Tag: android

Categories
Programming

Building Custom TimePicker Dialog Preference in Android

In the spaced repetition app I’m building, I wanted to allow people to pick a time for the study reminder notifications to show up on. There is a built-in AndroidX Preference Library that is meant to help with this, however I found that there’s no built-in way to display a TimePicker dialog as part of the preference option. Some tinkering are still required, and here’s the solution that works for me.

Concept

Before heading to the code, here’s a quick recap of what will be needed. Think of them as the building blocks that have to connect together.

  1. A class that derives from DialogPreference. This part is for managing the Preference aspect of the dialog preference to be displayed, such as its message, buttons, as well as for saving and retrieving the value selected. The library has some built-in dialog preferences (EditTextPreference,  ListPreference,  MultiSelectListPreference), but no such thing as TimePickerPreference, so we’ll have to make ourselves here.
  2. A class that derives from PreferenceDialogFragmentCompat. This part is for managing the visual aspect of the dialog preference to be displayed. This is where we will actually create and display the TimePicker, for instance.
  3. XML layout for the main preference page. This is used to for the visual aspect of the preferences page that’s shown to the user.
  4. Lastly, a fragment that derives from PreferenceFragmentCompat, which essentially is a special type of fragment that’s meant to be used for displaying the preferences page based on the XML layout, and for wrangling various display options related to it.

1. TimePickerPreference

First thing we want to make is the TimePickerPreference. Here’s how my code looks like:

package black.old.spacedrepetitionowl
import android.content.Context
import android.util.AttributeSet
import androidx.preference.DialogPreference
// This class is used in our preference where user can pick a time for notifications to appear.
// Specifically, this class is responsible for saving/retrieving preference data.
class TimepickerPreference(context: Context?, attrs: AttributeSet?) : DialogPreference(context, attrs) {
// Get saved preference value (in minutes from midnight, so 1 AM is represented as 1*60 here
fun getPersistedMinutesFromMidnight(): Int {
return super.getPersistedInt(DEFAULT_MINUTES_FROM_MIDNIGHT)
}
// Save preference
fun persistMinutesFromMidnight(minutesFromMidnight: Int) {
super.persistInt(minutesFromMidnight)
notifyChanged()
}
override fun onSetInitialValue(defaultValue: Any?) {
super.onSetInitialValue(defaultValue)
summary = minutesFromMidnightToHourlyTime(getPersistedMinutesFromMidnight())
}
// Mostly for default values
companion object {
// By default we want notification to appear at 9 AM each time.
private const val DEFAULT_HOUR = 9
const val DEFAULT_MINUTES_FROM_MIDNIGHT = DEFAULT_HOUR * 60
}
}
view raw TimePickerPreference.kt hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Above, I override onSetInitialValue() so that I can fill the preference’s summary with the actual time. The idea is to allow people to see the currently selected time, which should look like this:

A preference with the 10:30 value written in the summary area of the preference.

With custom dialog preference like this, I found that the summary area is what’s commonly used to show the current value of that preference.

The two functions persistMinutesFromMidnight() and getPersistedMinutesFromMidnight() are to be used for saving and retrieving the value related to this preference.

2. TimePickerPreferenceDialog

After the preference aspect is created, now we set up the actual dialog. Here’s the code that I have:

package black.old.spacedrepetitionowl
import android.content.Context
import android.os.Bundle
import android.view.View
import android.widget.TimePicker
import androidx.preference.PreferenceDialogFragmentCompat
class TimePickerPreferenceDialog : PreferenceDialogFragmentCompat() {
lateinit var timepicker: TimePicker
override fun onCreateDialogView(context: Context?): View {
timepicker = TimePicker(context)
return timepicker
}
override fun onBindDialogView(view: View?) {
super.onBindDialogView(view)
val minutesAfterMidnight = (preference as TimepickerPreference)
.getPersistedMinutesFromMidnight()
timepicker.setIs24HourView(true)
timepicker.hour = minutesAfterMidnight / 60
timepicker.minute = minutesAfterMidnight % 60
}
override fun onDialogClosed(positiveResult: Boolean) {
// Save settings
if(positiveResult) {
val minutesAfterMidnight = (timepicker.hour * 60) + timepicker.minute
(preference as TimepickerPreference).persistMinutesFromMidnight(minutesAfterMidnight)
preference.summary = minutesFromMidnightToHourlyTime(minutesAfterMidnight)
}
}
companion object {
fun newInstance(key: String): TimePickerPreferenceDialog {
val fragment = TimePickerPreferenceDialog()
val bundle = Bundle(1)
bundle.putString(ARG_KEY, key)
fragment.arguments = bundle
return fragment
}
}
}
view raw TimePickerPreferenceDialog.kt hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Inside onCreateDialogView(), we generate the TimePicker to be displayed.

