Scalable way to use the Snackbar in Android Compose - android

This is not a post to have a solution but to discuss the project structure on Compose.
I'm currently learning Compose and I have difficulties to understand how to use the Snackbar in a project. Most examples I've seen are basic examples to call the Snackbar once with the SnackbarHostState from the Scaffold.
However, when working on an app that has an MVVM structure, I don't understand how the snackbar can be called from anywhere, except transmitting the state from a composable to another.
However, I would like the snackbar use to not be that restrictive. Is there any scalable way to use the Snackbar yet with Compose?

This might be a good use-case for CompositionLocals - a way to pass dependencies down the tree implicitly. First, make sure each screen-level composable provides a SnackbarHostState or some kind of snackbar manager, which wraps the SnackbarHostState (if you'd like to add some logic on top of the standard behaviour). After that at any place in your app use the provided CompositionLocal to show a snackbar.

Setup;
ExampleTheme {
val snackbarHostState = remember { SnackbarHostState() }
val LocalSnackbarHostState = compositionLocalOf<SnackbarHostState>{
error("No Snackbar Host State")
}
CompositionLocalProvider(
values = arrayOf(
LocalSnackbarHostState provides snackbarHostState
)
) {
Scaffold(
snackbarHost = { SnackbarHost(snackbarHostState) },
) {
//
}
}
}
Call wherever you want;
val snackbarHostState = LocalSnackbarHostState.current
snackbarHostState.showSnackbar()

Related

Manage condition logic in stateless compose in jetpack compose

I am learning State hosting in jetpack compose. I have created two separated function ContentStateful and ContentStateLess. In my ContentStateLess there is a lot of view inside them and I am checking some condition and change view accordingly. I am guessing that there is no condition/business logic inside Stateful compose. So what is the proper way of doing this kind of logic in here.
ContentStateful
#Composable
fun ContentStateful(
viewModel: PairViewModel = getViewModel()
) {
ContentStateLess(viewModel)
}
ContentStateLess
#Composable
fun ContentStateLess(
viewModel: PairViewModel
) {
Text()
Text()
Image()
if (viewModel.isTrue) {
Image()
// more item here
} else {
Text()
// more item here
}
Image()
}
So what is the best recommendation for this if - else logic in ContentStateLess(). Many Thanks
If you are building stateless Composables it's better not to pass anything like ViewModel. You can pass Boolean parameter instead. When you wish to move your custom Composable to another screen or another project you will need to move ViewModel either.
The reason Google recommends stateless Composables is it's difficult to test, you can easily test a Composable with inputs only.
Another thing you experience the more states inner composables have to more exposure you create for your composable being in a State that you might not anticipate.
When you build simple Composables with one, two, three layers might not be an issue but with more states and layers state management becomes a serious issue. And if you somehow forget or miss a state inside a Composable you might end up with a behavior that's not expected. So to minimize risks and make your Composables testable you should aim to manage your states in one place and possible in a state holder class that wraps multiple states.
#Composable
fun ContentStateLess(
firstOneTrue: Boolean
) {
Text()
Text()
Image()
if (firstOneTrue) {
Image()
// more item here
} else {
Text()
// more item here
}
Image()
}

What to put in parameters of a Screen when putting it in a composable of nav host in jetpack navigation

I have a Screen ( composable function ) that gets It's data from view model ( a list and two function to remove and add data in it ).
#Composable
fun MainScreen(
notes: List<Note>,
onAddNote: (Note) -> Unit,
onRemoveNote: (Note) -> Unit
){}
Now when i call this function inside the composable of my Nav host, I get errors stating that i should fill the parameters.
#Composable
fun NotesNavigation(){
val navController = rememberNavController()
NavHost(navController = navController, startDestination = Navigation.MainScreen.name){
composable(Navigation.MainScreen.name){
MainScreen() // error here
}
}
}
Now I am wondering what is the best practice to sort it out, do i need to provide default values for my parameters like supplying an empty list
or
there is better way to get around it.
You can set default values to the MainScreenFunction, but since you are using navigation, this would become useless. I would suggest to set the viewmodel as a parameter. The viewmodel should still be passed through the navigation though.
I don't know if you use any dependency injection. If so, that would make it a bit easier. Then you can set it up like this:
#Composable
fun MainScreen(
viewModel: MainScreenViewModel = getViewModel() //If using Koin DI
){
...
}
This way, the navigation doesn't have to know about the viewmodel. You can still set it though, if you do need a different viewModel then the one injected for example.

Initiating a ViewModel with Input parameters in Jetpack Compose -> Composable function

