How to replace LiveData with Flow - android

I've one LiveData named sortOrder and then I've another variable named myData that observes any change to sortOrder and populates data accordingly.
class TestViewModel #ViewModelInject constructor() : ViewModel() {
private val sortOrder = MutableLiveData<String>()
val myData = sortOrder.map {
Timber.d("Sort order changed to $it")
"Sort order is $it"
}
init {
sortOrder.value = "year"
}
}
Observing in Activity
class TestActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
private val viewModel: TestViewModel by viewModels()
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setContentView(R.layout.activity_test)
// Observing data
viewModel.myData.observe(this) {
Timber.d("Data is : $it")
}
}
}
Question
How can I replace the above scenario with Flow/StateFlow APIs without any change in output?

If you fail to convert the mapped cold Flow into a hot Flow, it will restart the flow every time you collect it (like when your Activity is recreated). That's how cold flows work.
I have a feeling they will flesh out the transform functions for StateFlow/SharedFlow, because it feels very awkward to map them to cold flows and have to turn them back into hot flows.
The public Flow has to be a SharedFlow if you don't want to manually map the first element distinctly because the stateIn function requires you to directly provide an initial state.
private val sortOrder = MutableStateFlow("year")
val myData = sortOrder.map {
Timber.d("Sort order changed to $it")
"Sort order is $it"
}.shareIn(viewModelScope, SharingStarted.Eagerly, 1)
Or you could create a separate function that is called within map and also in a stateIn function call.
private val sortOrder = MutableSharedFlow<String>()
private fun convertSortOrder(order: String): String {
Log.d("ViewModel", "Sort order changed to $order")
return "Sort order is $order"
}
val myData = sortOrder.map {
convertSortOrder(it)
}.stateIn(viewModelScope, SharingStarted.Eagerly, convertSortOrder("year"))

From the point of the fragment/activity, you have to create a job that collects the flow in onStart() and cancel it in onStop(). Using the lifecycleScope.launchWhenStarted will keep the flow active even in the background.
Use the bindin library to migrate to Flow with ease. I'm biased, tho.
See an article on medium about it.

Related

How to update data with SharedFlow in Android

In my application I want update data with SharedFlow and my application architecture is MVI .
I write below code, but just update one of data!
I have 2 spinners and this spinners data fill in viewmodel.
ViewModel code :
class MyViewModel #Inject constructor(private val repository: DetailRepository) : ViewModel() {
private val _state = MutableStateFlow<MyState>(MyState.Idle)
val state: StateFlow<MyState> get() = _state
fun handleIntent(intent: MyIntent) {
when (intent) {
is MyIntent.CategoriesList -> fetchingCategoriesList()
is MyIntent.PriorityList -> fetchingPrioritiesList()
}
}
private fun fetchingCategoriesList() {
val data = mutableListOf(Car, Animal, Color, Food)
_state.value = DetailState.CategoriesData(data)
}
private fun fetchingPrioritiesList() {
val data = mutableListOf(Low, Normal, High)
_state.value = DetailState.PriorityData(data)
}
}
With below codes I filled spinners in fragment :
lifecycleScope.launch {
//Send
viewModel.handleIntent(MyIntent.CategoriesList)
viewModel.handleIntent(MyIntent.PriorityList)
//Get
viewModel.state.collect { state ->
when (state) {
is DetailState.Idle -> {}
is DetailState.CategoriesData -> {
categoriesList.addAll(state.categoriesData)
categorySpinner.setupListWithAdapter(state.categoriesData) { itItem ->
category = itItem
}
Log.e("DetailLog","1")
}
is DetailState.PriorityData -> {
prioritiesList.addAll(state.prioritiesData)
prioritySpinner.setupListWithAdapter(state.prioritiesData) { itItem ->
priority = itItem
}
Log.e("DetailLog","2")
}
}
When run application not show me number 1 in logcat, just show number 2.
Not call this line : is DetailState.CategoriesData
But when comment this line viewModel.handleIntent(MyIntent.PriorityList) show me number 1 in logcat!
Why when use this code viewModel.handleIntent(MyIntent.CategoriesList) viewModel.handleIntent(MyIntent.PriorityList) not show number 1 and 2 in logcat ?
The problem is that a StateFlow is conflated, meaning if you rapidly change its value faster than collectors can collect it, old values are dropped without ever being collected. Therefore, StateFlow is not suited for an event-like system like this. After all, it’s in the name that it is for states rather than events.
It’s hard to suggest an alternative because your current code looks like you shouldn’t be using Flows at all. You could simply call a function that synchronously returns data that you use synchronously. I don’t know if your current code is a stepping stone towards something more complicated that really would be suitable for flows.

