Develop Reference

Android/Kotlin replacement for EventBus postSticky()

I am searching for postSticky() method replacement. It is being used for simple passing value to previous Fragment, but thing is that I am using BackStackUtil for navigation so instance() method is being called when returning only if stack gets cleared somehow before getting back.Previous Fragment is holding List of items, when next Fragment can modify picked item and yet another one can do something else so it is chain of sticky events when each of these is being passed to previous Fragment. App structure won't let me to apply Coordinator pattern at current stage and also I don't want to attach Bundle to Fragments kept on stack. I was looking for solutions but I couldn't find any. I also don't want to store values in some static fields or SharedPreferences/Data storage.I was thinking about shared ViewModel but I don't really like this idea to be honest, so I would appreciate any ideas or just confirmation if shared VM is the only/best way.
Do you have any other ideas?

In your A fragment, before navigating to B fragment, listen to savedStateHandle:
findNavController()
.currentBackStackEntry
?.savedStateHandle?.getLiveData<Bundle>("DATA_KEY")
?.observe(viewLifecycleOwner) { result ->
// Result from fragment B
}
In your B fragment, before navigating back, set the data to pass to A fragment:
findNavController()
.previousBackStackEntry
?.savedStateHandle
?.set("DATA_KEY", result)
You can remove the observer using:
findNavController()
.currentBackStackEntry
?.savedStateHandle?.remove<Bundle>
Note that here the passed type is Bundle (the type in getLiveData<Bundle>) but you can use any type you want.

Android navigation component view decision

I am using Android Navigation Component in my project. What I am not satisfied is the fragment making the decision to do fragment transition to next fragment transition i.e
In my LoginFragment I have this -
viewModel.onLoginPressed(email, password)
.observe(viewLifecycleOwner, Observer {
if (it.userLoggedIn) {
activity?.findNavController(R.id.nav_host_fragment)
?.navigate(R.id.action_loginFragment_to_productsFragment)
}
})
According to me, the view must be dummy and must not do any such decisions of what to do on loginSuccess for example. The viewModel must be responsible for this.
How do I use this navigation component inside viewModel?

The ViewModel doesn't need to know about navigation, but it knows about events and state.
The communication should be more like:
NavHostActivity -> Fragment -> ViewModel
Your Fragment has Views, and click listeners, and state. The user types a user/password and presses a button. This onClick listener will tell the view model -> (pseudo-code) onUserPressedTheLoginButtonWith(username, password)
The ViewModel in turn will receive this, do what it needs (like check if you're already logged or whatever, perhaps the final decision is to navigate to another fragment).
What the ViewModel will do is expose a LiveData like
val navigationEvent = LiveData<...>
So the viewModel will navigationEvent.postValue(...)
The Fragment should observe this viewModel.navigationEvent.observe(...) { }
And in THERE in the fragment it can either navigate directly or -if you have an Interface- use it like:
yourNavigator.navigateTo(...) //either your VM knows the destination or the yourNavitagor has a navigateToLogin() concrete method, this is all "it depends what you like/prefer/etc.".
In summary
Activity Host contains Nav code, irrelevant.
Fragment(s) can communicate to a NavDelegate created by you (and likely injected) or Fragments simply know the details and do it by themselves.
Fragment(s) observe the navigation state/event from the viewModel.
Fragment(s) push events from the UI (clicks, actions, etc.) to this viewModel
The ViewModel decides what to do and updates the "liveData"(s) (there can be more than one type of thing you want to observe, not only navigation).
The Fragment(s) react to this observation and act accordingly, either doing it themselves or delegating (step 2 ^).
That's how I'd do it.

The Fragment refreshes on back- Android Navigation

I am making an application using the Android Navigation component. But I ran into a very fundamental problem which can cause problems in the whole development of my application.
The Scenario
I have this Fragment where in onViewCreated I am observing a field from my viewmodel.
override fun onViewCreated(view: View, savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onViewCreated(view, savedInstanceState)
viewModel = ViewModelProviders.of(this).get(EventDetailsViewModel::class.java)
viewModel.init(context!!,eventId)
viewModel.onEventDetailsUpdated().observe(this, Observer {
setEventDetails(it)
})
}
And in the setEventDetails method, I set recyclerviews with the data.
The PROBLEM
This fragment is a long fragment with a scroll. Suppose I scroll long way down to a section and click on a button which takes me to another fragment.
But when I come back to this fragment, it again takes me to the top and does everything that it did on first load.
That can be troubling. It is kind of recreating the whole fragment instead of keeping its old state.
What I tried
I searched a lot of questions. And went through This Github Query, This SO question, Another Git... But I could not solve my problem.
Please help, Thanks in advance.

