Android Room requery on db change - android

I'm writing an application using newest Room Persistance Library.
The app sipmply shows a list of items and updates this list as data changes.
When new item is inserted into a table, or updated, I expect the list to update automaticlally.
I tried vanilla LiveData and Flowable so far. Both are claimed to support this feature, as it is stated in documentation and on this blog:
https://medium.com/google-developers/room-rxjava-acb0cd4f3757
Here's the ViewModel snippet in Kotlin:
messagesFlowable = db.messagesDao().all()
messagesFlowable
.observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
.subscribe {
Log.d(TAG, "Received 1 list of %s items", it.size)
messages.value = it
}
Somewhere else, the db is modified like this:
mDb.messagesDao().add(Message("Some data"))
The updates are not pushed to observers. I guess I'm missing something, but what?
Update: This problem is solved and the answer is below.

I'll answer my own question, as the solution is not documented.
It looks like you need to have the same instance of database object.
In my case, my Dagger2 was misconfigured to inject new instances of DB each time, so my Repository and ViewModel ended up with 2 separate instances.
Once I use single database instance shared among all interested parties, all updates are distributed correctly.

Related

Why does by repository Flow not update my viewModels livedata?

So currently I have a Dao with a function that emits a Flow<>
#Query("SELECT * FROM ${Constants.Redacted}")
fun loadAllContacts(): Flow<List<Redacted>>
I am calling this from a repository like so
val loadAllContacts: Flow<List<Redacted>> = contactDao.loadAllContacts()
I am injecting the repository into the viewModel's constructor, and then at the top of my viewModel I have a val like so
val contacts: LiveData<List<Redacted>> = contactRepository.loadAllContacts.asLiveData()
Which is being observed in my Activity like so
viewModel.contacts.observe(this) { contacts ->
viewModel.onContactsChange(contacts)
}
My thinking is that the Flow is converted to a LiveData, and then I can observe this LiveData from my activity and kick off this function to actually update the viewModel upon the data being updated.
For now onContactsChange just looks like
fun onContactsChange(list: List<Redacted>) {
Timber.i("VIEW UPDATE")
}
The problem is that I only see this Timber log upon opening the activity, and never again. I verified that data IS going into my database, and I verified that an insert occurred successfully while the activity & viewModel are open. But I never see the log from onContactsChange again. When I close the activity, and reopen it, I do see my new data, so that is another reason I know my insert is working correctly.
I would like to add that I am using a single instance (singleton) of my repository, and I think I can verify this by the fact that I can see my data at all, at least when the view is first made.
Figured it out:
Note: If your app runs in a single process, you should follow the singleton design pattern when instantiating an AppDatabase object. Each RoomDatabase instance is fairly expensive, and you rarely need access to multiple instances within a single process.
If your app runs in multiple processes, include enableMultiInstanceInvalidation() in your database builder invocation. That way, when you have an instance of AppDatabase in each process, you can invalidate the shared database file in one process, and this invalidation automatically propagates to the instances of AppDatabase within other processes.
It's a little bit hard to follow your question, but I think I see the overall problem with your Flow object not updating the way you want it too.
Following this quick tutorial, it seems that first you should declare your Flow object inside your Repository the same way you're already doing
val loadAllContacts: Flow<List<Redacted>> = contactDao.loadAllContacts()
and have your VM 'subscribe' to it by using the collect coroutine which would then allow you to dump all this data into a MutableLiveData State
data class YourState(..)
val state = MutableLiveData<YourState>()
init {
contactRepository.loadAllContacts().collect {
if (it.isNotEmpty()) {
state.postValue(YourState(
...
)
}
}
}
that your Activity/Fragment could then observe for changes
viewModel.state.observe(.. { state ->
// DO SOMETHING
})
P.S. The tutorial also mentions that because of how Dao's work, you might be getting updates for even the slightest of changes, but that you can use the distinctUntilChanged() Flow extension function to get more specific results.

