Develop Reference

How should I go about implementing MVVM architecture pattern in my project?

I know this is a very documented topic, but I couldn't find a way to implement it in my project, even after spending hours trying to figure it out.
My root problem is that I have a RecyclerView with an Adapter whose content isn't updating as I'd like. I'm a beginner in Android, so I didn't implement any MVVM or such architecture, and my project only contains a repository, fetching data from Firebase Database, and passing it to a list of ShowModel, a copy of said list being used in my Adapter to display my shows (In order to filter/sort them without modifying the list with all shows).
However, when adding a show to the database from another Activity, my Adapter isn't displaying the newly added show (as detailed here)
I was told to use LiveData and ViewModel, but even though I started understanding how it works after spending time researching it, I don't fully get how I should use it in order to implement it in my project.
Currently I have the following classes:
The Adapter:
class ShowAdapter(private val context: MainActivity, private val layoutId: Int, private val textNoResult: TextView?) : RecyclerView.Adapter<ShowAdapter.ViewHolder>(), Filterable {
var displayList = ArrayList(showList)
class ViewHolder(view : View) : RecyclerView.ViewHolder(view){
val showName: TextView = view.findViewById(R.id.show_name)
val showMenuIcon: ImageView = view.findViewById(R.id.menu_icon)
}
#SuppressLint("NewApi")
override fun onCreateViewHolder(parent: ViewGroup, viewType: Int): ViewHolder {
val view = LayoutInflater.from(parent.context).inflate(layoutId, parent, false)
return ViewHolder(view)
}
#SuppressLint("NewApi", "WeekBasedYear")
override fun onBindViewHolder(holder: ViewHolder, position: Int) {
val currentShow = displayList[position]
val index = holder.adapterPosition
holder.showName.text = currentShow.name
holder.itemView.setOnClickListener{ // Display show content
val intent = Intent(context, DetailsActivity::class.java)
intent.putExtra("position", index)
startActivity(context, intent, null)
}
holder.showMenuIcon.setOnClickListener{
val popupMenu = PopupMenu(context, it)
popupMenu.menuInflater.inflate(R.menu.show_management_menu, popupMenu.menu)
popupMenu.show()
popupMenu.setOnMenuItemClickListener {
when(it.itemId){
R.id.edit -> { // Edit show
val intent = Intent(context, AddShowActivity::class.java)
intent.putExtra("position", index)
startActivity(context, intent, null)
return#setOnMenuItemClickListener true
}
R.id.delete -> { // Delete show
val repo = ShowRepository()
repo.deleteShow(currentShow)
displayList.remove(currentShow)
notifyItemRemoved(index)
return#setOnMenuItemClickListener true
}
else -> false
}
}
}
}
override fun getItemCount(): Int = displayList.size
// Sorting/Filtering methods
}
The fragment displaying the adapter:
class HomeFragment : Fragment() {
private lateinit var context: MainActivity
private lateinit var verticalRecyclerView: RecyclerView
private lateinit var buttonAddShow: Button
private lateinit var showsAdapter: ShowAdapter
override fun onCreateView(inflater: LayoutInflater, container: ViewGroup?, savedInstanceState: Bundle?): View? {
val view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_home, container, false)
context = getContext() as MainActivity
buttonAddShow = view.findViewById(R.id.home_button_add_show)
buttonAddShow.setOnClickListener{ // Starts activity to add a show
startActivity(Intent(context, AddShowActivity::class.java))
}
verticalRecyclerView = view.findViewById(R.id.home_recycler_view)
showsAdapter = ShowAdapter(context, R.layout.item_show, null)
verticalRecyclerView.adapter = showsAdapter
return view
}
}
The MainActivity:
class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
loadFragment(HomeFragment())
}
private fun loadFragment(fragment: Fragment){
val repo = ShowRepository()
if(showsListener != null) databaseRef.removeEventListener(showsListener!!)
repo.updateData{
val transaction = supportFragmentManager.beginTransaction()
transaction.replace(R.id.fragment_container, fragment)
transaction.addToBackStack(null)
if(supportFragmentManager.isStateSaved)transaction.commitAllowingStateLoss()
else transaction.commit()
}
}
}
The repository:
class ShowRepository {
object Singleton{
val databaseRef = FirebaseDatabase.getInstance().getReference("shows")
val showList = arrayListOf<ShowModel>()
var showsListener: ValueEventListener? = null
}
fun updateData(callback: () -> Unit){
showsListener = databaseRef.addValueEventListener(object : ValueEventListener {
override fun onDataChange(snapshot: DataSnapshot) {
showList.clear()
for(ds in snapshot.children){
val show = ds.getValue(ShowModel::class.java)
if(show != null) showList.add(show)
}
callback()
}
override fun onCancelled(p0: DatabaseError) { }
})
}
fun insertShow(show: ShowModel){
databaseRef.child(show.id).setValue(show)
}
fun deleteShow(show: ShowModel){
databaseRef.child(show.id).removeValue()
}
}
From what I understand of LiveData and ViewModel, what I should do is creating a ShowViewModel containing a MutableLiveData<List<ShowModel>> containing the shows, and then observe it in my HomeFragment and update the adapter depending on the changes happening. However, everytime I start something to implement it, I encounter a situation where I'm lost and don't know what I should do, which leads me back to square one once again. I've been trying this for more than a week without progressing even a little bit, and that's why I'm here, hoping for some insight.
Sorry for the silly question and the absurd amount of informations, and hoping someone will be able to help me understand what I do wrong/should do.

