Activity Deep Link - IllegalArgumentException: Required argument is missing and does not have an android:defaultValue

Question

In my app I have the following structure:

<!-- AndroidManifest.xml -->

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <application>
        <activity
            android:name=".DeepLinkActivity"
            android:exported="true"
            android:launchMode="singleInstancePerTask">
            <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:host="myhost"
                    android:path="/mypath"
                    android:scheme="myscheme" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>
</manifest>

<!-- activity_deep_link.xml -->

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">
    <androidx.fragment.app.FragmentContainerView
            android:id="@+id/navHostFragment"
            android:name="androidx.navigation.fragment.NavHostFragment"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            app:defaultNavHost="true"
            tools:navGraph="@navigation/my_nav_graph" />
</FrameLayout>

// DeepLinkActivity.kt

class DeepLinkActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

    private lateinit var binding: ActivityDeepLinkBinding

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)

        binding = ActivityDeepLinkBinding.inflate(layoutInflater)

        setContentView(binding.root)

        setUpNavigationGraph()
    }

    private fun setUpNavigationGraph() {
        val navHostFragment = supportFragmentManager
            .findFragmentById(binding.navHostFragment.id) as NavHostFragment
        val navController = navHostFragment.navController
        val navGraph = navController.navInflater
            .inflate(R.navigation.my_nav_graph)
            .apply {
                this.setStartDestination(R.id.notTheStartDestinationFragment)
            }
        val startDestinationArgs = bundleOf(
            "someRequiredArgumentHere" to false
        )

        navController.setGraph(navGraph, startDestinationArgs)
    }
}

When I open that activity through deep linking via ADB (adb shell am start -d myscheme://myhost/mypath), the activity is started normally.

But when I start it via the Chrome App the app crashes:

Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Required argument "someRequiredArgumentHere" is missing and does not have an android:defaultValue

Obs.: I'm using the Safe Args plugin.

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What am I doing wrong and why the behavior differs?

Answer 1

I just found out why the startDestinationArgs is being ignored while navigating via browser.

If we check the internal code of NavController#setGraph(NavGraph, Bundle?), NavController#onGraphCreated(Bundle?) will only use the startDestinationArgs if no deep link happened.

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As a workaraound, before setting up my nav graph, I just clear the activity's intent (but that's probably not the best way to resolve that problem)