Emit Article with title Kotlin Flow

My task is to get whole Article with provided title from RecyclerView.
When I click on specific Article i get title from it.
Room database:
#Query("SELECT * FROM article_table WHERE title = :title")
fun getArticleDetails(title: String): Flow<ArticleLocal>
Repository:
fun getArticleDetails(title: String): Flow<ArticleLocal> {
return articleDao.getArticleDetails(title)
}
ViewModel:
val articleDetail = MutableStateFlow<ArticleLocal>(ArticleLocal("","","","",""))
fun getArticle(title: String) {
viewModelScope.launch {
articleRepository.getArticleDetails(title).collect {
articleDetail.emit(it)
}
}
}
MainActivity:
lifecycleScope.launch {
viewModel.getArticle(title)
viewModel.articleDetail.collect {
Log.d(TAG, "onCreate: $it")
}
}
Problem with this code is that articleDetail on first touch gives me empty ArticleLocal e.g. title = "" I defined in ViewModel, later I get good result.
EDIT: With MyActivity .collet I get whole object but cannot access propert like it.title
Use a SharedFlow so it doesn't have to publish a default result. The flow won't emit anything until it receives its first value. Use replay = 1 to get similar behavior as StateFlow as far as new subscribers getting the most recent value immediately.
You also need to consider that if the title changes, it should not keep publishing values with the old title. Currently, you have it collecting from more and more flows each time the title changes.
If you use another MutableSharedFlow just for the title, you can get it to automatically cancel unnecessary collection of those old title flows. It also allows you to get the benefit of SharingStarted.WhileSubscribed to avoid unnecessary collection from the repository when there are no subscribers.
In ViewModel:
private val articleTitle = MutableSharedFlow<String>(bufferOverflow = BufferOverflow.DROP_OLDEST)
val articleDetail = articleTitle.flatMapLatest { articleRepository.getArticleDetails(it) }
.shareIn(viewModelScope, SharingStarted.WhileSubscribed(5000), replay = 1)
fun getArticle(title: String) {
articleTitle.tryEmit(title)
}
You can get rid of additional flow to emit data and use the flow returned from the repository directly.
ViewModel:
fun getArticle(title: String): Flow<ArticleLocal> {
return articleRepository.getArticleDetails(title)
}
MainActivity:
lifecycleScope.launch {
viewModel.getArticle(title).collect {
Log.d(TAG, "onCreate: $it")
}
}

