Develop Reference

ViewModel not initializing or problem design with my viewModel

I've been reading some questions, answers and blogs about MVVM pattern in Android, and I've implemented it in my application.
My application consists of a MainActivity with 3 Tabs. Content of each tab is a fragment.
One of these fragments, is a List of Users stored on Room DB, which is where I've implemented the MVVM (implementing User object, ViewModel, Repository and Adapter with RecycleView).
In this same fragment, I have an "add User" button at the end that leads to a new activity where a formulary is presented to add a new user. In this activity I want to be sure that the full name of user not exists in my DB before saving it.
I was trying to use the same ViewModel to get full UserNames full name, but it seems that ViewModel is never initialized and I dont' know why.
I've read some questions about that viewmodel can't be used in different activities (I use it in MainActivity also in AddUser activity
This is my ViewModel:
class UserViewModel : ViewModel() {
val allUsersLiveData: LiveData<List<User>>
private val repository: UserRepository
init {
Timber.i("Initializing UserViewModel")
repository = UserRepository(UserTrackerApplication.database!!.databaseDao())
allUsersLiveData = repository.getAllUsers()
}
fun getAllUsersFullName(): List<String> {
return allUsersLiveData.value!!.map { it.fullname}
}
And my AddUser activity:
class AddUser : AppCompatActivity() {
private lateinit var userList:List<String>
private lateinit var binding: ActivityAddUserBinding
private val userViewModel: UserViewModel by viewModels()
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setContentView(R.layout.activity_add_user)
Timber.i("Add User OnCreate")
binding = ActivityAddUserBinding.inflate(layoutInflater)
setContentView(binding.root)
}
fun addUserClick(v : View){
//someCode
val userName = binding.constraintLayoutAddUser.etUserName!!.text.toString()
if(checkUserExistance(userName)) {
val text: String = String.format(
resources.getString(R.string.repeated_user_name),
userName
Snackbar.make(v, text, Snackbar.LENGTH_LONG).show()
{
else
{
lifecycleScope.launch {
UserTrackerApplication.database!!.databaseDao()
.insertUser(user)
Timber.i("User added!")
}
finish()
}
}
Debugging, I see the log "Initializing UserViewModel" when the fragment of MainActivity is started, but I can't see it when AddUser activity is called. So it seems it's not initializing correctly.
So the questions:
Is this a good approach? I'm making some design mistake?
Why the VM isn't initializing?
EDIT
I forgot to add this function. Calling userViewModel here is where I get the error:
private fun checkUserExistance(userName: String): Boolean {
var result = false
userList = userViewModel.getAllUsersNames()
for (usr in userList)
{
if(usr.uppercase() == userName.uppercase())
{
result = true
break
}
}
return result
}
EDIT 2
I added this on my "onCreate" function and started to work:
userViewModel.allUsersLiveData.observe(this, Observer<List<User>>{
it?.let {
// updates the list.
Timber.i("Updating User Names")
userList =userViewModel.getAllUsersNames()
}
})

if you take a look at by viewModels delegate you will see it's lazy it means it will initialize when it is first time accessed
#MainThread
public inline fun <reified VM : ViewModel> ComponentActivity.viewModels(
noinline factoryProducer: (() -> Factory)? = null
): Lazy<VM> {
val factoryPromise = factoryProducer ?: {
defaultViewModelProviderFactory
}
return ViewModelLazy(VM::class, { viewModelStore }, factoryPromise)
}