(this ended up longer than I meant it to be - hope it's not too much! There's a lot to learn, but you don't have to make it super complicated at first)
Broadly, working backwards, it should go like this:
Adapter
displays whatever the Fragment tells it to (some kind of setData function that updates its internal list and refreshes)
passes events to the Fragment (deleteItem(item), showDetails(item) etc.) - don't have the Adapter doing things like starting Activites, that's not its responsibility
Fragment
grabs a reference to any ViewModels (only certain components like Fragments and Activities can actually "own" them)
observes any LiveData (or collects Flows if you're doing it that way) on the VM, and updates stuff in the UI in response
e.g. model.shows.observe(viewLifecycleOwner) { shows -> adapter.setData(shows) }
handles UI events and calls methods on the VM in response, e.g. click listeners, events from the Adapter
ViewModel
acts as a go-between for the UI (the Fragment) and the data layer (the repository)
exposes methods for handling events like deleting items, interacts with the data layer as required (e.g. calling the appropriate delete function)
exposes data state for the UI to observe, so it can react to changes/updates (e.g. a LiveData containing the current list of shows that the data layer has provided)
That's the basic setup - the VM exposes data which the UI layer observes and reacts to, by displaying it. The UI layer also produces events (usually down to user interaction) which are passed to the VM. You can read more about this general approach in this guide about app architecture - it's worth reading because not only is it recommended as a way to build apps, a lot of the components you use in modern Android are designed with this kind of approach in mind (like the reactive model of wiring stuff up).
You could handle the Adapter events like this:
// in your Adapter
var itemDeletedListener: ((Item) -> Unit)? = null
// when the delete event happens for an item
itemDeletedListener?.invoke(item)
// in your Fragment
adapter.itemDeletedListener = { viewModel.deleteItem(it) }
which is easier than implementing an interface, and lets you wire up your Adapter similar to doing setOnClickListener on a button. Notice we're passing the actual Item object here instead of a list index - generally this is easier to work with, you don't need to maintain multiple copies of a list just so you can look up an index given to you by something else. Passing a unique ID can make sense though, especially if you're working with a database! But usually the object itself is more useful and consistent
The data layer is the tricky bit - the ViewModel needs to communicate with that to get the current state. Say you delete an item - you then need to get the current, updated list of shows. You have three approaches:
Call the delete function, immediately after fetch the current data, and set it on the appropriate LiveData
This can work, but it's not very reactive - you're doing one action, then immediately doing another because you know your data is stale. It would be better if the new data just arrived automatically and you could react to that by pushing it out. The other issue is that calling the delete function might not have an immediate effect - if you fetch the current data, nothing might have changed yet. It's better if the data layer is responsible for announcing updates.
This is the simplest approach though, and probably a good start! You could run this task in a coroutine (viewModelScope.launch { // delete and fetch and update LiveData }) so any slowness doesn't block the current thread.
Have the data layer's functions return the current, updated data that results
Similar to above, you're just sort of pushing the fetching into the data layer. This requires all those functions to be written to return the current state, which could take a while! And depending on what data you want, this might be impossible - if you have an active query on some data, how does the function know what specific data to return?
Make the ViewModel observe the data it wants, so when the data layer updates, you get the results automatically
This is the recommended reactive approach - again it's that two-way idea. The VM calling a function on the data layer is completely separate from the VM receiving new data. One thing just happens as a natural consequence of the other, they don't need to be tied together. You just need to wire them up right!
How do you actually do that though? If you're working with something like Room, that's already baked in. Queries can return async data providers like LiveData or Flows - your VM just needs to observe those and expose the results, or just expose them directly. That way, when a table is updated, any queries (like the current shows) push a new value, and the observers receive it and do whatever they need to do, like telling the Adapter to display the data. It all Just Works once it's wired up.
Since you have your own repo, you need to expose your own data sources. You could have a currentShows LiveData or (probably preferably) the flow equivalent, StateFlow. When the repo initialises, and when any data is changed, it updates that currentShows data. Anything observing that (e.g. the VM, the Fragment through a LiveData/Flow that the VM exposes) will automatically get the new values. So broadly:
// Repo
// this setup is exactly the same as your typical LiveData, except you need an initial value
private val _currentShows = MutableStateFlow<List<Show>>(emptyList()) // or whatever default
val currentShows: StateFlow<List<Show>> = _currentShows
fun deleteItem(item: Item) {
// do the deletion
// get the updated show list
_currentShows.value = updatedShowList
}
// ViewModel
// one way of doing things - you have a lot of options! This literally just exposes
// the state from the data layer, and turns it into a LiveData (if you want that)
val currentShows = repo.currentShows.asLiveData()
// Fragment
// wire things up so you handle new data as it arrives
viewModel.currentShows.observe(viewLifecycleOwner) { shows -> adapter.setData(shows) }
That's basically it. I've skimmed over a lot because honestly, there's a lot to learn with this - especially about Flows and coroutines if you're not already familiar with those. But hopefully that gives you an overview of the general idea, and don't be afraid to take shortcuts (like just updating your data in the ViewModel by setting its LiveData values) while you're learning and getting the hang of it. Definitely give that app architecture guide a read, and also the guides for ViewModels and LiveData. It'll start to click when you get the general idea!

