchema://oauth/redirect',
  scopes: ['openid', 'profile', 'api', 'offline_access'],
  usePKCE: true,
};

export const authenticate = async () => {
  try {
    const result = await authorize(config);
    console.log('authorized')  // Execution never makes it to this line
    return result
  } catch (e) {
    throw new Error(e);
  }
};

In android/app/builde.gradle

    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "com.testApp"
        minSdkVersion rootProject.ext.minSdkVersion
        targetSdkVersion rootProject.ext.targetSdkVersion
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0.0"
        resValue "string", "build_config_package", "com.testApp"
        manifestPlaceholders = [
            appAuthRedirectScheme: 'testSchema'
        ]

    }

AndroidManifest.xml

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
  package="com.testApp">

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />

    <application
      android:name=".MainApplication"
      android:label="@string/app_name"
      android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
      android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
      android:allowBackup="false"
      android:theme="@style/AppTheme">
      <activity
        android:name=".SplashActivity"
        android:theme="@style/SplashTheme"
        android:label="@string/app_name">
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.DOWNLOAD_COMPLETE"/>
        </intent-filter>
      </activity>
      <activity
        android:name=".MainActivity"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:screenOrientation="portrait"
        android:configChanges="keyboard|keyboardHidden|orientation|screenSize"
        android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustResize"
        android:exported="true">
      </activity>
      <activity android:name="com.facebook.react.devsupport.DevSettingsActivity" />
      <provider
		    android:name="com.vinzscam.reactnativefileviewer.FileProvider"
		    android:authorities="${applicationId}.provider"
		    android:exported="false"
		    android:grantUriPermissions="true">
		    <meta-data
		    	android:name="android.support.FILE_PROVIDER_PATHS"
		    	android:resource="@xml/file_viewer_provider_paths"
		    />
	    </provider>
    </application>

</manifest>

Fails on all 3 of these, but works fine on ‘Q’ or ‘Pie’ operating systems:

Environment

• Your Identity Provider: IdentityServer 4
• Platform that you’re experiencing the issue on: Android (specific to version ‘R’)
• Are you using Expo? No

[badsyntax]

It seems this ticket is diverging into different issues. The issue I’m referring to is the Error: Data intent is null error.

The problem I experienced was due to having deeplink integration already in place, using reactnavigation.

You won’t see this issue if you have not defined other intent-filters for the same auth scheme.

Based on the reactnavigation instructions, I have the following set in my AndroidManifest.xml:

<activity
  android:name=".MainActivity"
  android:label="@string/app_name"
  android:configChanges="keyboard|keyboardHidden|orientation|screenSize|uiMode"
  android:launchMode="singleTask"
  android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustResize">
  <intent-filter>
      <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
      <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
  </intent-filter>
  <intent-filter>
      <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
      <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
      <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
      <data android:scheme="com.myapp" />
  </intent-filter>
</activity>

And for react-native-app-auth, I have set the following in my build.gradle:

android {
    defaultConfig {
        manifestPlaceholders = [
            appAuthRedirectScheme: 'com.myapp'
        ]
    }
}

Note that adding the above effectively is the same as explicitly adding a new activity & intent filter like so:

<activity
        android:name="net.openid.appauth.RedirectUriReceiverActivity"
        tools:node="replace">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW"/>
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE"/>
        <data android:scheme="com.myapp"/>
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

So now we have two activities handling the same scheme.

The result of this is that after logging in, I’m presented with an “Open With” prompt that shows my app twice. I assume because there are now effectively two intent-filter’s for the same scheme.

If I select the app that’s handling the .MainActivity activity, I get the Error: Data intent is null error. If I select the other app, the authentication works.

To “fix” this, I followed @AlkanV’s advice and used a different scheme for the authentication redirect url, set in the build.gradle:

android {
    defaultConfig {
        manifestPlaceholders = [
            appAuthRedirectScheme: 'com.myapp.auth'
        ]
    }
}

I then updated my redirect url to reflect the auth redirect scheme. After logging in, everything works. I don’t get the “open with” prompt and I don’t get the auth error. I don’t like that the app handles two different deeplinking schemes, but I’m not sure if this is a problem or not.

I will create a new ticket asking the library authors to update the example to include reactnavigation. Issue here: https://github.com/FormidableLabs/react-native-app-auth/issues/611

[anisimov74]

I figured out the cause of the problem. There is a In Manifest.xml android:taskAffinity="", which should prevent possible phishing via task hijacking. https://github.com/FormidableLabs/react-native-app-auth/issues/674