Develop Reference

Emit Exception in Kotlin Flow Android

I have emit exception inside flow and got below exception.
IllegalStateException: Flow exception transparency is violated:
Previous 'emit' call has thrown exception java.lang.NullPointerException, but then emission attempt of value 'planetbeyond.domain.api.Resource$Error#85b4d28' has been detected.
Emissions from 'catch' blocks are prohibited in order to avoid unspecified behaviour, 'Flow.catch' operator can be used instead.
For a more detailed explanation, please refer to Flow documentation.
at kotlinx.coroutines.flow.internal.SafeCollector.exceptionTransparencyViolated(SafeCollector.kt:140)
at kotlinx.coroutines.flow.internal.SafeCollector.checkContext(SafeCollector.kt:104)
at kotlinx.coroutines.flow.internal.SafeCollector.emit(SafeCollector.kt:83)
at kotlinx.coroutines.flow.internal.SafeCollector.emit(SafeCollector.kt:66)
at planetbeyond.domain.use_cases.OptionSelectedCountUsecase$invoke$1.invokeSuspend(OptionSelectedCountUsecase.kt:20)
OptionSelectedCountUsecase.kt
class OptionSelectedCountUsecase #Inject constructor(
private val repository: Repository
) {
operator fun invoke(questionId: Int): Flow<Resource<List<OptionSelectedCountModel>>> = flow {
emit(Resource.Loading())
try {
val data = repository.getOptionSelectedCount(questionId)
emit(Resource.Success(data))
} catch (e: Exception) {
emit(Resource.Error(e.toString()))// crashed at this line when api don't response anything or some sort of server error
}
}
}
Repository.kt
interface Repository{
suspend fun getOptionSelectedCount(questionId: Int):List<OptionSelectedCountModel>
}
RepositoryImpl.kt
class RepositoryImpl #Inject constructor(
private val apiService: ApiService
) : Repository {
override suspend fun getOptionSelectedCount(questionId: Int): List<OptionSelectedCountModel> {
return apiService.getOptionSelectedCount(questionId).data.map {
it.toModel()
}
}
}
ApiService.kt
interface ApiService {
#GET("get_option_selected_count")
suspend fun getOptionSelectedCount(
#Query("question_id") question_id: Int
): WebResponse<List<OptionSelectedCountDto>>
}
LiveShowQuestionViewModel.kt
#HiltViewModel
class LiveShowQuestionsViewModel #Inject constructor(
private val optionSelectedCountUsecase: OptionSelectedCountUsecase
) : ViewModel() {
fun getOptionSelectedCount(questionId: Int) {
optionSelectedCountUsecase(questionId).onEach {
when (it) {
is Resource.Loading -> {
_optionSelectedCountState.value = OptionSelectedCountState(isLoading = true)
}
is Resource.Error -> {
_optionSelectedCountState.value = OptionSelectedCountState(error = it.message)
}
is Resource.Success -> {
_optionSelectedCountState.value = OptionSelectedCountState(data = it.data)
}
}
}///.catch { } // Why must I have to handle it here
.launchIn(viewModelScope)
}
}
Is it neccessary to handle exception outside flow like commented above. What is the best practice.

The problem is that you wrapped an emit call in try and try to emit in the matching catch block. This means that if the emit call itself throws (which ambiguously could be caused by some downstream problem with the flow) it's being instructing to emit again. This is very ambiguous and fragile behavior.
Instead, you can move your emit call(s) outside the try/catch:
class OptionSelectedCountUsecase #Inject constructor(
private val repository: Repository
) {
operator fun invoke(questionId: Int): Flow<Resource<List<OptionSelectedCountModel>>> = flow {
emit(Resource.Loading())
val result = try {
val data = repository.getOptionSelectedCount(questionId)
Resource.Success(data)
} catch (e: Exception) {
Resource.Error(e.toString())
}
emit(result)
}
}
Somehow, you're causing a NullPointerException in your collector. That's a separate problem to solve.