Yes, Fragment's view will get destroyed whenever you navigate forward to another fragment.
RecyclerView's scroll position should be automatically restored, even when new instance of RecyclerView is created and new Adapter instance is set, as long as you setup everything with the same dataset as before. Also, you need to do it before the first layout pass.
This means that you need your old data and you need to have it ready immediately (no async loads!).
ViewModelProvider should return the same ViewModel instance. That ViewModel holds the data you should be able to synchronously get and display on the UI. Make sure to refactor your viewModel.init method - you don't want to make API call if data is already there in case when going back. A simple boolean isInitialized can work here, or you can even check if LiveData is empty or not.
Also, you have a subtle bug when calling observe on LiveData. onViewCreated can be called many times for the same fragment (each time you navigate forward and back!) - so observe will be called each time. Your Fragment will be subscribed many times to the same LiveData. This means you will get events multiple times (once for each subscription). This can cause issues with RecyclerView state restoration too. Your subscription is tied to Lifecycle owner you passed. You passed Fragment's Lifecycle owner which is tied to Fragment's lifecycle. What you want to do is pass Fragment view's lifecycle owner, so whenever the view is destroyed the subscription gets cleared, and you only have 1 subscription ever and only while the Fragment's view is alive. For this, you can use getViewLifecycleOwner instead of this.

You need to rely on ViewModel to restore the fragment state because ViewModel doesn't get destroyed on fragment change.
In your viewModel, create a variable listState
class HomeViewModel : ViewModel() {
var listState: Parcelable? = null
}
Then in your fragment use below code
class HomeFragment : Fragment() {
private val viewModel by navGraphViewModels<HomeViewModel>(R.id.mobile_navigation)
override fun onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState)
if (viewModel.listState != null) {
list.layoutManager?.onRestoreInstanceState(viewModel.listState)
viewModel.listState = null
}else{
//load data normally
}
override fun onDestroyView() {
super.onDestroyView()
viewModel.listState = list.layoutManager?.onSaveInstanceState()
}
}

You don't have to initialize the view model each time. Just check for null before initializing. Don't know kotlin, still it will be something like:
if(viewModel == null){
viewModel = ViewModelProviders.of(this).get(EventDetailsViewModel::class.java)
viewModel.init(context!!,eventId)
}

try putting this code where you first call your fragment.
ft = fm.beginTransaction();
ft.replace(R.id.main_fragment, yourSearchFragment, "searchFragment");
ft.setTransition(FragmentTransaction.TRANSIT_FRAGMENT_OPEN);
ft.commit();
and this when going back to the fragment
ft = fm.beginTransaction();
ft.hide(getFragmentManager().findFragmentByTag("searchFragment"));
ft.add(R.id.main_fragment, yourDetailfragment);
ft.addToBackStack(null);
ft.setTransition(FragmentTransaction.TRANSIT_FRAGMENT_OPEN);
ft.commit();

Shared ViewModel to help communication between fragments and parent activity

While Navigation component of JetPack looks pretty promising I got to a place where I could not find a way to implement something I wanted.
Let's take a look at a sample app screen:
The app has one main activity, a top toolbar, a bottom toolbar with fab attached.
There are 2 challenges that I am facing and I want to make them the right way.
1. I need to implement fragment transactions in order to allow replacing the fragment on the screen, based on the user interaction.
There are three ways I can think of and have this implemented:
the callbacks way. Having a interface onFragmentAction callback in fragment and have activity implement it. So basically when user presses a button in FragmentA I can call onFragmentAction with params so the activity will trigger and start for example transaction to replace it with FragmentB
implement Navigation component from JetPack. While I've tried it and seems pretty straightforward, I had a problem by not being able to retrieve the current fragment.
Use a shared ViewModel between fragment and activity, update it from the fragment and observe it in the activity. This would be a "replacement" of the callbacks
2. Since the FAB is in the parent activity, when pressed, I need to be able to interact with the current visible fragment and do an action. For instance, add a new item in a recyclerview inside the fragment. So basically a way to communicate between the activity and fragment
There are two ways I can think of how to make this
If not using Navigation then I can use findFragmentById and retrieve the current fragment and run a public method to trigger the action.
Using a shared 'ViewMode' between fragment and activity, update it from activity and observe it in the fragment.
So, as you can see, the recommended way to do navigation would be to use the new 'Navigation' architecture component, however, at the moment it lacks a way to retrieve the current fragment instance so I don't know how to communicate between the activity and fragment.
This could be achieved with shared ViewModel but here I have a missing piece: I understand that fragment to fragment communication can be made with a shared ViewModel. I think that this makes sense when the fragments have something in common for this, like a Master/Detail scenarion and sharing the same viewmodel is very useful.
But, then talking between activity and ALL fragments, how could a shared ViewModel be used? Each fragment needs its own complex ViewModel. Could it be a GeneralViewModel which gets instantiated in the activity and in all fragments, together with the regular fragment viewmodel, so have 2 viewmodels in each fragment.
Being able to talk between fragments and activity with a viewmodel will make the finding of active fragment unneeded as the viewmodel will provide the needed mechanism and also would allow to use Navigation component.
Any information is gladly received.
Later edit. Here is some sample code based on the comment bellow. Is this a solution for my question? Can this handle both changes between fragments and parent activity and it's on the recommended side.
private class GlobalViewModel ():ViewModel(){
var eventFromActivity:MutableLiveData<Event>
var eventFromFragment:MutableLiveData<Event>
fun setEventFromActivity(event:Event){
eventFromActivity.value = event
}
fun setEventFromFragment(event:Event){
eventFromFragment.value = event
}
}
Then in my activity
class HomeActivity: AppCompatActivity(){
onCreate{
viewModel = ViewModelProviders.of(this, factory)
.get(GlobalViewModel::class.java)
viewModel.eventsFromFragment.observe(){
//based on the Event values, could update toolbar title, could start
// new fragment, could show a dialog or snackbar
....
}
//when need to update the fragment do
viewModel.setEventFromActivity(event)
}
}
Then in all fragments have something like this
class FragmentA:Fragment(){
onViewCreated(){
viewModel = ViewModelProviders.of(this, factory)
.get(GlobalViewModel::class.java)
viewModel.eventsFromActivity.observe(){
// based on Event value, trigger a fun from the fragment
....
}
viewModelFragment = ViewModelProviders.of(this, factory)
.get(FragmentAViewModel::class.java)
viewModelFragment.some.observe(){
....
}
//when need to update the activity do
viewModel.setEventFromFragment(event)
}
}

Reuse single ViewModel with multiple fragments. MvvmCross Android

I'm newbie with MvvmCross. I'm developing an app using Mvx v6.0.1.
I want to make a kind of stepper using fragments (specifically 4 fragments or 4 steps), all of these fragments are embedded into an main activity. The main activity layout has a button, when I tap these button fragment is switched to the next step. I have created one viewmodel for each fragment and one more for the main activity. The problem I have is that I need to get some values from each step and pass to the next step.
I'm trying to share only one viewmodel for every view (fragments and activity). Is there any way to achieve this?
If yes, How can I distinguish each steps/fragments for navigate across them?
I was trying to set same viewmodel to Activity and fragment:
//Activity code
public class AttendanceActivity : BaseActivity<AttendanceViewModel>
{
protected override int ActivityLayoutId => Resource.Layout.activity_attendance;
//some logic
}
//Fragment code
[MvxFragmentPresentation(ActivityHostViewModelType = typeof(AttendanceViewModel),
FragmentContentId = Resource.Id.attendance_content_frame,
AddToBackStack = true)]
public class AttendanceFragmentSetpOne : BaseFragment<AttendanceViewModel>, IOnClickListener
{
protected override int FragmentLayoutId => Resource.Layout.fragment_attendance_step_one;
//Some logic
}
But when I make this, the app never pass from splash screen.
I hope explain myself and somebody help me with this "problem".
Thanks in advance.