Class doesn't exist in current schema after being added to migration

I've been struggling performing a simple migration. What I just want to achieve is add a new Class in realm.
The code below is inside a method that is called inside onCreate.
Realm.init(this)
val config = RealmConfiguration.Builder()
.name("db_name")
.schemaVersion(5L)
.migration { realm, oldVersion, newVersion ->
val schema = realm.schema
var _oldVersion = oldVersion
if (_oldVersion == 4L) {
if (schema.contains(XModel::class.java.simpleName))
schema.remove(XModel::class.java.simpleName)
if (!schema.contains(XModel::class.java.simpleName))
schema.create(XModel::class.java.simpleName)
.addField(XModel::id.name, Long::class.javaPrimitiveType,
FieldAttribute.PRIMARY_KEY)
...
.addField(XModel::N.name, Int::class.javaPrimitiveType)
_oldVersion += 1
}
}
.build()
Realm.setDefaultConfiguration(config)
As what the title suggest, the new class in the schema was created inside the migration object, but when I try to access it in other parts of the application using a realm query or a simple call to schema.get("XModel") it will throw an error XModel doesn't exist in current schema. Any comment will really help. Thank you...
Edit:
Additional information. I have 2 realm objects, each are in different android modules, one module is dependent to the other. I somehow have some progress, now Im a bit confuse, do I need to declare 2 configurations? Then it would mean 2 realm instance? How to switch from both, I want to merge them into 1 realm.
Edit2:
Another clarification about realm. If you have 2 android modules, each of them using realm, will they have different realm even if in the realm configuration they have the same name?
Background
I want to give you a background of what im doing because I think its needed to fully understand my case.
Originally I only have one module, but then after refactoring and also because of future apps to be develop, I need to pull out the common classes from the existing module and put it in a separate lower-level module that the future apps can depend on. This new lower-level module will also be responsible for most of the data layer, so realm was transferred to this module. But I can't just ignore the realm of the existing app because some users might already populated it, and I need to transfer those data to the new database.

Android architecture LiveData and Repositories

I am converting my application to room database and try to follow the google architecture best practices based on "Room with a View".
I am having trouble to understand the repository in terms of clean architecture.
The Words database example contains only one table and one view using it, making it a simple HelloWorld example. But lets start with that.
There is a view which displays a list of words. Thus all words need to be read from the database and displayed.
So we have a MainActivity and a Database to connect.
Entity Word
WordDao to access DB
WordViewModel: To separate the activity lifecycle from the data lifecycle a ViewModel is used.
WordRepository: Since the data maybe kept in a database or the cloud or whatever the repository is introduced to handle decision, where data comes from.
Activity with the View
It would be nice if the view is updated when the data changes, so LiveData is used.
This in turn means, the repository is providing the LiveData for the full table:
// LiveData gives us updated words when they change.
val allWords: LiveData<List<Word>>
This is all fine for a single view.
Now to my questions on expanding this concept.
Let us assume, the word table has two columns "word" and "last_updated" as time string.
For easier comparison the time string needs to be converted to milliseconds, so I have a function.
Question: Where to put the fun queryMaxServerDateMS() to get the max(last_updated)?
/**
* #return Highest server date in table in milliseconds or 1 on empty/error.
*/
fun queryMaxServerDateMS(): Long {
val maxDateTime = wordDao.queryMaxServerDate()
var timeMS: Long = 0
if (maxDateTime != null) {
timeMS = parseDateToMillisOrZero_UTC(maxDateTime)
}
return if (timeMS <= 0) 1 else timeMS
}
For me it would be natural to put this into the WordRepository.
Second requirement: Background job to update the word list in the database.
Suppose I now want a Background Job scheduled on a regular basis which checks the server, if new entries were made and downloads them to the database. The app may not be open.
This question just relays to the question of the above queryMaxServerDateMS.
The job will basically check first, if a new entry was made by asking the server if an entry exists which is newer then the max known entry.
So I would need to get a new class WordRepository, do my query, get max last_update and ask the server.
BUT: I do not need the LiveData in the background job and when val repositoy = WordRepository the full table is read, which is needless and time-, memory and batteryconsuming.
I also can think of a number of different fragments that would require some data of the word table, but never the full data, think of a product detail screen which lists one product.
So I can move it out to another Repository or DbHelper however you want to call it.
But in the end I wonder, if I use LiveData, which requires the View, ViewModel and Repository to be closely coupled together:
Question: Do I need a repository for every activity/fragment instead of having a repository for every table which would be much more logical?
Yes, with your current architecture you should put it in the Repository.
No, you don't need a repository for every activity/fragment. Preferably, 1 repository should be created for 1 entity. You can have a UseCase for every ViewModel.
In Clean architecture there's a concept of UseCase / Interactor, that can contain business logic, and in Android it can act as an additional layer between ViewModel and Repository, you can create some UseCase class for your function queryMaxServerDateMS(), put it there and call it from any ViewModel you need.
Also you can get your LiveData value synchronously, by calling getValue().
You do not need repository for each activity or fragment. To answer your question about getting max server time - when you load words from db you pretty much have access to entire table. That means you can either do that computation yourself to decide which is the latest word that's added or you can delegate that work to room by adding another query in dao and access it in your repo. I'd prefer latter just for the simplicity of it.
To answer your question about using repo across different activities or fragment - room caches your computations so that they are available for use across different users of your repo (and eventually dao). This means if you have already computed the max server time in one activity and used it there, other lifecycle owners can use that computed result as far as the table has not been altered (there might be other conditions as well)
To summarize you're right about having repository for tables as opposed to activities or fragments