Inside onBindDialogView(), we grab the current hour/minute preference value, and set that value into the TimePicker. The goal is to make it so that when someone first opens the TimePicker dialog, the clock already shows the current value instead of starting from zero. (preference as TimepickerPreference) is needed here because without it, the compiler does not now that the current preference is a custom TimePickerPreference, and hence will not be able to find the function we need.

Inside onDialogClosed(), we save the value selected by the user after clicking the positive button.

For more information about the NewInstance pattern, this article will be helpful.

3. XML Layout

Here’s my preference XML file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.preference.PreferenceScreen xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<black.old.spacedrepetitionowl.TimepickerPreference
android:key="pref_notification_time"
android:title="Notification time"
android:summary="This will programmatically show current notification time."
android:defaultValue="90" />
</androidx.preference.PreferenceScreen>
view raw preference.xml hosted with ❤ by GitHub

The interesting part might be <black.old.spacedrepetitionowl.TimepickerPreference> which indeed is the class we created on step 1. During run-time, the android:summary part is programmatically modified and filled in both within TimePickerPreference (on initial opening of the preference screen), and TimePickerDialogPreference (after user picked a time).

4. PreferenceFragment

This is the regular fragment that we’ll use to display the preference screen. Here’s my file:

package black.old.spacedrepetitionowl
import android.os.Bundle
import androidx.fragment.app.Fragment
import android.view.LayoutInflater
import android.view.View
import android.view.ViewGroup
import androidx.preference.Preference
import androidx.preference.PreferenceFragmentCompat
/**
* A simple [Fragment] subclass.
*/
class PreferenceFragment : PreferenceFragmentCompat() {
private val DIALOG_FRAGMENT_TAG = "TimePickerDialog"
override fun onCreatePreferences(savedInstanceState: Bundle?, rootKey: String?) {
setPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.preference, rootKey)
}
override fun onDisplayPreferenceDialog(preference: Preference?) {
if(preference is TimepickerPreference) {
val timepickerdialog = TimePickerPreferenceDialog.newInstance(preference.key)
timepickerdialog.setTargetFragment(this, 0)
timepickerdialog.show(parentFragmentManager, DIALOG_FRAGMENT_TAG)
}
else {
super.onDisplayPreferenceDialog(preference)
}
}
}
view raw PreferenceFragment.kt hosted with ❤ by GitHub

First, we’re pulling the XML layout inside onCreatePreferences().

Next, since we want to display our own custom dialog preference, we need to override onDisplayPreferenceDialog(). Here, we specifically want to check if the currently selected preference is our custom preference, TimePickerPreference. If it is, we instantiate a new TimePickerPreferenceDialog and display it. If it’s a different type of dialog preference (let’s say it’s one of the three built-in dialog preferences mentioned earlier), we let it be handled automatically by the superclass.

And that’s it! This is just a small example but hopefully is a good starting point if you want to create a different kind of custom dialog preference 🙂

Categories
Programming

Fun with ViewModel and LiveData: Sending Informations between Fragments

In Android development, there are a few different ways to send informations between one fragment to another. As of September 2020, the recommended way to allow for this communication is to use LiveData exposed by a shared ViewModel.

The steps are relatively simple. Suppose that we want to send data from Fragment A to Fragment B:

  1. Create a ViewModel
  2. Have Fragment A and Fragment B share that same ViewModel.
  3. Create a LiveData inside the ViewModel to contain the data that’s to be passed from A to B.
  4. Assign or update value to the LiveData object inside Fragment A, usually with the help of a public method inside the ViewModel to assign or update the value.
  5. Have Fragment B observe the LiveData inside it onCreate() , and make use of the data there.
Categories
Programming

Resources for Learning about Jetpack Compose

Jetpack Compose is Google’s latest toolkit for building UI, at the moment generally aimed for Android development. Below is a list of what I think is a good, comprehensive approach on how to learn about it. At the moment, Jetpack Compose is under active development and currently released in Alpha version, so this list will continuously evolve with it as well.

Understanding Jetpack Compose — Part 1 of 2 by Leland Richardson, one of Google’s engineers developing Jetpack Compose. The post helps explain the “why” of Jetpack Compose. What challenges is it trying to address, and how.

Thinking in Compose. Also helps explain why the declarative UI model as used by Jetpack Compose is beneficial.

Official documentation

  • Layouts in Compose. Explains how layouts can be created using Jetpack Compose and shows the built-in components that come with it.
  • Theming in Compose. Explains how to modify the look-and-feel of an app made with Jetpack Compose.
  • Testing in Compose. How to test UI made with Jetpack Compose.
  • Interoperability. Explains how to add, use, and combine Jetpack Compose with existing apps that already use the view-based UI model.

Sample apps

  • https://github.com/android/compose-samples . Official samples from the Android repository. Has multiple different sample apps in it, with the Readme file helpfully explaining what concepts are being explored and used in each app.

Also, Elsewhere

  • React. A declarative UI library written in JavaScript, mostly used on web development.
  • SwiftUI. A declarative UI library for development within the Apple platform.
Categories
Programming

Getting to Know Hilt: Dependency Injection Library for Android

Artikel ini juga tersedia dalam Bahasa Indonesia.

I’ve written about dependency injection (D.I) a couple of times on this blog. First about understanding Dagger (in Indonesian) and second about a simple way to understand D.I. and why it is needed. The latest development is that Google is now recommending a new library for implementing D.I. It’s called Hilt:

Technically the video above is plenty enough to introduce Hilt, so at this point I could have ended this article 😆

Nevertheless, I’ll try to make a shorter summary below with the hope that it will make it simpler to understand from a beginner’s perspective.

Essentialy, Hilt is meant to help with adding D.I. in our application. There’s some automated processes that it does so that we don’t have to manually add dependency injection.

Why should we have Hilt when Dagger already exists? From what I understand, the main idea is to simplify. And Hilt itself is made with Dagger at its base. According to Dagger’s site:

Hilt provides a standard way to incorporate Dagger dependency injection into an Android application.

The goals of Hilt are:

– To simplify Dagger-related infrastructure for Android apps.

– To create a standard set of components and scopes to ease setup, readability/understanding, and code sharing between apps.

– To provide an easy way to provision different bindings to various build types (e.g. testing, debug, or release).

For those who haven’t went deep with Dagger, I think learning Hilt instead will be more efficient and pragmatic (unless if in practice you will be dealing with existing codebases that already use Dagger.)

If we look at the new navigation menu hierarchy on the Dependency Injection page on the Android training page, we can see that Hilt is shown earlier than Dagger, giving it a bit more perceived importance than Dagger.

Basic Concepts for D.I. Frameworks

If you haven’t learned about Dependency Injection whatsoever, please open and read this article first, before continuing here.

The common technique in creating D.I. is by using the idea of container. When creating D.I. manually, container will be a class that is supposed to be the central place where all dependencies are generated. An example from Android training:

// Container of objects shared across the whole app
class AppContainer {

    // Since you want to expose userRepository out of the container, you need to satisfy
    // its dependencies as you did before
    private val retrofit = Retrofit.Builder()
                            .baseUrl("https://example.com")
                            .build()
                            .create(LoginService::class.java)

    private val remoteDataSource = UserRemoteDataSource(retrofit)
    private val localDataSource = UserLocalDataSource()

    // userRepository is not private; it'll be exposed
    val userRepository = UserRepository(localDataSource, remoteDataSource)
}

Next, the class is instantiated within Application(), which acts as the entry point of the app, so that subsequent components like fragments or activites can use the container to get their dependencies.

At its core, a D.I. framework like Hilt is supposed to make the process above easier. It will automatically generate the container class for us, as well as help inject the dependencies (hence why it’s called Dependency Injection) into the components that need them.

Basic Concepts for Hilt

Roughly speaking, first we need to teach Hilt a few things to it can automate things for us. As commonly used in Android programming, we use annotation for this.

First, the @HiltAndroidApp annotation is used to teach Hilt where the Application() instance is in our app:

@HiltAndroidApp
class ExampleApplication : Application() { ... }

The second annotation that’s needed is @AndroidEntryPoint. It is used to signify components that will need some injections: 

@AndroidEntryPoint
class ExampleActivity : AppCompatActivity() { ... }

The third important annotation is @Inject. It has two roles. First, it is used to “tag” dependencies that will eventually be injected into components:

class AnalyticsAdapter @Inject constructor(
  private val service: AnalyticsService
) { ... }

Second, it is also used within components to actually do the injection:

@AndroidEntryPoint
class ExampleActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
 @Inject lateinit var analytics: AnalyticsAdapter
 ...
}

Going Forward with Hilt

The three annotations above are the most basic things we need to get started with Hilt. Going further, there are different cases that will require further setup with Hilt. Cases such as:

  • D.I. related with interface
  • D.I. for dependencies with third-party or external libraries like Retrofit or Room database
  • D.I. with more than one implementation for the same type to be injected.

The cases above are beyond this current article. There is a docunemtation page here for further information.

References and Sources

Categories
Bahasa Indonesia Programming

Perkenalan dengan Hilt: Library Dependency Injection untuk Android

Saya sudah beberapa kali menulis soal dependency injection (D.I.) di blog ini. Masih yang basic-basic saja, pertama soal memahami Dagger dan kedua soal cara sederhana memahami D.I dan mengapa dia dibutuhkan. Berita terbaru, ada library baru dari Google untuk membantu mempermudah mengaplikasikan D.I. di app kita. Namanya Hilt:

Sebenarnya video di atas sudah sangat cukup untuk memperkenalkan Hilt, jadi sampai di sini artikel ini sebenarnya bisa ditutup 😆

Tetapi berikut saya akan mengikhtisarkan sedikit dengan harapan agar dia lebih mudah dipahami lagi.

Jadi Hilt pada intinya difungsikan untuk membantu proses menambahkan D.I. di aplikasi kita. Ada proses otomatisasi di dalamnya agar kita tidak perlu melakukan D.I. secara manual.

Mengapa harus ada Hilt kalau sudah ada Dagger? Di sini sepertinya kata kuncinya adalah penyederhanaan. Hilt sendiri dibuat menggunakan Dagger sebagai basisnya. Menurut situs Dagger:

Hilt provides a standard way to incorporate Dagger dependency injection into an Android application.

The goals of Hilt are:

  • To simplify Dagger-related infrastructure for Android apps.
  • To create a standard set of components and scopes to ease setup, readability/understanding, and code sharing between apps.
  • To provide an easy way to provision different bindings to various build types (e.g. testing, debug, or release).

Hilt menyediakan cara standar untuk menambahkan Dagger dependency injection ke dalam sebuah aplikasi Android.

Tujuan Hilt antara lain:

  • Menyederhanakan infrastuktur yang terkait dengan Dagger dalam aplikasi Android
  • Membuat set komponen dan scopes yang standar untuk memudahkan dalam setup, membaca/memahami kode, dan berbagi kode dalam banyak aplikasi.
  • Menyediakan cara yang mudah untuk membuat binding yang berbeda-beda untuk build types yang berbeda (misalkan unutk testing, debug, atau release).

Bagi yang belum terlalu mendalami Dagger, saya rasa mempelajari Hilt akan lebih efisien dan pragmatis (kecuali jika pada prakteknya harus berhadapan dengan kode yang dari awal sudah menggunakan Dagger).

Jika kita melihat dari hierarki menu di halaman Dependency Injection di Android training milik Google, Hilt ditampilkan lebih awal dari Dagger, yang sepertinya secara halus menunjukkan kalau Google ingin mendorong orang-orang untuk memakai Hilt.

Konsep dasar D.I. Frameworks

Bagi yang belum paham D.I. sama sekali, silakan membaca artikel ini dulu, baru kembali ke sini.

Teknik umum dalam membuat D.I. adalah dengan menggunakan konsep kontainer. Apabila membuat D.I. secara manual, kontainer adalah class yang bertugas menjadi tempat semua dependensi dibuat. Contoh dari Android:

// Container of objects shared across the whole app
class AppContainer {

    // Since you want to expose userRepository out of the container, you need to satisfy
    // its dependencies as you did before
    private val retrofit = Retrofit.Builder()
                            .baseUrl("https://example.com")
                            .build()
                            .create(LoginService::class.java)

    private val remoteDataSource = UserRemoteDataSource(retrofit)
    private val localDataSource = UserLocalDataSource()

    // userRepository is not private; it'll be exposed
    val userRepository = UserRepository(localDataSource, remoteDataSource)
}

Kemudian, class ini dibuat instance-nya di dalam Application(), yang bertindak sebagai pintu masuk aplikasi, sehingga komponen-komponen berikutnya seperti fragments atau activities bisa menggunakan kontainer tersebut untuk membuat dependensi.

Sebuah D.I. framework seperti Hilt pada intinya bertugas membuat proses di atas lebih mudah. Dia bisa membuatkan class kontainer untuk kita, sekaligus “menyuntikkan” dependensi (dari sini istilah Injection di D.I. berasal) ke dalam komponen-komponen yang membutuhkannya.

Konsep dasar Hilt

Secara kasar, kita perlu memberi tahu Hilt bagaimana caranya agar dia bisa membuatkan kontainer dan menginjeksi dependensi secara otomatis. Caranya, seperti yang umum digunakan di pemrograman Android, adalah dengan menggunakan anotasi/annotation.

Pertama, anotasi @HiltAndroidApp untuk memberi tahu Hilt di mana Application() instance di aplikasi kita:

@HiltAndroidApp
class ExampleApplication : Application() { ... }

Anotasi kedua yang diperlukan adalah @AndroidEntryPoint. Ini untuk memberi tanda kepada komponen yang membutuhkan injeksi: 

@AndroidEntryPoint
class ExampleActivity : AppCompatActivity() { ... }

Anotasi ketiga yang juga penting adalah @Inject. Dia punya dua tugas. Pertama, untuk memberi tanda kepada dependensi-dependensi yang nantinya perlu diinjeksi ke dalam sebuah komponen:

class AnalyticsAdapter @Inject constructor(
  private val service: AnalyticsService
) { ... }

Kedua, dia juga dipakai di dalam komponen di mana injeksi harus dilakukan:

@AndroidEntryPoint
class ExampleActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
 @Inject lateinit var analytics: AnalyticsAdapter
 ...
}

Lebih Lanjut dengan Hilt

Tiga jenis anotasi di atas pada dasarnya sudah cukup untuk memulai menggunakan Hilt. Lebih lanjut, ada kasus-kasus lain yang membutuhkan setup lebih banyak untuk dikerjakan dengan Hilt. Kasus-kasusnya seperti:

  • D.I. terkait dengan interface
  • D.I. untuk dependensi yang berasal dari third-party atau library eksternal seperti Retrofit atau Room database
  • D.I. dengan lebih dari satu implementasi untuk satu type yang sama

Artikel ini tidak membahas kasus-kasus di atas. Ada dokumentasi lebih lanjut di sini bagi yang tertarik.

Referensi dan Sumber-sumber

Categories
Programming

Setting Up Jetpack Navigation Component and Modal Navigation Drawer

On small screens like on mobile (setting aside how humongous smartphones tend to be nowadays), a very common pattern is to use a modal navigation drawer to allow users to navigate between one top-level destinations in the app. You’ve seen them: it’s usually the three horizontal lines on top left of an app, that can be tapped to show and hide a side drawer with a list of menu items inside of it.

Despite being a common design pattern, when I tried to learn how implement it in conjunction with the Jetpack Navigation Component, the available resources can be quite difficult to understand. They’re out there, but in my experience they’re a bit scattered and I had a hard time creating the right mental model in my mind on how to put things together.

This article is my attempt to sum things up. For things to make sense, you will need some familiarity with basic Android development and the Navigation Component itself.

Continue reading “Setting Up Jetpack Navigation Component and Modal Navigation Drawer”
Categories
Programming

General Mechanism for Scheduling Notification in Android

This article is more of a quick note about what’s involved when your Android app needs to create a notification and schedule it to appear at some time in the future. There’s a lot of articles out there that goes in details about the implementation. Think of this article as more of a summary.

Continue reading “General Mechanism for Scheduling Notification in Android”
Categories
Programming

Kotlin: Using MediatorLiveData to Use Data from Two Tables at Once

With my current app, the main data is Subjects, where each Subject have multiple Reminders tied to it. For this purpose, I have a couple of tables in the database, which in its simplified form can be seen as below:

Subject table with:

  1. Subject ID
  2. Subject title

Reminder table with:

  1. Reminder ID
  2. Reminder timestamp
  3. Subject ID

I’m using Room for database and LiveData to pull data from the tables. The data then gets supplied to a RecyclerView, where each RecyclerView item will display a Subject with its Reminders.

RecyclerView where each row is a Subject and its four Reminder dates.

The tricky part is that, since there are two tables, I have two separate methods returning LiveData object from each table. Most tutorials out there assume the use of only one LiveData to be observed by the RecyclerView, so it can get confusing when there’s two LiveData at once.

I found a smart solution on Stack Overflow that makes use of MediatorLiveData and Kotlin’s Pair to make the whole thing work. This article is an attempt to expand on that solution by writing down my understanding of it.

This article assumes familiarity with Android concepts for RecyclerView, Room, ViewModel, and LiveData.


Create a “combination” MediatorLiveData class

The first thing to do is to create a class that extends MediatorLiveData. The interesting part is that we need to use Pair<List<Subject>, List<Reminder>> as MediatorLiveData’s type.

After that, we simply construct the class by sending it LiveData<List<Subject>> and LiveData<List<Reminder>> as constructor parameters, then put those two inside a Pair, and finally set the Pair as the MediatorLiveData object’s value.

import androidx.lifecycle.LiveData
import androidx.lifecycle.MediatorLiveData
// This class ia a MediatorLiveData created since I have two different sources of data:
// – subjects table
// – reminders table
// Since they then become two separate LiveData, and I need both to fill in the data
// on the main RecyclerView, then we're using a MediatorLiveData to grab both LiveData
// and add them as sources, so that we can notify observers when any of the data gets
// updated.
class CombinedSubjectReminders(
ldSubject: LiveData<List<Subject>>,
ldReminder: LiveData<List<Reminder>>
) : MediatorLiveData<Pair<List<Subject>, List<Reminder>>>() {
private var listSubject: List<Subject> = emptyList()
private var listReminder: List<Reminder> = emptyList()
init {
value = Pair(listSubject, listReminder)
addSource(ldSubject) {
if( it != null ) listSubject = it
value = Pair(listSubject, listReminder)
}
addSource(ldReminder) {
if( it != null ) listReminder = it
value = Pair(listSubject, listReminder)
}
}
}
view raw CombinedSubjectReminders.kt hosted with ❤ by GitHub
Example of a MediatorLiveData class to handle two LiveDatas at once.

That is pretty much where the magic lies. The potentially tricky part is the addSource method and the value variable, both of which are built-in features of the MediatorLiveData.

Inside ViewModel

Inside the ViewModel, we call the repository’s methods for pulling LiveData from each table, then we return a “combination” object as we describe in the class above, and put in the LiveData as its parameters.

fun getSubjects(): LiveData<List<Subject>>? {
return sroRepository.getSubjects()
}
fun getReminders(): LiveData<List<Reminder>>? {
return sroRepository.getReminders()
}
fun getAllData(): CombinedSubjectReminders? {
var ldSubjects = getSubjects()
var ldReminders = getReminders()
if (ldSubjects != null && ldReminders != null) {
return CombinedSubjectReminders(ldSubjects, ldReminders)
}
return null
}
view raw MainViewModel.kt hosted with ❤ by GitHub
Methods inside ViewModel to grab two LiveData from repository and put them into one MediatorLiveData

Inside RecyclerViewAdapter

Inside the adapter, we modify its constructor to accept two Lists as parameters, the List<Subject> and the List<Reminder>.

class SubjectRecyclerViewAdapter(
val subjects: List<Subject>,
val reminders: List<Reminder>,
val listener: OnListFragmentInteractionListener?
) : RecyclerView.Adapter<RecyclerView.ViewHolder>() {
view raw SubjectRecyclerViewAdapter.kt hosted with ❤ by GitHub
Put in the two List<> as constructor parameters in RecyclerViewAdapter

Observe the MediatorLiveData

Finally, inside the fragment or activity that has the RecyclerView, we observe the returned MediatorLiveData from the ViewModel. When there’s any change, the observer gives a Pair containing a List<Subject> and a List<Reminder>. We can then put those two as the parameter of the adapter.

mainViewModel = ViewModelProvider(activity!!).get(MainViewModel::class.java)
// New observer
mainViewModel.getAllData()?.observe(viewLifecycleOwner,
Observer { subjectsAndRemindersPair –>
view.sro_subject_list.adapter = SubjectRecyclerViewAdapter(
subjectsAndRemindersPair.first,
subjectsAndRemindersPair.second,
listener)
})
view raw SubjectFragment.kt hosted with ❤ by GitHub
Observe the MediatorLiveData given by ViewModel, and update RecyclerViewAdapter accordingly.

Note how the Observer pattern uses a lambda with subjectsAndRemindersPair as the parameter. That is essentially the type of the MediatorLiveData in question, and by default Kotlin call that parameter it. I renamed it to subjectsAndRemindersPair to make it easier to understand.

Categories
Programming

Strategies for Creating A Single RecyclerView with Multiple ViewHolders

This article assumes familiarity with creating a RecyclerView using a single ViewHolder for each item, which is the most common use case.

Here are the possible cases where a RecyclerView might use an adapter with multiple ViewHolders instead:

A RecyclerView that uses two different layouts for each item based on odd/even position.

Case One

Have one RecyclerView to display different layouts for different items at the same time, based on certain conditions. Just as an example, here I have a RecyclerView that uses two different layouts for each item based on odd/even position.

FIND OUT HOW

A RecyclerView that uses identical layout for each item.

Case Two

Have one RecyclerView to display the same layout for each item. However, based on user action on certain conditions (such as during sorting or filtering action), the same RecyclerView will display the same data using a different layout. As an example, here’s a RecyclerView that uses just one layout for each item. Use your own imagination for an example where the RecyclerView at a different time uses a different layout instead.

find out how

Case 1

Here’s the general method. I’m only listing areas that differ from the usual case of RecyclerView with just one ViewHolder:

  1. We now have to create the multiple ViewHolder classes first. I prefer them to be inner classes of the custom RecyclerView.Adapter class. Pretty self-explanatory, the only possible gotcha/oddity here is that inside the class’s constructor, we create variables that directly access specific views inside a certain layout, without the class knowing about which layout it is related to.
  2. The RecyclerView adapter now must extend the more generic RecyclerView.Adapter<RecyclerView.ViewHolder>class instead of using the single custom ViewHolder class as the generic type.
  3. The RecyclerView now must override getItemViewType(), which is used to decide which ViewHolder class to be used on a certain item position in the RecyclerView.
  4. The method onCreateViewHolder() must now return the more generic RecyclerView.ViewHolder
  5. The method onBindViewHolder() must now use the more generic RecyclerView.ViewHolder object as its first parameter.