Sometimes, ConflatedBroadcastChannel fires recent value without any action

In Google's official codelab about advanced-coroutines-codelab sample, they've used ConflatedBroadcastChannel to watch a variable/object change.
I've used the same technique in one of my side projects, and when resuming the listening activity, sometimes ConflatedBroadcastChannel fires it's recent value, causing the execution of flatMapLatest body without any change.
I think this is happening while the system collects the garbage since I can reproduce this issue by calling System.gc() from another activity.
Here's the code
MainActivity.kt
class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
val viewModel = ViewModelProvider(this).get(MainViewModel::class.java)
val tvCount = findViewById<TextView>(R.id.tv_count)
viewModel.count.observe(this, Observer {
tvCount.text = it
Toast.makeText(this, "Incremented", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
})
findViewById<Button>(R.id.b_inc).setOnClickListener {
viewModel.increment()
}
findViewById<Button>(R.id.b_detail).setOnClickListener {
startActivity(Intent(this, DetailActivity::class.java))
}
}
}
MainViewModel.kt
class MainViewModel : ViewModel() {
companion object {
val TAG = MainViewModel::class.java.simpleName
}
class IncrementRequest
private var tempCount = 0
private val requestChannel = ConflatedBroadcastChannel<IncrementRequest>()
val count = requestChannel
.asFlow()
.flatMapLatest {
tempCount++
Log.d(TAG, "Incrementing number to $tempCount")
flowOf("Number is $tempCount")
}
.asLiveData()
fun increment() {
requestChannel.offer(IncrementRequest())
}
}
DetailActivity.kt
class DetailActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setContentView(R.layout.activity_detail)
val button = findViewById<Button>(R.id.b_gc)
val timer = object : CountDownTimer(5000, 1000) {
override fun onFinish() {
button.isEnabled = true
button.text = "CALL SYSTEM.GC() AND CLOSE ACTIVITY"
}
override fun onTick(millisUntilFinished: Long) {
button.text = "${TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(millisUntilFinished)} second(s)"
}
}
button.setOnClickListener {
System.gc()
finish()
}
timer.start()
}
}
Here's the full source code :
CoroutinesFlowTest.zip
Why is this happening?
What am I missing?

Quoting from the official response, (The simple and straightforward solution)
The problem here is that you are trying to use
ConflatedBroadcastChannel for events, while it is designed to
represent current state as shown in the codelab. Every time the
downstream LiveData is reactivated it receives the most recent state
and performs the incrementing action. Don't use
ConflatedBroadcastChannel for events.
To fix it, you can replace ConflatedBroadcastChannel with
BroadcastChannel<IncrementRequest>(1) (non-conflated channel, which is
Ok for events to use) and it'll work as you expect it too.

In addition to the answer of Kiskae:
This might not be your case, but you can try to use BroadcastChannel(1).asFlow().conflate on a receiver side, but in my case it led to a bug where the code on a receiver side didn't get triggered sometimes (I think because conflate works in a separate coroutine or something).
Or you can use a custom version of stateless ConflatedBroadcastChannel (found here).
class StatelessBroadcastChannel<T> constructor(
private val broadcast: BroadcastChannel<T> = ConflatedBroadcastChannel()
) : BroadcastChannel<T> by broadcast {
override fun openSubscription(): ReceiveChannel<T> = broadcast
.openSubscription()
.apply { poll() }
}

On Coroutine 1.4.2 and Kotlin 1.4.31
Without using live data
private var tempCount = 0
private val requestChannel = BroadcastChannel<IncrementRequest>(Channel.CONFLATED)
val count = requestChannel
.asFlow()
.flatMapLatest {
tempCount++
Log.d(TAG, "Incrementing number to $tempCount")
flowOf("Number is $tempCount")
}
Use Flow and Coroutine
lifecycleScope.launchWhenStarted {
viewModel.count.collect {
tvCount.text = it
Toast.makeText(this#MainActivity, "Incremented", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show()
}
}
Without using BroadcastChannel
private var tempCount = 0
private val requestChannel = MutableStateFlow("")
val count: StateFlow<String> = requestChannel
fun increment() {
tempCount += 1
requestChannel.value = "Number is $tempCount"
}

The reason is very simple, ViewModels can persist outside of the lifecycle of Activities. By moving to another activity and garbagecollecting you're disposing of the original MainActivity but keeping the original MainViewModel.
Then when you return from DetailActivity it recreates MainActivity but reuses the viewmodel, which still has the broadcastchannel with a last known value, triggering the callback when count.observe is called.
If you add logging to observe the onCreate and onDestroy methods of the activity you should see the lifecycle getting advanced, while the viewmodel should only be created once.