ListAdapter Diff does not dispatch updates on same list instance, but neither on different list from LiveData

it is a known issue that ListAdapter (actually the AsyncListDiffer from its implementation) does not update the list if the new list only has modified items but has the same instance. The updates do not work on new instance list either if you use the same objects inside.
For all of this to work, you have to create a hard copy of the entire list and objects inside.
Easiest way to achieve this:
items.toMutableList().map { it.copy() }
But I am facing a rather weird issue. I have a parse function in my ViewModel that finally posts the items.toMutableList().map { it.copy() } to the LiveData and gets observes in the fragment. Even with the hard copy, DiffUtil does not work. If I move the hard copy inside the fragment, then it works.
To get this easier, if I do this:
IN VIEW MODEL:
[ ... ] parse stuff here
items.toMutableList().map { it.copy() }
restaurants.postValue(items)
IN FRAGMENT:
restaurants.observe(viewLifecycleOwner, Observer { items ->
adapter.submitList(items)
... then, it doesn't work. But if I do this:
IN VIEW MODEL:
[ ... ] parse stuff here
restaurants.postValue(items)
IN FRAGMENT:
restaurants.observe(viewLifecycleOwner, Observer { items ->
adapter.submitList(items.toMutableList().map { it.copy() })
... then it works.
Can anybody explain why this doesn't work?
In the mean time, I have opened an issue on the Google Issue Tracker because maybe they will fix the AsyncListDiffer not updating same instance lists or items. It defeats the purpose of the new adapter. The AsyncListDiffer SHOULD ALWAYS accept same instance lists or items, and fully update using the diff logic that the user customises in the adapter.

