Xamarin AndroidRuntimeException “Calling startActivity() from outside of an Activity context requires the FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK flag”

In my Android application I’m using the Azure Mobile Services component to connect to Windows Azure.

I want to use the authentication component and let the users login by using their Microsoft account. Here is the code I used:

	public class MainActivity : Activity
	{
	int count = 1;
	public static MobileServiceClient MobileService = new MobileServiceClient(
	"https://mymobileservice.azure-mobile.net/",
	"mobileservicekey"
	);
	protected override void OnCreate (Bundle bundle)
	{
	base.OnCreate (bundle);
	// Set our view from the "main" layout resource
	SetContentView (Resource.Layout.Main);
	// Get our button from the layout resource,
	// and attach an event to it
	Button button = FindViewById<Button> (Resource.Id.myButton);
	button.Click += async delegate {
	var user= await MobileService.LoginAsync(this.BaseContext,MobileServiceAuthenticationProvider.MicrosoftAccount);
	};
	}
	}
	}

view raw AndroidActivity.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub

However when I try to run this code, it fails the moment the LoginAsync method is called. This is the exception I get:

AndroidRuntimeException “Calling startActivity() from outside of an Activity context requires the FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK flag”

I found out that I made a stupid mistake. I was passing the BaseContext instead of the Activity itself. When I updated the code to the following it worked as expected:

	public class MainActivity : Activity
	{
	int count = 1;
	public static MobileServiceClient MobileService = new MobileServiceClient(
	"https://mymobileservice.azure-mobile.net/",
	"mobileservicekey"
	);
	protected override void OnCreate (Bundle bundle)
	{
	base.OnCreate (bundle);
	// Set our view from the "main" layout resource
	SetContentView (Resource.Layout.Main);
	// Get our button from the layout resource,
	// and attach an event to it
	Button button = FindViewById<Button> (Resource.Id.myButton);
	button.Click += async delegate {
	var user= await MobileService.LoginAsync(this,MobileServiceAuthenticationProvider.MicrosoftAccount);
	};
	}
	}
	}

view raw FixedAndroidActivity.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub