Read more about the article Introducing MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) Architecture in Phimpme Android App
Introducing MVVM in Phimpme

Introducing MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) Architecture in Phimpme Android App

Phimpme Android App an image editor app that aims to replace proprietary photographing and image apps on smartphones. It offers features such as taking photos, adding filters, editing images and uploading them to social networks. The app was using MVP(Model-View-Presenter) architecture and is now being ported to MVVM(Model-View-ViewModel) architecture.

Advantages of MVVM over MVP?

  1. The view model is lifecycle aware and only updates the UI based on the lifecycle of the activity/fragment.
  2. Separation of concerns – Not all the code under one single activity
  3. Loose coupling – Activity depends on ViewModel and ViewModel depends on the Repository and not the other way around.

MVVM?

  1. Model – Model represents the data and business logic of the app. The repository can be seen as a model in an MVVM architecture which contains login to fetch the data from an API or a remote API
  2. ViewModel – The view model creates a reference with Model/Repository and gets the data for the UI. It delivers the data to UI via observers of LiveData and also the ViewModel is lifecycle aware and respects the lifecycle of the activity such as screen rotations that don’t cause the ViewModel to be created again.
  3. View – The Activity/Fragment is the view where the data is shown to the user, the View creates a reference to the ViewModel via ViewModel provider class. Hence it listens to the ViewModel callbacks via LiveData.

Process for inclusion

  1. Add ViewModel and LiveData

    implementation "androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-extensions:$rootProject.lifecycleVersion"

  2. Now create a class AccountViewModel – it will perform all the functioning that will drive the UI of the Account Activity. We will use LiveData for observing the data in the activity

    public class AccountViewModel extends ViewModel {
    private AccountRepository accountRepository

    = new AccountRepository();
    MutableLiveData<RealmQuery<AccountDatabase>>accountDetails = new MutableLiveData<>();//live data 

    }

  3. Create a class AccountRepository – Used to perform the DB related operations and the ViewModel will hold the instance of this repository.

    class AccountRepository {
    private Realm realm = Realm.getDefaultInstance();
    private DatabaseHelper databaseHelper = new DatabaseHelper(realm);// Fetches the details of all accounts present in database
    RealmQuery<AccountDatabase> fetchAllAccounts() {
    return databaseHelper.fetchAccountDetails();
     }
    }


  4. Now we will add the functionality in AccountViewModel to fetch accounts for the UI

    public class AccountViewModel extends ViewModel {
     final int RESULT_OK = 1;
    private AccountRepository accountRepository = new AccountRepository();
    MutableLiveData<Boolean> error = new MutableLiveData<>();
    MutableLiveData<RealmQuery<AccountDatabase>> accountDetails = new MutableLiveData<>();
    public AccountViewModel() {}
    // Used to fetch all the current logged in accounts
    void fetchAccountDetails() {
       RealmQuery<AccountDatabase> accountDetails = accountRepository.fetchAllAccounts();
    if (accountDetails.findAll().size() > 0) {
         this.accountDetails.postValue(accountDetails);
    } else {
     error.postValue(true);
    }
    }


  5. Now in the AccountActivity, we will have the reference of ViewModel and then observe the liveData error and accountDetails

    public class AccountActivity extends ThemedActivityimplements RecyclerItemClickListner.OnItemClickListener {

    private AccountViewModel accountViewModel;

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    ButterKnife.bind(this);
    ActivitySwitchHelper.setContext(this);
    setSupportActionBar(toolbar);
    //fetching the viewmodel from ViewModelProviders
    accountViewModel = ViewModelProviders.of(this).get(AccountViewModel.class);
    initObserver();
    }

    private void initObserver() {
    accountViewModel.error.observe(this, value -> {
    if (value) {
     SnackBarHandler.create(coordinatorLayout, getString(no_account_signed_in)).show();
    showComplete();
    }
     });
    accountViewModel.accountDetails.observe(this, this::setUpAdapter);
    }


Hence, this completes the implementation of MVVM Architecture in the Phimpme app.

Resources 

  1. Guide to App Architecture – Android Developers Blog
  2. ViewModel Overview – Android Developers Blog
  3. LiveData Overview – Android Developers Blog

Link to the Issue: https://github.com/fossasia/phimpme-android/issues/2889
Link to the PR: https://github.com/fossasia/phimpme-android/pull/2890

Continue ReadingIntroducing MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) Architecture in Phimpme Android App

Migration to Model-View-ViewModel Architecture and LiveData in Open Event Organizer App

Open Event Organizer App (Eventyay Organizer App) is the Android app used by event organizers to create and manage events on the Eventyay platform as well as check-in and check-out attendees along with other functionalities. The app used the MVP (Model-View-Presenter) architecture and is being ported to MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel). This article will explain the procedure of migrating MVP to MVVM architecture and implementing LiveData. 

Why migrate to MVVM?

The MVVM architecture is designed to store and manage UI-related data in a lifecycle conscious way. Configuration changes such as screen rotations are handled properly by ViewModels.

Tight Coupling:

The issue of tight coupling is resolved since only the View holds the reference to ViewModel and not vice versa. A single View can hold references to multiple ViewModels.

Testability:

Since Presenters are hard bound to Views, writing unit tests becomes slightly difficult as there is a dependency of a View.

ViewModels are more unit test friendly as they can be independently tested. There is no dependency of the View.

Here, the implementation is being described with the example of About Event module in the Open Event Organizer App.

First step is the creation of a new class AboutEventViewModel which extends ViewModel.

@Binds
@IntoMap
@ViewModelKey(AboutEventViewModel.class)
public abstract ViewModel bindAboutEventViewModel(AboutEventViewModel aboutEventViewModel);

The new ViewModel has to be added to the ViewModelModule:

Constructor for the ViewModel:

@Inject
public AboutEventViewModel(EventRepository eventRepository,  CopyrightRepository copyrightRepository,
DatabaseChangeListener<Copyright> copyrightChangeListener) {
    this.eventRepository = eventRepository;
    this.copyrightRepository = copyrightRepository;
    this.copyrightChangeListener = copyrightChangeListener;

    eventId = ContextManager.getSelectedEvent().getId();
}

We are using Dagger2 for dependency injection. 

LiveData

LiveData is a lifecycle-aware data holder with the observer pattern.

When we have a LiveData object (e.g. list of attendees), we can add some LifecycleOwner (it can be Activity or Fragment) as an observer. Using this:

The Activity or Fragment will remain updated with the data changes.

Observers are only notified if they are in the STARTED or RESUMED state which is also known as the active state. This prevents memory leaks and NullPointerExceptions because inactive observers are not notified about changes.

Now, let’s discuss about the implementation of LiveData. We will create objects of SingleEventLiveData<> class.

private final SingleEventLiveData<Boolean> progress = new SingleEventLiveData<>();
private final SingleEventLiveData<String> error = new SingleEventLiveData<>();
private final SingleEventLiveData<Event> success = new SingleEventLiveData<>();
private final SingleEventLiveData<Copyright> showCopyright = new SingleEventLiveData<>();
private final SingleEventLiveData<Boolean> changeCopyrightMenuItem = new SingleEventLiveData<>();
private final SingleEventLiveData<String> showCopyrightDeleted = new SingleEventLiveData<>();

The functions to get the LiveData objects:

public LiveData<Boolean> getProgress() {
    return progress;
}

public LiveData<Event> getSuccess() {
    return success;
}

public LiveData<String> getError() {
    return error;
}

public LiveData<Copyright> getShowCopyright() {
    return showCopyright;
}

public LiveData<Boolean> getChangeCopyrightMenuItem() {
    return changeCopyrightMenuItem;
}

public LiveData<String> getShowCopyrightDeleted() {
    return showCopyrightDeleted;
}

Now, we can remove getView() methods and instead, these objects will be used to call various methods defined in the fragment.

Let’s discuss the changes required in the AboutEventFragment now.

The Fragment will have ViewModelProvider.Factory injected.

@Inject
ViewModelProvider.Factory viewModelFactory;

Declare an object of the ViewModel.

private AboutEventViewModel aboutEventViewModel;

Then, in onCreateView(), viewModelFactory will be passed to the ViewModelProviders.of() method as the factory, which is the second parameter.

aboutEventViewModel = ViewModelProviders.of(this, viewModelFactory).get(AboutEventViewModel.class);

Replace all references to the Presenter with references to the ViewModel.

Add the Fragment as an observer to the changes by adding the following in the onStart() method:

aboutEventViewModel.getProgress().observe(this, this::showProgress);
aboutEventViewModel.getSuccess().observe(this, this::showResult);
aboutEventViewModel.getError().observe(this, this::showError);
aboutEventViewModel.getShowCopyright().observe(this, this::showCopyright);
aboutEventViewModel.getChangeCopyrightMenuItem().observe(this, this::changeCopyrightMenuItem);
aboutEventViewModel.getShowCopyrightDeleted().observe(this, this::showCopyrightDeleted);

Two parameters are passed to the observe() method  –  first one is LifecycleOwner, which is our Fragment in this case. The second one is a callback along with a parameter and is used to call the required method.

With this, the implementation of MVVM and LiveData is brought to completion.