I made a quick sample using DiffUtil.Callback and ListAdapter<T, K> (so I called submitList(...) on the adapter), and had no issues.
Then I modified the adapter to be a normal RecyclerView.Adapter and constructed an AsyncDiffUtil inside of it (using the same DiffUtil.Callback from above).
The architecture is:
Activity -> Fragment (contains RecyclerView).
Adapter
ViewModel
"Fake Repository" that simply holds a val source: MutableList<Thing> = mutableListOf()
Model
I've created a Thing object: data class Thing(val name: String = "", val age: Int = 0).
For readability I added typealias Things = List<Thing> (less typing). ;)
Repository
It's fake in the sense that items are created like:
private fun makeThings(total: Int = 20): List<Thing> {
val things: MutableList<Thing> = mutableListOf()
for (i in 1..total) {
things.add(Thing("Name: $i", age = i + 18))
}
return things
}
But the "source" is a mutableList of (the typealias).
The other thing the repo can do is "simulate" a modification on a random item. I simply create a new data class instance, since it's obviously all immutable data types (as they should be). Remember this is just simulating a real change that may have come from an API or DB.
fun modifyItemAt(pos: Int = 0) {
if (source.isEmpty() || source.size <= pos) return
val thing = source[pos]
val newAge = thing.age + 1
val newThing = Thing("Name: $newAge", newAge)
source.removeAt(pos)
source.add(pos, newThing)
}
ViewModel
Nothing fancy here, it talks and holds the reference to the ThingsRepository, and exposes a LiveData:
private val _state = MutableLiveData<ThingsState>(ThingsState.Empty)
val state: LiveData<ThingsState> = _state
And the "state" is:
sealed class ThingsState {
object Empty : ThingsState()
object Loading : ThingsState()
data class Loaded(val things: Things) : ThingsState()
}
The viewModel has two public methods (Aside from the val state):
fun fetchData() {
viewModelScope.launch(Dispatchers.IO) {
_state.postValue(ThingsState.Loaded(repository.fetchAllTheThings()))
}
}
fun modifyData(atPosition: Int) {
repository.modifyItemAt(atPosition)
fetchData()
}
Nothing special, just a way to modify a random item by position (remember this is just a quick hack to test it).
So FetchData, launches the async code in IO to "fetch" (in reality, if the list is there, the cached list is returned, only the 1st time the data is "made" in the repo).
Modify data is simpler, calls modify on the repo and fetch data to post the new value.
Adapter
Lots of boilerplate... but as discussed, it's just an Adapter:
class ThingAdapter(private val itemClickCallback: ThingClickCallback) :
RecyclerView.Adapter<RecyclerView.ViewHolder>() {
The ThingClickCallback is just:
interface ThingClickCallback {
fun onThingClicked(atPosition: Int)
}
This Adapter now has an AsyncDiffer...
private val differ = AsyncListDiffer(this, DiffUtilCallback())
this in this context is the actual adapter (needed by the differ) and DiffUtilCallback is just a DiffUtil.Callback implementation:
internal class DiffUtilCallback : DiffUtil.ItemCallback<Thing>() {
override fun areItemsTheSame(oldItem: Thing, newItem: Thing): Boolean {
return oldItem.name == newItem.name
}
override fun areContentsTheSame(oldItem: Thing, newItem: Thing): Boolean {
return oldItem.age == newItem.age && oldItem.name == oldItem.name
}
nothing special here.
The only special methods in the adapter (aside from onCreateViewHolder and onBindViewHolder) are these:
fun submitList(list: Things) {
differ.submitList(list)
}
override fun getItemCount(): Int = differ.currentList.size
private fun getItem(position: Int) = differ.currentList[position]
So we ask the differ to do these for us and expose the public method submitList to emulate a listAdapter#submitList(...), except we delegate to the differ.
Because you may be wondering, here's the ViewHolder:
internal class ViewHolder(itemView: View, private val callback: ThingClickCallback) :
RecyclerView.ViewHolder(itemView) {
private val title: TextView = itemView.findViewById(R.id.thingName)
private val age: TextView = itemView.findViewById(R.id.thingAge)
fun bind(data: Thing) {
title.text = data.name
age.text = data.age.toString()
itemView.setOnClickListener { callback.onThingClicked(adapterPosition) }
}
}
Don't be too harsh, I know i passed the click listener directly, I only had about 1 hour to do all this, but nothing special, the layout it's just two text views (age and name) and we set the whole row clickable to pass the position to the callback. Nothing special here either.
Last but not least, the Fragment.
Fragment
class ThingListFragment : Fragment() {
private lateinit var viewModel: ThingsViewModel
private var binding: ThingsListFragmentBinding? = null
private val adapter = ThingAdapter(object : ThingClickCallback {
override fun onThingClicked(atPosition: Int) {
viewModel.modifyData(atPosition)
}
})
...
It has 3 member variables. The ViewModel, the Binding (I used ViewBinding why not it's just 1 liner in gradle), and the Adapter (which takes the Click listener in the ctor for convenience).
In this impl., I simply call the viewmodel with "modify item at position (X)" where X = the position of the item clicked in the adapter. (I know this could be better abstracted but this is irrelevant here).
there's only two other implemented methods in this fragment...
onDestroy:
override fun onDestroy() {
super.onDestroy()
binding = null
}
(I wonder if Google will ever accept their mistake with Fragment's lifecycle that we still have to care for this).
Anyway, the other is unsurprisingly, onCreateView.
override fun onCreateView(
inflater: LayoutInflater,
container: ViewGroup?,
savedInstanceState: Bundle?
): View? {
val root = inflater.inflate(R.layout.things_list_fragment, container, false)
binding = ThingsListFragmentBinding.bind(root)
viewModel = ViewModelProvider(this).get(ThingsViewModel::class.java)
viewModel.state.observe(viewLifecycleOwner) { state ->
when (state) {
is ThingsState.Empty -> adapter.submitList(emptyList())
is ThingsState.Loaded -> adapter.submitList(state.things)
is ThingsState.Loading -> doNothing // Show Loading? :)
}
}
binding?.thingsRecyclerView?.adapter = adapter
viewModel.fetchData()
return root
}
Bind the thing (root/binding), get the viewModel, observe the "state", set the adapter in the recyclerView, and call the viewModel to start fetching data.
That's all.
How does it work then?
The app starts, the fragment is created, subscribes to the VM state LiveData, and triggers the Fetch of data.
The ViewModel calls the repo, which is empty (new), so makeItems is called the list now has items and cached in the repo's "source" list. The viewModel receives this list asynchronously (in a coroutine) and posts the LiveData state.
The fragment receives the state and posts (submit) to the Adapter to finally show something.
When you "click" on an Item, ViewHolder (which has a click listener) triggers the "call back" towards the fragment which receives a position, this is then passed onto the Viewmodel and here the data is mutated in the Repo, which again, pushes the same list, but with a different reference on the clicked item that was modified. This causes the ViewModel to push a new LIveData state with the same list reference as before, towards the fragment, which -again- receives this, and does adapter.submitList(...).
The Adapter asynchronously calculates this and the UI updates.
It works, I can put all this in GitHub if you want to have fun, but my point is, while the concerns about the AsyncDiffer are valid (and may be or been true), this doesn't seem to be my (super limited) experience.
Are you using this differently?
When I tap on any row, the change is propagated from the Repository
UPDATE: forgot to include the doNothing function:
val doNothing: Unit
get() = Unit
I've used this for a while, I normally use it because it reads better than XXX -> {} to me. :)