Livedata observer are called forever even with removeObserver

I'm facing an issue which drives me crazy.
I have 4 fragments inside an activity.
The logic is: FragA -> FragB -> FragC -> FragD -> FragA -> ...
I'm connected to websockets which post livedata values.
To navigate from FragB to FragC, I'm waiting an event.
The first time, everything works fine, the websockets is recieved, the event is triggered and I'm going to FragC.
But, the second time (after Frag D -> Frag A), if I go back to fragB, the same event is triggered once again. The user doesn't see FragB, and arrives on FragC.
This is the actual behavior but this is not the one I'm expected.
I have do some research and I think it's because the livedata is trigger twice in is normal behavior. And, it can be only dispatch on main thread, so if my fragment goes in the back stack, it will wait for it to be active again.
I have try to removeObserver in the onDestroyView(), it works and the observer is removed, but once the fragment goes again inside onActivityCreated() and I observe the livedata, the observer is instantanetely triggered... I always use "viewLifecycleOwner" as owner.
Is there any way to cancel a liveData execution if I ever go back on an instanciated fragment?
All my frags extends ScopeFragment :
abstract class ScopedFragment : Fragment(), CoroutineScope {
private lateinit var job: Job
override val coroutineContext: CoroutineContext
get() = job + Dispatchers.Main
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
job = Job()
}
override fun onDestroy() {
super.onDestroy()
job.cancel()
}
}
My liveData:
class MyLiveDatas {
private val _myLiveData = MutableLiveData<CustomType>()
val myLiveData: LiveData<CustomType>
get() = _myLiveData
fun customTrigger(webSocketMessage: WebSocketMessage) {
val createdCustomType = CreatedCustomType(webSocketMessage)
_myLiveData.post(createdCustomType)
}
}
My Fragment:
class MyFragment: ScopedFragment(), KodeinAware {
override val kodein by closestKodein()
private val myLiveData: MyLiveDatas by instance()
private val myLiveDataObserver = Observer<CustomType> { customType ->
... my actions
}
override fun onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState)
myLiveDatas.myLiveData.observe(viewLifecycleOwner, myLiveDataObserver)
}
override fun onDestroyView() {
super.onDestroyView()
myLiveDatas.myLiveData.removeObserver(myLiveDataObserver)
// I've also try removeObservers with viewLifecycleOwner
}
}
Thanks a lot!

You need to use custom live data , in case you want single event
this is my custom mutable live data in one of my project and it is working
class SingleLiveEvent<T> : MediatorLiveData<T>() {
private val observers = ArraySet<ObserverWrapper<in T>>()
#MainThread
override fun observe(owner: LifecycleOwner, observer: Observer<in T>) {
val wrapper = ObserverWrapper(observer)
observers.add(wrapper)
super.observe(owner, wrapper)
}
#MainThread
override fun removeObserver(observer: Observer<in T>) {
if (observers.remove(observer)) {
super.removeObserver(observer)
return
}
val iterator = observers.iterator()
while (iterator.hasNext()) {
val wrapper = iterator.next()
if (wrapper.observer == observer) {
iterator.remove()
super.removeObserver(wrapper)
break
}
}
}
#MainThread
override fun setValue(t: T?) {
observers.forEach { it.newValue() }
super.setValue(t)
}
private class ObserverWrapper<T>(val observer: Observer<T>) : Observer<T> {
private var pending = false
override fun onChanged(t: T?) {
if (pending) {
pending = false
observer.onChanged(t)
}
}
fun newValue() {
pending = true
}
}
}

LiveData is analogous to a BehaviorRelay, and replays the last value it was told to hold.
LiveData is not LiveEvent, it's not designed for event dispatching.
A regular event bus, a PublishRelay, or something like EventEmitter are better suited for this problem.
Google has devised LiveData<Event<T>> and EventObserver, but if you ever use observe(lifecycleOwner, Observer { instead of observe(lifecycleOwner, EventObserver { it will misbehave, which shows that it's a code smell (LiveData<Event<T>> does not work with Observer, only EventObserver, but its observe method still accepts Observers.)
So personally I'd rather pull in that library EventEmitter I mentioned above, with the LiveEvent helper class.
// ViewModel
private val eventEmitter = EventEmitter<Events>()
val controllerEvents: EventSource<Events> = eventEmitter
// Fragment
viewModel.controllerEvents.observe(viewLifecycleOwner) { event: ControllerEvents ->
when (event) {
is ControllerEvents.NewWordAdded -> showToast("Added ${event.word}")
}.safe()
}

Try to observe the LiveData at onCreate() of the Fragment lifecycle with lifecycle owner as Activity and remove the observer at onDestroy() of the Fragment lifecycle.
Or if that doesn't workout use Event class.
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
}

This article describes two ways to achieve what you want.
Alternative 1: Wrap your live data in a class that makes sure the value is only observed once.
/**
* 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
}
Alternative 2: Use a custom live data class (SingleLiveEvent) that only emits the value once.

is observeForever lifecycle aware?

I'm working with MVVM, and I have made different implementations of it, but one thing that is still making me doubt is how do I get data from a Repository (Firebase) from my ViewModel without attaching any lifecycle to the ViewModel.
I have implemented observeForever() from the ViewModel, but I don't think that is a good idea because I think I should communicate from my repository to my ViewModel either with a callback or a Transformation.
I leave here an example where I fetch a device from Firebase and update my UI, if we can see here, I'm observing the data coming from the repo from the UI, but from the ViewModel I'm also observing data from the repo, and here is where I really doubt if I'm using the right approach, since I don't know if observeForever() will be cleared on onCleared() if my view is destroyed, so it won't keep the observer alive if the view dies.
UI
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
button.setOnClickListener {
val deviceId = editText.text.toString().trim()
observeData(deviceId)
}
}
fun observeData(deviceId:String){
viewModel.fetchDeviceData(deviceId).observe(this, Observer {
textView.text = "Tipo: ${it.devType}"
})
ViewModel
class MainViewmodel: ViewModel() {
private val repo = Repo()
fun fetchDeviceData(deviceId:String):LiveData<Device>{
val mutableData = MutableLiveData<Device>()
repo.getDeviceData(deviceId).observeForever {
mutableData.value = it
}
return mutableData
}
}
Repository
class Repo {
private val db = FirebaseDatabase.getInstance().reference
fun getDeviceData(deviceId:String):LiveData<Device>{
val mutableData = MutableLiveData<Device>()
db.child(deviceId).child("config/device").addListenerForSingleValueEvent(object: ValueEventListener{
override fun onDataChange(dataSnapshot: DataSnapshot) {
val device = dataSnapshot.getValue(Device::class.java)
mutableData.value = device
}
override fun onCancelled(dataError: DatabaseError) {
Log.e("Error","handle error callback")
}
})
return mutableData
}
}
This example just shows how to fetch the device from Firebase, it works, but from my ViewModel, it keeps making me think that observeForever() is not what I'm looking for to communicate data between the repository to the ViewModel.
I have seen Transformations, but I, in this case, I just need to deliver the entire Device object to my UI, so I don't need to transform the Object I'm retrieving to another Object
What should be here the right approach to communicate the repository and the ViewModel properly?

is observeForever lifecycle aware?
No, that's why it's called observeForever.
I have implemented observeForever() from the ViewModel, but I don't think that is a good idea
No, it's not, you should be using Transformations.switchMap {.
since I don't know if observeForever() will be cleared on onCleared() if my view is destroyed, so it won't keep the observer alive if the view dies.
Well if you're not clearing it in onCleared() using removeObserver(observer), then it won't clear itself, because it observes forever.
here is where I really doubt if I'm using the right approach,
No, you can do much better than this following a reactive approach.
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
button.setOnClickListener {
val deviceId = editText.text.toString().trim()
viewModel.onSelectedDeviceChanged(deviceId)
}
viewModel.selectedDevice.observe(this, Observer { device ->
textView.text = "Tipo: ${device.devType}"
})
}
And
class MainViewModel(
private val savedStateHandle: SavedStateHandle,
): ViewModel() {
private val repo = Repo() // TODO: move to Constructor Argument with ViewModelProvider.Factory
private val selectedDeviceId: MutableLiveData<String> = savedStateHandle.getLiveData<String>("selectedDeviceId")
fun onSelectedDeviceChanged(deviceId: String) {
selectedDeviceId.value = deviceId
}
val selectedDevice = Transformations.switchMap(selectedDeviceId) { deviceId ->
repo.getDeviceData(deviceId)
}
}
And
class Repo {
private val db = FirebaseDatabase.getInstance().reference // TODO: move to constructor arg? Probably
fun getDeviceData(deviceId:String) : LiveData<Device> {
return object: MutableLiveData<Device>() {
private val mutableLiveData = this
private var query: Query? = null
private val listener: ValueEventListener = object: ValueEventListener {
override fun onDataChange(dataSnapshot: DataSnapshot) {
val device = dataSnapshot.getValue(Device::class.java)
mutableLiveData.value = device
}
override fun onCancelled(dataError: DatabaseError) {
Log.e("Error","handle error callback")
}
}
override fun onActive() {
query?.removeEventListener(listener)
val query = db.child(deviceId).child("config/device")
this.query = query
query.addValueEventListener(listener)
}
override fun onInactive() {
query?.removeEventListener(listener)
query = null
}
}
}
}
This way, you can observe for changes made in Firebase (and therefore be notified of future changes made to your values) using LiveData, rather than only execute a single fetch and then not be aware of changes made elsewhere to the same data.