How to add new items to a pagedList backed by Room?

I am using Network + Database for pagination in my app. I have 2 model classes that extends same types. Only one type of model is backed by a Room database. I want to inject other model class in between the PagedList based on some business rules. When I try to do that by using mapByPage function on DataSource.Factory returned by Room. The paging library is throwing IllegalStateExeception with message that size has changed. How do I go about implementing this case?
I think the size of the list needs to be the same. I tried to look for official documentation but I couldn't find it.
But found this comment
https://stackoverflow.com/a/49666673/430652

Retrieving a HashMap LiveData via Room Library

I have a social networking app which displays a list of users, and am looking to have an efficient way of being able to retrieve an object from my LiveData using its primary key.
Example: Retrieve a set of User POJOs from within my LiveData<List<User>> given a LIST of userId Integers (ie, users 12, 5, 7, and 1). I need to be able to look up these users by the userId for display in the appropriate order in the UI.
I believe I want something more like LiveData<Map<Integer, User>>, but how could I implement this using the Room database, without breaking the LiveData callbacks from my local DB -> Room -> LiveData -> UI?
PROPOSAL 1:
Change my Room implementation to somehow return a LiveData containing a HashMap of <userId,User>.
Current Room implementation:
#Query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE user_id in :userIds LIMIT 1")
LiveData<List<User>> getUsers(List<Integer> userIds);
Proposed Room implementation (no idea if something like this is possible or what it would even look like):
#Query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE user_id in :userIds LIMIT 1")
LiveData<**HashMap**<Integer,User>> getUsers(List<Integer> userIds);
PROPOSAL 2:
Have a list of many LiveData objects WITHIN a Map:
Map<Integer,LiveData<User>> liveDataUsers;
This might be something to look into, but I'm worried that having potentially hundreds/thousands of LiveData objects within a map is bad design and could also lead to performance issues / too many open LiveData internal callback threads.
PROPOSAL 3:
Something else??? I feel like I am missing something easy here. How are others looking up objects within their LiveData using only their primaryKey?
edit: this is something I'd like to achieve at the Repo / Model level and not at the activity level, as this LiveData will be re-used throughout the app.

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