Flow provides null from room database but it should have data

I started building my app using Room, Flow, LiveData and Coroutines, and have come across something odd: what I'm expecting to be a value flow actually has one null item in it.
My setup is as follows:
#Dao
interface BookDao {
#Query("SELECT * FROM books WHERE id = :id")
fun getBook(id: Long): Flow<Book>
}
#Singleton
class BookRepository #Inject constructor(
private val bookDao: BookDao
) {
fun getBook(id: Long) = bookDao.getBook(id).filterNotNull()
}
#HiltViewModel
class BookDetailViewModel #Inject internal constructor(
savedStateHandle: SavedStateHandle,
private val bookRepository: BookRepository,
private val chapterRepository: ChapterRepository,
) : ViewModel() {
val bookID: Long = savedStateHandle.get<Long>(BOOK_ID_SAVED_STATE_KEY)!!
val book = bookRepository.getBook(bookID).asLiveData()
fun getChapters(): LiveData<PagingData<Chapter>> {
val lastChapterID = book.value.let { book ->
book?.lastChapterID ?: 0L
}
val chapters = chapterRepository.getChapters(bookID, lastChapterID)
return chapters.asLiveData()
}
companion object {
private const val BOOK_ID_SAVED_STATE_KEY = "bookID"
}
}
#AndroidEntryPoint
class BookDetailFragment : Fragment() {
private var queryJob: Job? = null
private val viewModel: BookDetailViewModel by viewModels()
override fun onResume() {
super.onResume()
load()
}
private fun load() {
queryJob?.cancel()
queryJob = lifecycleScope.launch() {
val bookName = viewModel.book.value.let { book ->
book?.name
}
binding.toolbar.title = bookName
Log.i(TAG, "value: $bookName")
}
viewModel.book.observe(viewLifecycleOwner) { book ->
binding.toolbar.title = book.name
Log.i(TAG, "observe: ${book.name}")
}
}
}
Then I get a null value in lifecycleScope.launch while observe(viewLifecycleOwner) gets a normal value.
I think it might be because of sync and async issues, but I don't know the exact reason, and how can I use LiveData<T>.value to get the value?
Because I want to use it in BookDetailViewModel.getChapters method.
APPEND: In the best practice example of Android Jetpack (Sunflower), LiveData.value (createShareIntent method of PlantDetailFragment) works fine.
APPEND 2: The getChapters method returns a paged data (Flow<PagingData<Chapter>>). If the book triggers an update, it will cause the page to be refreshed again, confusing the UI logic.
APPEND 3: I found that when I bind BookDetailViewModel with DataBinding, BookDetailViewModel.book works fine and can get book.value.
LiveData.value has extremely limited usefulness because you might be reading it when no value is available yet.
You’re checking the value of your LiveData before it’s source Flow can emit its first value, and the initial value of a LiveData before it emits anything is null.
If you want getChapters to be based on the book LiveData, you should do a transformation on the book LiveData. This creates a LiveData that under the hood observes the other LiveData and uses that to determine what it publishes. In this case, since the return value is another LiveData, switchMap is appropriate. Then if the source book Flow emits another version of the book, the LiveData previously retrieved from getChapters will continue to emit, but it will be emitting values that are up to date with the current book.
fun getChapters(): LiveData<PagingData<Chapter>> =
Transformations.switchMap(book) { book ->
val lastChapterID = book.lastChapterID
val chapters = chapterRepository.getChapters(bookID, lastChapterID)
chapters.asLiveData()
}
Based on your comment, you can call take(1) on the Flow so it will not change the LiveData book value when the repo changes.
val book = bookRepository.getBook(bookID).take(1).asLiveData()
But maybe you want the Book in that LiveData to be able to be changed when the repo changes, and what you want is that the Chapters LiveData retrieved previously does not change? So you need to manually get it again if you want it to be based on the latest Book? If that's the case, you don't want to be using take(1) there which would prevent the book from appearing updated in the book LiveData.
I would personally in that case use a SharedFlow instead of LiveData, so you could avoid retrieving the values twice, but since you're currently working with LiveData, here's a possible solution that doesn't require you to learn those yet. You could use a temporary Flow of your LiveData to easily get its current or first value, and then use that in a liveData builder function in the getChapters() function.
fun getChapters(): LiveData<PagingData<Chapter>> = liveData {
val singleBook = book.asFlow().first()
val lastChapterID = singleBook.lastChapterID
val chapters = chapterRepository.getChapters(bookID, lastChapterID)
emitSource(chapters)
}

Wait with launching coroutine as long as first one is not finished. Synchronization mechanism