Resources:

Documentation: ViewModel, LiveData

Further reading:

Open Event Organizer App: Project repo, Play Store, F-Droid

Continue ReadingMigration to Model-View-ViewModel Architecture and LiveData in Open Event Organizer App

Using Android Architecture Components in Organizer App

In the Open Event Organizer Android App there is an issue with the Memory leaks, Data persistence on configuration changes and difficulty in managing the Activity lifecycle. So as to deal with these issues we have implemented Android Architecture Components.

The first step towards moving on with AAC’s was the conversion of a presenter class to a ViewModel class and then implementing LiveData in the refactored class.

LiveData

It is an Observable data holder. It notifies the observers whenever there is change in the data so that the UI can be updated.

Livedata is also bound to the lifecycle which means that it will be observing changes only when the activity is in started or resumed state and hence there is no chance of memory leaks or null pointer exceptions.

ViewModel

The ViewModel class is designed to hold and manage UI-related data in a life-cycle conscious way. This allows data to survive configuration changes such as screen rotations.

In the following I’ll be explaining how the LoginViewModel class was made in the Orga App.

Steps

  • Creating one’s own custom ViewModelFactory. This is done so as to follow the Single Responsibility Principle. This custom class extends the ViewModelProvider.Factory and handles the creation of View Models. Adding this class also ensures that a Constructor can also get injected in the View Model class.
@Singleton
public class OrgaViewModelFactory implements ViewModelProvider.Factory {

  private final Map<Class<? extends ViewModel>, Provider<ViewModel>> creators;

  @Inject
  public OrgaViewModelFactory(Map<Class<? extends ViewModel>, Provider<ViewModel>> creators) {
      this.creators = creators;
  }

  @NonNull
  @Override
  @SuppressWarnings({“unchecked”, “PMD.AvoidThrowingRawExceptionTypes”, “PMD.AvoidCatchingGenericException”})
  public <T extends ViewModel> T create(@NonNull Class<T> modelClass) {
      Provider<? extends ViewModel> creator = creators.get(modelClass);
      if (creator == null) {
          for (Map.Entry<Class<? extends ViewModel>, Provider<ViewModel>> entry : creators.entrySet()) {
              if (modelClass.isAssignableFrom(entry.getKey())) {
                  creator = entry.getValue();
                  break;
              }
          }
      }
      if (creator == null) {
          throw new IllegalArgumentException(“unknown model class “ + modelClass);
      }
      try {
          return (T) creator.get();
      } catch (Exception e) {
          throw new RuntimeException(e);
      }
  }
}
  • Injecting this custom ViewModelFactory into the ViewModelModule. Adding the method bindLoginViewModel with the LoginViewModel as its parameter. Always add any new ViewModel class into the ViewModelModule otherwise it might show DaggerAppComponent errors.
@Module
public abstract class ViewModelModule {

  @Binds
  @IntoMap
  @ViewModelKey(LoginViewModel.class)
  public abstract ViewModel bindLoginViewModel(LoginViewModel loginViewModel);

  @Binds
  public abstract ViewModelProvider.Factory bindViewModelFactory(OrgaViewModelFactory factory);

}
  1. Refactoring the LoginPresenter to LoginViewModel class and extending it to ViewModel.
  2. In the fragment class injecting the ViewModelProviderFactory.
@Inject
ViewModelProvider.Factory viewModelFactory;
  • Pass this parameter in the ViewModelProviders.of( ) method as follows:
loginFragmentViewModel = ViewModelProviders.of(this, viewModelFactory).get(LoginViewModel.class);
  • Now the only task in hand is the use of LiveData in the ViewModels and observing the LiveData from the Fragments. In the following LiveData has been applied to observe the state of Progress Bar. When the login button is pressed, the value of MutableLiveData<Boolean> progress is set to true.
public void login() {
  compositeDisposable.add(loginModel.login(login)
      .doOnSubscribe(disposable -> progress.setValue(true))
      .doFinally(() -> progress.setValue(false))
      .subscribe(() -> isLoggedIn.setValue(true),
          throwable -> error.setValue(ErrorUtils.getMessage(throwable))));
}

 

  • This change in state is observed by the following code in the fragment class:
loginFragmentViewModel.getProgress().observe(this, this::showProgress);

On observing this, the showProgress is called which handles the visibility if the progress bar. Currently as the progress value was set to True, the progress bar is visible till the processing goes on.

  • Once the login takes place the progress of the LoginViewModel is set to false and the progress bar gets hidden, again which gets observed in the fragment class.

References:

https://android.jlelse.eu/android-architecture-components-livedata-1ce4ab3c0466

Continue ReadingUsing Android Architecture Components in Organizer App