While doing
items.toMutableList().map { it.copy() }
restaurants.postValue(items)
you are creating a new list but items remains the same. You have to store that new list into a variable or passing that operation directly as a param to postItem.

Android LiveData: How to do an ArrayList<LiveData<RetrofitObject>>?

I am creating an app with MVVM architecture and I ran into an issue of getting a list of LiveData to show in the View.
In my ViewModel I have a getAll() function that retrieves a list of strings from the database using Room. From there, I get the strings and call my Retrofit function to send each string individually to a web-server that returns an object. Here is where my issue occurs.
From the MVVM tutorials I see online, they usually have the LiveData> style but in this since I am getting each object individually, it becomes List> but I don't think this is the correct way of doing it because in my View I would need to do a ForEach loop to observe each LiveData object in the list.
I have tried other work arounds but it doesn't seem to work. Is there a better way of doing this?
DAO
#Query("SELECT * FROM table")
fun getAll(): LiveData<List<String>>
Repository
fun getAll(): LiveData<List<String>> {
return dao.getAll()
}
fun getRetrofitObject(s: String): LiveData<RetrofitObject> {
api = jsonApi.getRetrofitObjectInfo(s, API_KEY)
val retrofitObject: MutableLiveData<RetrofitObject> = MutableLiveData()
api.enqueue(object : Callback<RetrofitObject> {
override fun onFailure(call: Call<RetrofitObject>?, t: Throwable?) {
Log.d("TEST", "Code: " + t.toString())
}
override fun onResponse(call: Call<RetrofitObject>?, response: Response<RetrofitObject>?) {
if (response!!.isSuccessful) {
retrofitObject.value = response.body()
}
}
})
return retrofitObject
}
MainActivityViewModel (ViewModel)
var objectList ArrayList<LiveData<retrofitObject>> = ArrayList()
// This is getting objects using Retrofit
fun getRetrofitObject(s: String): LiveData<retrofitObject> {
return repo.getRetrofitObject(s)
}
// This is getting all the strings from the internal database
fun getAll(): ArrayList<LiveData<retroFitObject>> {
repo.getAll().value?.forEach {it ->
objectList.add(getRetrofitObject(it)) //How else would I be able to do this?
}
return objectList
}
MainActivity (View)
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
mainActivityViewModel.getAll().forEach {
it.observe(this, Observer {it ->
mainActivityViewModel.objectList.add(it) //Here is part of the issue since I don't want to use a forloop in the View
})
}
adapter.objectList = mainActivityViewModel.objectList
recyclerView.adapter = adapter
}
Thanks, let me know if there is anything else needed or confusion!