The root problem is that your
emit(Resource.Success(data))
throws an exception. When you catch that exception you are still in the "emit" block and you are trying to
emit(Resource.Error(e.toString())
So it's like emit inside emit. So yes this is wrong.
But let's get a step backward. Why there is an exception during the first emit? It looks like this data object is not properly filled with data, probably because of the issues that you mentioned (bad response etc), after it reaches the collector there is null pointer exception.
So basic flow should be
try to make the call, and catch http/parsing exception if there is one ( emit failure)
If there was no exception, validate if the object contains proper fields. If data is inconsistent emit Error
If everything is ok emit success
for example:
class OptionSelectedCountUsecase #Inject constructor(
private val repository: Repository
) {
operator fun invoke(questionId: Int): Flow<Resource<List<OptionSelectedCountModel>>> = flow {
emit(Resource.Loading())
try {
val data = repository.getOptionSelectedCount(questionId)
if(validateData(data)){
emit(Resource.Success(data))
}else{
// some data integrity issues, missing fields
emit(Resource.Error("TODO error")
}
} catch (e: HttpException) {
// catch http exception or parsing exception etc
emit(Resource.Error(e.toString()))
}
}
}
This ideally should be split into, to not mess with exception catching of emit:
class OptionSelectedCountUsecase #Inject constructor(
private val repository: Repository
) {
operator fun invoke(questionId: Int): Flow<Resource<List<OptionSelectedCountModel>>> = flow {
emit(Resource.Loading())
emit(getResult(questionId))
}
fun getResult(questionId: Int): Resource<List<OptionSelectedCountModel>>{
try {
val data = repository.getOptionSelectedCount(questionId)
if(validateData(data)){
return Resource.Success(data)
}else{
// some data integrity issues, missing fields
return Resource.Error("TODO error"
}
} catch (e: HttpException) {
// catch http exception or parsing exception etc
return Resource.Error(e.toString())
}
}
}

You should not emit exceptions and errors manually. Otherwise the user of the flow will not know, if exception actually happened, without checking the emitted value for being an error.
You want to provide exception transparency, therefore it is better to process them on collecting the flow.
One of the ways is to use catch operator. To simplify flow collecting we will wrap the catching behavior in a function.
fun <T> Flow<T>.handleErrors(): Flow<T> =
catch { e -> showErrorMessage(e) }
Then, while collecting the flow:
optionSelectedCountUsecase(questionId)
.onEach { ... }
.handleErrors()
.launchIn(viewModelScope)
Note, that if you want to process only the errors from invocation of the use case, you can change the order of operators. The previous order allows you to process errors from onEach block too. Example below will only process errors from use case invocation.
optionSelectedCountUsecase(questionId)
.handleErrors()
.onEach { ... }
.launchIn(viewModelScope)
Read more about exception handling in flows

Problems with Kotlin Result<T> on unit tests

I am working on an android Application and I opted to use Kotlin Result class so as to handle success/failure on my operations. I made the changes to the code, but the tests stop working and I cannot understand why. Here I show you some snippets:
FireStoreClient.kt
suspend fun items(): Result<ItemsResponse>
NetworkDataSource.kt
suspend fun getItems(): List<Item> =
fireStoreClient.items().fold({ it.items.map { item -> item.toDomain() } }, { emptyList() })
NetworkDataSourceTest.kt
#ExperimentalCoroutinesApi
#Test
fun `Check getItems works properly`() = runBlockingTest {
whenever(fireStoreClient.items()).doReturn(success(MOCK_ITEMS_DOCUMENT))
val expectedResult = listOf(
Item(
id = 1,
desc = "Description 1"
),
Item(
id = 2,
desc = "Description 2"
)
)
assertEquals(expectedResult, dataSource.getItems())
}
And this is the exception I am getting right now. Any clue? It appears that the fold() method is not being executed when unit testing.
java.lang.ClassCastException: kotlin.Result cannot be cast to ItemsResponse
at NetworkDataSource.getItems(NetworkDataSource.kt:31)