I am learning android development and I decided to build a weather app using api that comes from service named open water map. Unfortunately I’ve got the following problem:
In order to get the weather data for wanted city, I first need to perform request to get the geographical coordinates. So what I need to do is to create one request, wait until it is finished, and after that do another request with data that has been received from the first one.
This is how my view model for location looks like:
class LocationViewModel constructor(private val repository: WeatherRepository): ViewModel() {
val location = MutableLiveData<List<GeocodingModel>>()
private val API_KEY = „xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx”
fun refresh() {
CoroutineScope(Dispatchers.IO).launch {
// call fetch location here in coroutine
}
}
private suspend fun fetchLocation(): Response<GeocodingModel> {
return repository.getCoordinates(
"Szczecin",
API_KEY
)
}
}
And this is how my view model for weather looks like”
class WeatherSharedViewModel constructor(private val repository: WeatherRepository): ViewModel() {
private val API_KEY = „xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx”
val weather = MutableLiveData<List<SharedWeatherModel>>()
val weatherLoadError = MutableLiveData<Boolean>()
val loading = MutableLiveData<Boolean>()
fun refresh(lat: String, lon: String) {
loading.value = true
CoroutineScope(Dispatchers.IO).launch {
// call fetchWeather here in coroutine
}
loading.value = false
}
private suspend fun fetchWeather(lat: String, lon: String): Response<SharedWeatherModel> {
return repository.getWeather(
lat,
lon,
"minutely,hourly,alerts",
"metric",
API_KEY
)
}
}
I am using both view models in a fragment in such way:
override fun onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState)
val weatherService = WeatherApi.getInstance()
val repository = WeatherRepository(weatherService)
locationViewModel = ViewModelProvider(requireActivity(), ViewModelFactory(repository)).get(LocationViewModel::class.java)
weatherViewModel = ViewModelProvider(requireActivity(), ViewModelFactory(repository)).get(WeatherSharedViewModel::class.java)
locationViewModel.refresh()
Log.d(TAG, "lat: ${locationViewModel.location.value?.get(0)?.get(0)?.lat.toString()}, lon: ${locationViewModel.location.value?.get(0)?.get(0)?.lon.toString()}")
weatherViewModel.refresh(
locationViewModel.location.value?.get(0)?.get(0)?.lat.toString(),
locationViewModel.location.value?.get(0)?.get(0)?.lon.toString()
)
val weatherList = view?.findViewById<RecyclerView>(R.id.currentWeatherList)
weatherList?.apply {
layoutManager = LinearLayoutManager(context)
adapter = currentWeatherAdapter
}
val cityList = view?.findViewById<RecyclerView>(R.id.currentCityList)
cityList?.apply {
layoutManager = LinearLayoutManager(context)
adapter = currentLocationAdapter
}
observerLocationViewModel()
observeWeatherViewModel()
}
So on a startup both models are refreshed, which means that requests are made. I was trying to somehow synchronize those calls but my last attempt ended that data passed to the refresh method of weather view model was null. So problem is that both coroutine are launched one after another, first one is not waiting for second.
The main question: is there any synchronisation mechanism in coroutines? That I can launch one coroutine and wait with launching second one as long as first is not finished?
You are violating the "Single Responsibilty Principle" you need to learn how to write CLEAN code. that is why you are running into such problems. A member of stackoverflow has explained it in depth: single responsibility
A few tips:
Your general design is somewhat convoluted because you are trying to update LiveData with coroutines, but one LiveData's exposed data is something determined by the other LiveData. This is theoretically OK if you need to be able to access the city even after you already have the weather for that city, but since you've split this behavior between two ViewModels, you end up having to manage that interaction externally with your Fragment, which is very messy. You cannot control it from a single coroutine unless you use the fragment's lifecycle scope, but then the fetch tasks restart if the screen rotates before they're done. So I would use a single ViewModel for this.
In a ViewModel, you should use viewModelScope for your coroutines instead of creating an ad hoc CoroutineScope that you never cancel. viewModelScope will automatically cancel your coroutines when the ViewModel goes out of scope.
Coroutines make it extremely easy to sequentially do background work. You just need to call suspend functions in sequence within a single coroutine. But to do that, once again, you really need a single ViewModel.
It's convoluted to have separate LiveDatas for the loading and error states. If you use a sealed class wrapper, it will be much simpler for the Fragment to treat the three possible states (loading, error, have data).
Putting this together gives the following. I don't really know what your repo is doing and how you convert Response<GeocodingModel> to List<GeocodingModel> (or why), so I am just using a placeholder function for that. Same for the weather.
sealed class WeatherState {
object Loading: WeatherState()
object Error: WetaherState()
data class LoadedData(val data: List<SharedWeatherModel>)
}
class WeatherViewModel constructor(private val repository: WeatherRepository): ViewModel() {
val location = MutableLiveData<List<GeocodingModel>>()
private val API_KEY = „xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx”
val weather = MutableLiveData<LoadedData>().apply {
value = WeatherState.Loading
}
fun refreshLocation() = viewModelScope.launch {
weather.value = WeatherState.Loading
val locationResponse = fetchLocation() //Response<GeocodingModel>
val locationList = unwrapLocation(location) //List<GeocodingModel>
location.value = locationList
val latitude = locationList.get(0).get(0).lat.toString()
val longitude = locationList.get(0).get(0).lon.toString()
try {
val weatherResponse = fetchWeather(latitude, longitude) //Response<SharedWeatherModel>
val weatherList = unwrapWeather(weatherResponse) //List<SharedWeatherModel>
weather.value = WeatherState.LoadedData(weatherList)
} catch (e: Exception) {
weather.value = WeatherState.Error
}
}
private suspend fun fetchLocation(): Response<GeocodingModel> {
return repository.getCoordinates(
"Szczecin",
API_KEY
)
}
private suspend fun fetchWeather(lat: String, lon: String): Response<SharedWeatherModel> {
return repository.getWeather(
lat,
lon,
"minutely,hourly,alerts",
"metric",
API_KEY
)
}
}
And in your Fragment you can observe either LiveData. The weather live data will always have one of the three states, so you have only one place where you can use a when statement to handle the three possible ways your UI should look.
Without referring to your actual code only to the question itself:
By default code inside coroutines is sequential.
scope.launch(Dispatcher.IO) {
val coordinates = repository.getCoordinates(place)
val forecast = repository.getForecast(coordinates)
}
Both getCoordinates(place) and getForecast(coordinates) are suspend functions since they're making network requests and waiting for the result.
getForecast(coordinates) won't execute until getCoordinates(place) is done and returned the coordinates.