By looking at the above code you are trying to fetch a list of item for each table row from server and and trying to update the result to your recycler view. Your logic is little confusing..
So on your activity .. first init your adapter and recyclerview
Then call your viewmodel function to get all values inside table and make a loop to call your network thread fuction in background and store the values in a live data object.
Just observe this livedata in your activity/fragment and just pass the list to adapter and notify it.by doing this,whenever your livedata got a change your recyclerview also reflect the items
The problem with your code is, you are called a retrofit network function with enque option and its a background thread process.so, code wont wait for the network completion. And it will return the retrofitObject data.but it has not got the data yet.so this will make error.

There might be other methods exist I don't know about them.
But you can deal with situation using Transformations for more information please look at documentation page.
Transformations.switchMap(LiveData trigger, Function> func)
You don't have to put the live data observer inside for loop.

Android - LiveData doesn't get updated

In my fragment I observe dbQuestionsList field:
viewModel.dbQuestionsList.observe(viewLifecycleOwner, Observer { list ->
Log.i("a", "dbQuestionsList inside fragment = $list ")
})
In my fragment I have few buttons and depending on which one is pressed I call method on viewModel passing the string which was set as tag to the button.
viewModel.onFilterChanged(button.tag as String)
My ViewMode:
lateinit var dbQuestionsList: LiveData<List<DatabaseQuestion>>
init{
onFilterChanged("")
}
private fun onFilterChanged(filter: String) {
dbQuestionsList = mRepository.getDbQuestionsForCategory(filter)
}
Repository method:
fun getDbQuestionsForCategory(categoryName: String): LiveData<List<DatabaseQuestion>> {
return database.dbQuestionsDao().getDbQuestionsByCategory(categoryName)
}
Dao method:
#Query("SELECT * FROM db_questions_database WHERE category = :categoryId")
fun getDbQuestionsByCategory(categoryId: String): LiveData<List<DatabaseQuestion>>
When I press button, viewModel method is called with argument which should be used to update LiveData by searching through room database, but NOTHING gets updated for no reason. Database is not empty so there is no reason to return null and not trigger observer in main Fragment.
But when I do this in my viewModel:
lateinit var dbQuestionsList: LiveData<List<DatabaseQuestion>>
init{
onFilterChanged("travel")
}
where I hardcode parameter, the room will return list and observer in fragment will be triggered, so it works like that but doesn't work when arguments is passed when button is pressed, Please explain because this thing doesn't make sense. I tried with mutable live data, with using .setValue and .postValue but NOTHING works.

The reason you aren't getting updates is because onFilterChanged() is reassigning dbQuestionsList, not updating it. So the variable you observe initially is never actually modified.
I would probably implement this using a Transformation:
val filter = MutableLiveData<String>().apply { value = "" }
val dbQuestionsList = Transformations.switchMap(filter) {
mRepository.getDbQuestionsForCategory(filter)
}
Then in your fragment just set the filter when your button is clicked:
viewModel.filter.value = button.tag as String

Try this:
dbQuestionsList.value = mRepository.getDbQuestionsForCategory(filter)
or
dbQuestionsList.postValue(mRepository.getDbQuestionsForCategory(filter))

How to create LiveData which emits a single event and notifies only last subscribed observer?