I've found a different workaround for this result-wrapping issue, for those who don't want to make their own Result type.
This issue appears to happens specifically when using Mockito's .thenReturn on suspend functions. I've found that using .thenAnswer doesn't exhibit the problem.
So instead of writing this in your unit test (changed doReturn to thenReturn here):
whenever(fireStoreClient.items()).thenReturn(success(MOCK_ITEMS_DOCUMENT))
Use:
whenever(fireStoreClient.items()).thenAnswer { success(MOCK_ITEMS_DOCUMENT) }
Edit: I should note that I was still experiencing this issue when running Kotlin 1.5.0.
Edit: On Kotlin 1.5.20 I can use .thenReturn again.

After a deep dive into the problem, finally, I've found a temporary workaround that works in the testing environment. The problem is, somehow the value of the Result object is wrapped by another Result, and we can pull the desired value or exception using reflection.
So, I've created an extension function called mockSafeFold, which implements the fold behavior in normal calls, and acts fine when you are executing unit-tests.
inline fun <R, reified T> Result<T>.mockSafeFold(
onSuccess: (value: T) -> R,
onFailure: (exception: Throwable) -> R
): R = when {
isSuccess -> {
val value = getOrNull()
try {
onSuccess(value as T)
} catch (e: ClassCastException) {
// This block of code is only executed in testing environment, when we are mocking a
// function that returns a `Result` object.
val valueNotNull = value!!
if ((value as Result<*>).isSuccess) {
valueNotNull::class.java.getDeclaredField("value").let {
it.isAccessible = true
it.get(value) as T
}.let(onSuccess)
} else {
valueNotNull::class.java.getDeclaredField("value").let {
it.isAccessible = true
it.get(value)
}.let { failure ->
failure!!::class.java.getDeclaredField("exception").let {
it.isAccessible = true
it.get(failure) as Exception
}
}.let(onFailure)
}
}
}
else -> onFailure(exceptionOrNull() ?: Exception())
}
Then, simply call it instead of fold:
val result: Result = myUseCase(param)
result.mockSafeFold(
onSuccess = { /* do whatever */ },
onFailure = { /* do whatever */ }
)

I had the same issue.
I noticed that my method of injected class which should return Result<List<Any>> returns actually Result<Result<List<Any>>> which causes the ClassCastException. I used the Evaluate Expression option for the result from the method and I got
Success(Success([]))
The app works well but unit tests didn't pass due this problem.
As a temporary solution I built a new simple implementation of Result sealed class with fold() extension function. It should be easy to replace in future to kotlin.Result
Result sealed class:
sealed class Result<T> {
data class Success<T>(val value: T) : Result<T>()
data class Failure<T>(val error: Throwable) : Result<T>()
}
fold() extension function:
inline fun <R, T> Result<T>.fold(
onSuccess: (value: T) -> R,
onFailure: (exception: Throwable) -> R
): R = when (this) {
is Result.Success -> onSuccess(value)
is Result.Failure -> onFailure(error)
}

