Android: unable to load XML

New Android Studio Project

Created Assets folder

Create constructor of new activity (second in the project) to read XML when the activity is called.

put the xml file I want read in the assets folder i created

Here is the code to read the xml

    AssetManager assetManager = getAssets();
    InputStream xmlFile= assetManager.open("menu.xml");

    // CREATE BUILDER FACTORY/BUILDER
    DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
    DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();
    Document doc = builder.parse(xmlFile);

    //Element root = doc.getDocumentElement();
    //Log.d("root element",root.getNodeName());

    NodeList list = doc.getElementsByTagName("subcategory");

    Log.d("NODE", String.valueOf(list.getLength()));

When running the app, the button is called to bring up the new activity, but crashes... Please help

Here is logcat output

07-28 15:52:30.138    6990-6990/com.app E/AndroidRuntime﹕ FATAL EXCEPTION: main
    java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to instantiate activity ComponentInfo{http://ift.tt/1py7vbc}: java.lang.NullPointerException
            at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:1573)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:1667)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.access$1500(ActivityThread.java:117)
            at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:935)
            at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
            at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:130)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:3691)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:507)
            at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:907)
            at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:665)
            at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
     Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
            at android.content.ContextWrapper.getAssets(ContextWrapper.java:74)
            at com.app.MainMenu.<init>(MainMenu.java:60)
            at java.lang.Class.newInstanceImpl(Native Method)
            at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:1409)
            at android.app.Instrumentation.newActivity(Instrumentation.java:1021)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:1565)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:1667)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.access$1500(ActivityThread.java:117)
            at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:935)
            at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
            at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:130)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:3691)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:507)
            at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:907)
            at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:665)
            at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

MainACtivity is a default android studio activity with a button to call the new activity MainMenu is the second activity that calls the XML

please advise.

thank you!