I created live data which emits a single event as in this example.
My question is next:
How to notify only last subscribed observer when the value in the LiveData changes?
What comes to my mind is to store observers in the linked list in SingleLiveData class and then to call super.observe only if a passed observer is the same as the last element of the list.
I'm not sure if this is the best approach.
I want to use this mechanism to propagate FAB click events from activity to the fragments which are shown inside of the ViewPager. Fragments are dynamically added to view pager adapter, so let's say that we know the order of the fragments.

In the end, I found a workaround for this problem. I had to move away from the live data that emits a single event since it couldn't behave the way I needed it to behave.
Instead of this, I used simple mutable live data which emits an event object which wraps a data as in the last paragraph of this article by Jose Alcérreca.
I'm showing fragments in a view pager so I have only one visible fragment at the time.
So my view model looks like this:
class ActionViewModel : ViewModel() {
private val onCreateLiveData: MutableLiveData<Event<String>> = MutableLiveData()
fun observeOnCreateEvent(): LiveData<Event<String>> = onCreateLiveData
fun onCreateCollectionClick(message: String) {
this.onCreateLiveData.value = Event(message)
}
}
Event wrapper class implementation looks like this:
/*Used as a wrapper for data that is exposed via a LiveData that represents an
event.*/
open class Event<out T>(private val content: T) {
var hasBeenHandled = false
private set // Allow external read but not write
/**
* Returns the content and prevents its use again.
*/
fun getContentIfNotHandled(): T? {
return if (hasBeenHandled) {
null
} else {
hasBeenHandled = true
content
}
}
/**
* Returns the content, even if it's already been handled.
*/
fun peekContent(): T = content
}
In fragments now we can observe events like this:
override fun onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState)
actionViewModel = ViewModelProviders.of(requireActivity()).get(ActionViewModel::class.java)
actionViewModel.observeOnCreateEvent()
.observe(this, Observer {
it?.takeIf { userVisibleHint }?.getContentIfNotHandled()?.let {
//DO what ever is needed
}
})
}
Fragment userVisibleHint property will return true if the fragment is currently visible to the user. Since we are only showing one fragment at the time this works for us. This means that the fragment will only access the event data if it is visible.
Also, implementation of the Event wrapper allows only one read of the value, so that every next time Observer gets this event, its value will be null and we'll ignore it.
Conclusion: This way we are simulating a single event live data which notifies only last subscribed observer.

If you're using Kotlin, you can replace LiveData with Flow. StateFlow can be used to replace regular LiveData, while SharedFlow can be used for stateless events. It will also provide you null safety and all the operators and configurations that come with Flow.
The migration is described here among other places. Here's a basic example:
ViewModel:
interface MyViewModel {
val myData: StateFlow<MyData>
val myEvents: SharedFlow<MyEvent>
}
class MyViewModelImpl: MyViewModel {
override val myData = MutableStateFlow(MyData())
override val myEvents = MutableSharedFlow<MyEvent>(replay = 0, extraBufferCapacity = 1, BufferOverflow.DROP_OLDEST)
/*
* Do stuff
*/
}
Activity:
lifecycleScope.launch {
myData.collect {
// handle stateful data
}
}
lifecycleScope.launch {
myEvents.collect {
// handle stateless events
}
}
Note that lifecycleScope requires the appropriate ktx dependency.
Herer's some more reading about Flow in Android.

I found solution for me in LD extension:
fun <T> LiveData<T>.observeAsEvent(owner: LifecycleOwner, observer: Observer<in T>) {
var previousKey: Any? = value?: NULL
observe(owner) { value ->
if (previousKey == NULL || previousKey != value) {
previousKey = value
observer.onChanged(value)
}
}
}
private const val NULL = "NULL"
Usage for this:
viewModel.resultLiveData.observeAsEvent(viewLifecycleOwner) {
...
}

I crafted a solution, feel free to take a look
https://github.com/ueen/LiveEvent

I've created a library to handle the most common cases that we might encounter while working with event-driven data scenarios
https://github.com/javaherisaber/LiveX
It contains the following types of classes:
LiveData
LiveEvent
OneShotLiveEvent
SingleLiveEvent
Multiple observers can register, all of them receive the event based on lifecycle
Multiple observers can register, each one receive the event only once
Only one observer can register and receive the event only once
Multiple observers can register, only the first one receive the event