I have a ViewModel that takes a string as an argument
class ComplimentIdeasViewModel(ideaCategory : String) : ViewModel() {
//some code here
}
What is the best way to initiate this ViewModel inside a composable fun without using a ViewModel factory and Hilt? A simple statement seems to achieve this inside a composable fun
#Composable
fun SampleComposableFun() {
val compIdeasViewModel = remember { ComplimentIdeasViewModel("someCategory") }
}
There is no warning in Android studio when I try to do this, but this seems too easy to be true, I am able to do this without Dependency Injection and with a ViewModelFactory class. Am I missing something here?
I've tried how you have written yours out and I had issues with screen rotation resetting the view model. I suspect you may too.
I was able to fix it by utilizing the the factory parameter on viewModel() for this, which worked well for me. See this answer on a similar question with example on how to use it: jetpack compose pass parameter to viewModel
This will not provide you the correct instance if viewmodel. See if you store some state in the viewmodel, then using the factory to initialise it is necessary to ensure that you get the same and latest copy of the viewmodel currently present. There is no error since the syntactic implementation is correct. I do not know of any way to do this because most of the times, you don't need to. Why don't you initialise it in the top-level container, like the activity? Then pass it down wherever necessary.
Create a CompositionLocal for your ViewModel.
val YourViewModel = compositionLocalOf { YourViewModel(...) }
Then initialise it (You'd likely use the ViewModelProvider.Factory here). And then provide that to your app.
CompositionLocalProvider(
YourViewModel provides yourInitialisedViewModel,
) {
YourApp()
}
Then reference it in the composable.
#Composable
fun SampleComposableFun(
compIdeasViewModel = YourViewModel.current
) {
...
}
Note, the docs say that ViewModels are not a good fit for CompositionLocals because they will make your composable harder to test, make your composables tied to this app and make it harder to use #Preview.
Some get pretty angry about this. However, if you manage to mock out the ViewModel, so you can test the app and use #Preview and your composables are tied to the app and not generic, then I see no problem.
You can mock a ViewModel fairly simply, providing its dependencies are included as parameters (which is good practice anyway).
open class MockedViewModel : MyViewModel(
app = Application(),
someOtherDependeny = MockedDependecy(),
)
The more dependencies your ViewModel has the more mocking you'll need to do. But I've not found it prohibitive and including the ViewModel as a default parameter has massively sped up development.

Observe livedata and navigate in jetpack compose

I just started learning jetpack compose. I have a very basic question. My ViewModel has a SingleLiveEvent that I use to navigate to another screen.
private val _navigateToDetails: SingleLiveEvent<Movie> = SingleLiveEvent()
val navigateToDetails: MutableLiveData<Movie> = _navigateToDetails
I know that I can use Livedata as state to emit UI but how to use it to trigger some action within composable.
Previously I had used viewLifecycleOwner to observer the state as anyone would do like this.
viewModel.navigateToDetails.observe(viewLifecycleOwner) {
// navigate to details
}
How do I achieve the same thing in compose. I don't know if that's possible or not. Maybe I am not thinking this in compose way. Any help would be appreciated.
I would do something like to make sure I'm only doing it once:
#Composable
fun LoginScreen(viewModel: LoginViewModel) {
val loginState by viewModel.loginState.observeAsState(null)
val hasHandledNavigation = remember { mutableStateOf(false)}
if (loginState != null && !hasHandledNavigation.value ) {
navigateToWelcomeScreen()
else {
// rest of the Compose UI
}
}
UPDATE:
Option two, you can also just pass the action of going to next screen to viewmodel and fire it up there.
Actually, in compose we use mutableStateOf() over LiveData. In your viewmodel, you can change the type of the data holder from LiveData to mutableStateOf(...) which will allow you to directly use it in your Composables without explicitly calling observe()
Let's say you wish to store an integer of any kind in your viewmodel and update the state of your Composable based on that.
In your viewmodel,
var mInteger by mutableStateOf (0) //'by' helps treat state as data
fun updateMInteger(newValue: Int){
mInteger = newValue
}
In your Composable, directly call viewmodel.mInteger and Compose being built like that, automatically updates the UI, given that mInteger is being read from the Composable
Like
Text(viewModel.mInteger)

Should I use ConstraintLayout in Android Jetpack Compose for a better performance?

Before Jetpack Compose ConstraintLayout was the recommended way of building complex layouts since it allows to flatten UI hierarchies. See Manage complexity: layouts matter documentation section.
The most common case in which layout takes an especially long time is when hierarchies of View objects are nested within one another. Each nested layout object adds cost to the layout stage. The flatter your hierarchy, the less time that it takes for the layout stage to complete.
Is it still true in the Compose world?
This is not the case in Compose. Use ConstraintLayout if it helps you to implement a layout but not because of performance concerns. See Compose ConstraintLayout documentation:
Note: In the View system, ConstraintLayout was the recommended way to create large and complex layouts, as a flat view hierarchy was better for performance than nested views are. However, this is not a concern in Compose, which is able to efficiently handle deep layout hierarchies.
It's actually the opposite. When performance is an issue you must be careful using ConstraintLayout in Jetpack Compose. ConstraintLayout calls MeasureLayout under the hood which comes with serious performance warning which is
#Composable
#UiComposable
#Deprecated(
"This API is unsafe for UI performance at scale - using it incorrectly will lead " +
"to exponential performance issues. This API should be avoided whenever possible."
)
fun MultiMeasureLayout(
modifier: Modifier = Modifier,
content: #Composable #UiComposable () -> Unit,
measurePolicy: MeasurePolicy
) {
// Rest of the code
}
#Composable
inline fun ConstraintLayout(
modifier: Modifier = Modifier,
optimizationLevel: Int = Optimizer.OPTIMIZATION_STANDARD,
crossinline content: #Composable ConstraintLayoutScope.() -> Unit
) {
val measurer = remember { Measurer() }
val scope = remember { ConstraintLayoutScope() }
val remeasureRequesterState = remember { mutableStateOf(false) }
val (measurePolicy, onHelpersChanged) = rememberConstraintLayoutMeasurePolicy(
optimizationLevel,
scope,
remeasureRequesterState,
measurer
)
#Suppress("Deprecation")
MultiMeasureLayout(
modifier = modifier.semantics { designInfoProvider = measurer },
measurePolicy = measurePolicy,
content = {
val previousHelpersHashCode = scope.helpersHashCode
scope.reset()
scope.content()
if (scope.helpersHashCode != previousHelpersHashCode) onHelpersChanged()
}
)
}
You can use when performance is not an issue and you don't want to build nested Composables there won't be an issue with ConstraintLayout, when layout is complex take MultiMeasureLayout warning message into consideration.

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