To use ObserveForever, you need to remove the observer inside onClear in the ViewModel.
In this case, I would suggest to use Transformation even though you just need a direct mapping without any processing of the data, which is actually the same as what you are doing with the observer for observerForever.

observeForever() is not Lifecycle aware and will continue to run until removeObserver() is called.
In your ViewModel do this instead,
class MainViewmodel: ViewModel() {
private val repo = Repo()
private var deviceData : LiveData<Device>? = null
fun fetchDeviceData(deviceId:String):LiveData<Device>{
deviceData = repo.getDeviceData(deviceId)
return deviceData!!
}
}

ViewPager with viewmodel and live data , all 6 tabs data is replaced by last tab data

I am working on a ViewPager with 6 tabs where it has only one fragment TimesListFragment
Depending on the arguments passed to TimesListFragment it calls api eg; science , technology, travel etc
I have followed Google's GithubBrowserSample for my app
I have TimesListFragment -> TimesViewModel -> TimesRepository
There are 6 tabs , when I hit the api all the tabs show the same result which if of the last argument
StoriesPagerAdapter.kt
class StoriesPagerAdapter(fragmentManager: FragmentManager?)
:FragmentStatePagerAdapter(fragmentManager){
private val sections= arrayListOf("science","technology","business","world","movies","travel")
override fun getItem(position: Int): Fragment {
return TimesListFragment.newInstance(sections[position])
}
override fun getCount(): Int {
return sections.size
}
override fun getPageTitle(position: Int): CharSequence? {
return sections[position]
}
}
issue : all tabs shows data of travel arguments
TimesViewModel
class TimesViewModel #Inject constructor(private val timesRepository: TimesRepository) :
ViewModel() {
lateinit var data: LiveData<Resource<TimesStoriesResponse>>
fun fetchStories(section:String): LiveData<Resource<TimesStoriesResponse>> {
data = timesRepository.loadStories(section)
return data
}
}
TimesRepository.kt
class TimesRepository #Inject constructor(private val apiService: ApiService,
private val timesDao: TimesDao,
private val appExecutors: AppExecutors) {
private val repoListRateLimit = RateLimiter<String>(10, TimeUnit.MINUTES)
fun loadStories(section:String): LiveData<Resource<TimesStoriesResponse>> {
return object : NetworkBoundResource<TimesStoriesResponse, TimesStoriesResponse>(appExecutors) {
override fun saveCallResult(item: TimesStoriesResponse) {
timesDao.insert(item)
}
override fun shouldFetch(data: TimesStoriesResponse?): Boolean {
return data == null || repoListRateLimit.shouldFetch(section)
}
override fun loadFromDb() = timesDao.load()
override fun createCall() = apiService.getTopStories(section,ConfigConstant.TIMES_KEY)
override fun onFetchFailed() {
repoListRateLimit.reset(section)
}
}.asLiveData()
}
ApiService.kt
interface ApiService {
#GET("svc/topstories/v2/{section}.json?")
fun getTopStories(#Path ("section") section:String,#Query("api-key") apiKey:String)
:LiveData<ApiResponse<TimesStoriesResponse>>
}
TimesListFragment.kt
private fun initViewModel() {
viewModel = ViewModelProviders.of(this, viewModelFactory).get(section,TimesViewModel::class.java)
}
private fun initData() {
viewModel?.fetchStories(section)?.observe(this, Observer {
when (it?.status) {
Status.LOADING -> {
showLoading(true)
showError(false,null)
}
Status.SUCCESS -> {
showLoading(false)
showError(false,null)
showSuccessData(it.data)
}
Status.ERROR -> {
showLoading(false)
showError(true,it.message)
}
}
})
}
note : both methods are called in onViewCreated() of TimesListFragmnet

This should be happening due to your ViewModel.
Typically, there's one ViewModel per Activity or Fragment, due to the way a ViewModel is designed to work. One of the major benefits in using a ViewModel is that it's lifecycle is completely separate from the lifecycle of your Fragment, therefore, your Fragment can be destroyed and recreated multiple times and you'll still be able to restore current data that's stored in your ViewModel.
Therefore, this means that with the typical code to fetch the ViewModel from the ViewModelProviders, you'll be fetching the exact same ViewModel.
Typically, this won't cause a problem, but in your ViewPager, you're reusing the same TimesListFragment which is most likely calling up the same ViewModel, therefore causing each fragment to show the same data.
The solution for this is to use:
ViewModelProviders.of(this).get(KEY, TimesViewModel::class.java)
Note the KEY which is used to differentiate between the ViewModels that needs to be fetched. So by using the positions in the ViewPager as a unique key, you should be able to have a unique ViewModel for each TimesListFragment.

You need to tell the ViewPager not to load pages that are currently not showing. By default it loads at least one page to the left and one to the right, I think.