Android kotlin type inheritance failed

INTRODUCTION:
I created an android project following this example: https://github.com/android/architecture-samples/
I had to add a class that holds the response status(Success/Error) and it's value, in the repository it looks basically like this:
sealed class Result<out R> {
data class Success<out T>(val data: T) : Result<T>()
data class Error(val exception: Exception) : Result<Nothing>()
}
It is meant to be better than classic:
class Result<T> (
val success: Boolean,
val data: T?,
val exception: Exception?
)
Because :
- In this case the Success result definitely has only data and the Error only exception.
- As both Success and Error Message are inheriting from Result, due to Kotlin Smart Casts, the validation looks simpler:
var responce: Result<DataEntity> = dataSource.GetData()
if (responce is Success) {
doSomethingWith(responce.data)
} else if (responce is Error) {
throw responce.exception
}
PROBLEM:
All good, but when i'm trying to asynchronously observe data from a local dataSource (using Room lib):
interface TaskDao {
#Query("SELECT * FROM tasks")
fun observeTasks(): LiveData<List<TaskEntity>>
}
class SqlLocalDataSource(
private val taskDao: TaskDao,
private val ioDispatcher: CoroutineDispatcher = Dispatchers.IO
): LocalDataSource {
override suspend fun observeTasks(): LiveData<Result<List<TaskEntity>>> = withContext(ioDispatcher) {
taskDao.observeTasks().map {
Success(it)
}
}
}
It gives me the following Error: Type inference failed. Expected type mismatch: inferred type is LiveData<Result.Success<List<TaskEntity>>> but LiveData<Result<List<TaskEntity>>> was expected
Which is strange because Success inherits from Result
I TRYED:
I make sure that the types are correct (Result ids not from some other library)
To make the function run on the main thread, but its impossible to call DB from the main thread

It gives me the following Error: Type inference failed. Expected type mismatch: inferred type is LiveData<Result.Success<List<TaskEntity>>> but LiveData<Result<List<TaskEntity>>> was expected
Which is strange because Success inherits from Result
But LiveData<Success<...>> does not inherit from LiveData<Result<...>>. Please read about variance and take into account that LiveData is declared in Java and so can't be covariant.
I don't know why type inference would fail with suspend and work without it, but the problem can be fixed by being more explicit about types:
taskDao.observeTasks().map {
Success(it) as Result<List<TaskEntity>>
}
Or better, to avoid a cast:
fun <T> success(x: T): Result<T> = Success(x)
taskDao.observeTasks().map {
success(it)
}

The Problem was that its not permitted to Use LiveData in a suspend function, after I changed the function to a non suspended the error disappeared :
override fun observeTasks(): LiveData<Result<List<TaskEntity>>> {
return taskDao.observeTasks().map {
Success(it)
}
}
May be somebody can explain why is it?

Making stateful components in Android

I am using MVVM in my app. When you enter a query and click search button, the chain is as follows: Fragment -> ViewModel -> Repository -> API -> Client. The client is where HTTP requests are made. But there is one thing here, the client needs to make a call and get a key from the server at initialization. Therefore, to prevent any call before it this first call completes, I need to be able to observe it from Fragment so that I can disable search button. Since each component in the chain can communicate with adjacent components, all components should have a state.
I am thinking to implement a StatefulComponent class and make all components to extend it:
open class StatefulComponent protected constructor() {
enum class State {
CREATED, LOADING, LOADED, FAILED
}
private val currentState = MutableLiveData(State.CREATED)
fun setState(newState: State) {
currentState.value = newState
}
val state: LiveData<State> = currentState
val isLoaded: Boolean = currentState.value == State.LOADED
val isFailed: Boolean = currentState.value == State.FAILED
val isCompleted: Boolean = isLoaded || isFailed
}
The idea is that each component observers the next one and updates itself accordingly. However, this is not possible for ViewModel since it is already extending ViewModel super class.
How can I implement a solution for this problem?

The most common approach is to use sealed class as your state, so you have any paramaters as you want on each state case.
sealed class MyState {
object Loading : MyState()
data class Loaded(data: Data) : MyState()
data class Failed(message: String) : MyState()
}
On your viewmodel you will have only 1 livedata
class MyViewModel : ViewModel() {
private val _state = MutableLiveData<MyState>()
val state: LiveData<MyState> = _state
fun load() {
_state.postCall(Loading)
repo.loadSomeData(onData = { data ->
_state.postCall(Loaded(data))
}, onError = { error -> _state.postCall(Failed(error.message)) })
}
// coroutines approach
suspend fun loadSuspend() {
_state.postCall(Loading)
try {
_state.postCall(Loaded(repo.loadSomeDataSupend()))
} catch(e: Exception) {
_state.postCall(Failed(e.message))
}
}
}
And on the fragment, just observe the state
class MyFragment : Fragment() {
...
onViewCreated() {
viewModel.state.observer(Observer {
when (state) {
// auto casts to each state
Loading -> { button.isEnabled = false }
is Loaded -> { ... }
is Failed -> { ... }
}
}
)
}
}