Kotlin Flow in ViewModel doesn't emit data from Room table sometimes

I'm trying to combine three different flows in my ViewModel to make a list of items that will then be displayed on a RecyclerView in a fragment. I found out that when navigating to the screen, when there is no data in the table yet, the flow for testData1 doesn't emit the data in the table. Happens probably 1/5 of the time. I assume it's a timing issue because it only happens so often, but I don't quite understand why it happens. Also, this only happens when I'm combining flows so maybe I can only have so many flows in one ViewModel?
I added some code to check to see if the data was in the table during setListData() and it's definitely there. I can also see the emit happening but, there is no data coming from room. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!
Versions I'm using:
Kotlin: 1.4.20-RC
Room: 2.3.0-alpha03
Here is my ViewModel
class DemoViewModel #Inject constructor(
demoService: DemoService,
private val demoRepository: DemoRepository
) : ViewModel() {
private val _testData1 = demoRepository.getData1AsFlow()
private val _testData2 = demoRepository.getData2AsFlow()
private val _testData3 = demoRepository.getData3AsFlow()
override val mainList = combine(_testData1, _testData2, _testData3) { testData1, testData2, testData3 ->
setListData(testData1, testData2, testData3)
}.flowOn(Dispatchers.Default)
.asLiveData()
init {
viewModelScope.launch(Dispatchers.IO) {
demoService.getData()
}
}
private suspend fun setListData(testData1: List<DemoData1>, testData2: List<DemoData2>, testData3: List<DemoData3>): List<CombinedData> {
// package the three data elements up to one list of rows
...
}
}
And here is my Repository/DAO layer (repeats for each type of data)
#Query("SELECT * FROM demo_data_1_table")
abstract fun getData1AsFlow() : Flow<List<DemoData1>>
I was able to get around this issue by removing flowOn in the combine function. After removing that call, I no longer had the issue.
I still wanted to run the setListData function on the default dispatcher, so I just changed the context in the setListData instead.
class DemoViewModel #Inject constructor(
demoService: DemoService,
private val demoRepository: DemoRepository
) : ViewModel() {
private val _testData1 = demoRepository.getData1AsFlow()
private val _testData2 = demoRepository.getData2AsFlow()
private val _testData3 = demoRepository.getData3AsFlow()
override val mainList = combine(_testData1, _testData2, _testData3) { testData1, testData2, testData3 ->
setListData(testData1, testData2, testData3)
}.asLiveData()
init {
viewModelScope.launch(Dispatchers.IO) {
demoService.getData()
}
}
private suspend fun setListData(testData1: List<DemoData1>, testData2: List<DemoData2>, testData3: List<DemoData3>): List<CombinedData> = withContext(Dispatchers.Default) {
// package the three data elements up to one list of rows
...
}
}

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