Case 2

  1. Have a variable to determine which ViewHolder should be used by the RecylerView. This will usually be inside the fragment or activity.
  2. Pass that variable as one of the parameters for constructing the RecyclerView’s adapter.
  3. Inside the adapter, create the multiple ViewHolder classes first. I prefer them to be inner classes of the custom RecyclerView.Adapter class. Pretty self-explanatory, the only possible gotcha/oddity here is that inside the class’s constructor, we create variables that directly access specific views inside a certain layout, without the class knowing about which layout it is related to.
  4. The RecyclerView adapter now must extend the more generic RecyclerView.Adapter<RecyclerView.ViewHolder>class instead of using the single custom ViewHolder class as the generic type.
  5. The RecyclerView adapter now must override getItemViewType(), and check the variable from step 2 to determine which ViewHolder to use.
  6. The method onCreateViewHolder() must now return the more generic RecyclerView.ViewHolder
  7. The method onBindViewHolder() must now use the more generic RecyclerView.ViewHolder object as its first parameter.
Categories
Programming

Data Binding with Kotlin; Why?

I came across the Data Binding resources page for Android, and reading through it got me questioning. Why is such setup necessary, when Kotlin extensions allows for super easy view binding already (example below)?

// Using R.layout.activity_main from the 'main' source set
import kotlinx.android.synthetic.main.activity_main.*
class MyActivity : Activity() {
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
// Instead of findViewById<TextView>(R.id.textView)
textView.setText("Hello, world!")
}
}
view raw exampleActivity.kt hosted with ❤ by GitHub
Example of view binding using Kotlin Extensions (source)

As it turns out, there’s quite a difference as explained on a Reddit comment that I pasted below:

Hey! Developer Advocate for Android at Google here!

I wanted to add a bit of background here. Kotlin Extensions with synthetic views was never intentionally “recommended” though that shouldn’t be taken as a recommendation to not use them. If they’re working for you please feel free to continue using them in your app!

We’ve been shifting away from them (e.g. we don’t teach them in the Udacity course) because they expose a global namespace of ids that’s unrelated to the layout that’s actually inflated with no checks against invalid lookups, are Kotlin only, and don’t expose nullability when views are only present in some configuration. All together, these issues cause the API to increase number of crashes for Android apps.

On the other hand, they do offer a lightweight API that can help simplify view lookups. In this space it’s also worth taking a look at Data Binding which also does automatic view lookups – as well as integrates with LiveData to automatically update your views as data changes.

Today, there’s a few options in this space that work:

  • Data Binding is the recommendation for view lookup as well as binding, but it does add a bit of overhead when compared to Android Kotlin Extensions. It’s worth taking a look to see if this is a good fit for your app. Data Binding also allows you to observe LiveData to bind views automatically when data changes. Compared to Kotlin Extensions, it adds compile time checking of view lookups and type safety.
  • Android Kotlin Extensions is not officially recommended (which is not the same as recommendation against). It does come with the issues mentioned above, so for our code we’re not using them.
  • Butter Knife is another solution that is extremely popular and works for both Kotlin and the Java Programming Language.

Reading through the comments here there’s a lot of developers that are having great luck with Kotlin Extensions. That’s great – and something we’ll keep in mind as we look at ways to continue improving our APIs. If you haven’t taken a look at Data Binding, definitely give it a shot.

As an aside, our internal code style guide is not intended to be directly applied outside of our codebase. For example, we use mPrefixVariables, but there’s no reason that every app should follow that style.

On ButterKnife

The quote mentions ButterKnife, so it’s probably worth mentioning also that the Github page for ButterKnife mentions that development for it is being winded down, and it recommends to use View Binding instead.

Data Binding vs View Binding

Now that these two concepts are being mentioned, what are the differences? From the View Binding documentation page:

View binding and the data binding library both generate binding classes that you can use to reference views directly. However, there are notable differences:

  • The data binding library processes only data binding layouts created using the <layout> tag.
  • View binding doesn’t support layout variables or layout expressions, so it can’t be used to bind layouts with data in XML.

Stack Overflow: Android : Difference between DataBinding and ViewBinding