As João Gouveia mentioned, we can make stateful components quite easily using kotlin's sealed classes.
But to make it further more useful, we can introduce Generics! So, our state class becomes StatefulData<T> which you can use pretty much anywhere (LiveData, Flows, or even in Callbacks).
sealed class StatefulData<out T : Any> {
data class Success<T : Any>(val result : T) : StatefulData<T>()
data class Error(val msg : String) : StatefulData<Nothing>()
object Loading : StatefulData<Nothing>()
}
I've wrote an article fully explaining this particular implementation here
https://naingaungluu.medium.com/stateful-data-on-android-with-sealed-classes-and-kotlin-flow-33e2537ccf55

If you are using the composable ... You can use produce state
#Composable
fun PokemonDetailScreen(
viewModel: PokemonDetailVm = hiltViewModel()
) {
/**
* This takes a initial state and with that we get a coroutine scope where we can call a API and assign the data into the value
*/
val pokemonInfo = produceState<Resource<Pokemon>>(initialValue = Resource.Loading()) {
value = viewModel.getPokemonInfo(pokemonName)
}.value
}

Kotlin - Generic type safe, wrong warning? java.lang.ClassCastException

I'm fetching response from some API, after getting the response I converting it to List of my required Object e.g:
fun <T> getAsList(input: String): ArrayList<T> {
val objType = object : TypeToken<ArrayList<T>>() {}.type
val result = Gson().fromJson(input, objType) as ArrayList<T>
println(result[0]) // <-- no warning here !! It's work
println("result: " + result.toString()) // Also it's work here
return result
}
Then I pass this list to somewhere e.g:
updateFromDownload(getAsList<T>(resultValue))
And by override this method I can get the result, e.g:
override fun updateFromDownload(result: List<Response>?) {
val listTest = ArrayList<Response>()
listTest.add(result!![0]) // <-- This work
println(listTest)
println("resss:" + result[0]) // <-- This not work !!!
for (response in result){
// The loop crash too, not work
}
As demonstrated above, adding to listTest work fine, but If I tried to get the element individually like I did inside getAsList() It's crash due to:
java.lang.ClassCastException: com.google.gson.internal.LinkedTreeMap cannot be cast to ......Response
Can I access the result directly without fill it to new list?
Edit- Whole cycle for code:
class ConnectToURL<T>(callback: DownloadCallback<T>) : AsyncTask<String, Int, ConnectToURL.Result>() {
private var mCallback: DownloadCallback<T>? = null
init {
setCallback(callback)
}
override fun onPostExecute(result: Result?) {
mCallback?.apply {
result?.mException?.also { exception ->
//val gson = Gson().fromJson(result.mResultValue!!, type)
//updateFromDownload(gson)
return
}
result?.mResultValue?.also { resultValue ->
updateFromDownload(getAsList<T>(resultValue))
return
}
finishDownloading()
}
}
}
And I Invoke ConnectToURL from:
class BuilderClass<T> private constructor(
callback: DownloadCallback<T>,
private val url: String
) {
init {
ConnectToURL(callback).execute(url)
}
/// some code . . .. .
fun build() = BuilderClass(callback, url)
}
}
Then I override the updateFromDownload function as it's part from DownloadCallback

The generic type T is erased at compile time, so the type information is not present at runtime.
object : TypeToken<ArrayList<T>>() {}.type
Thats the reason Gson does not convert to the Response class.
You could use inline plus reified to avoid type erasure.
inline fun <reified T> getAsList(input: String): ArrayList<T>