What's LiveData.md

LiveData

LiveData is an observable data holder class. Unlike a regular observable, LiveData is lifecycle-aware, meaning it respects the lifecycle of other app components, such as activities, fragments, or services. This awareness ensures LiveData only updates app component observers that are in an active lifecycle state.

LiveData considers an observer, which is represented by the Observer class, to be in an active state if its lifecycle is in the STARTED or RESUMED state. LiveData only notifies active observers about updates. Inactive observers registered to watch LiveData objects aren't notified about changes.

You can register an observer paired with an object that implements the LifecycleOwner interface. This relationship allows the observer to be removed when the state of the corresponding Lifecycle object changes to DESTROYED. This is especially useful for activities and fragments because they can safely observe LiveData objects and not worry about leaks—activities and fragments are instantly unsubscribed when their lifecycles are destroyed.

Work with LiveData objects

Follow these steps to work with LiveData objects:

• Create an instance of LiveData to hold a certain type of data. This is usually done within your ViewModel class.
• Create an Observer object that defines the onChanged() method, which controls what happens when the LiveData object's held data changes. You usually create an Observer object in a UI controller, such as an activity or fragment.
• Attach the Observer object to the LiveData object using the observe() method. The observe() method takes a LifecycleOwner object. This subscribes the Observer object to the LiveData object so that it is notified of changes. You usually attach the Observer object in a UI controller, such as an activity or fragment.

When you update the value stored in the LiveData object, it triggers all registered observers as long as the attached LifecycleOwner is in the active state.

LiveData allows UI controller observers to subscribe to updates. When the data held by the LiveData object changes, the UI automatically updates in response.

Create LiveData objects

LiveData is a wrapper that can be used with any data, including objects that implement Collections, such as List. A LiveData object is usually stored within a ViewModel object and is accessed via a getter method, as demonstrated in the following example:

class NameViewModel : ViewModel() {

    // Create a LiveData with a String
    val currentName: MutableLiveData<String> by lazy {
        MutableLiveData<String>()
    }

    // Rest of the ViewModel...
}

Initially, the data in a LiveData object is not set.

Observe LiveData objects

In most cases, an app component’s onCreate() method is the right place to begin observing a LiveData object for the following reasons:

• To ensure the system doesn’t make redundant calls from an activity or fragment’s onResume() method.
• To ensure that the activity or fragment has data that it can display as soon as it becomes active. As soon as an app component is in the STARTED state, it receives the most recent value from the LiveData objects it’s observing. This only occurs if the LiveData object to be observed has been set.

Generally, LiveData delivers updates only when data changes, and only to active observers. An exception to this behavior is that observers also receive an update when they change from an inactive to an active state. Furthermore, if the observer changes from inactive to active a second time, it only receives an update if the value has changed since the last time it became active.

The following sample code illustrates how to start observing a LiveData object:

class NameActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

    // Use the 'by viewModels()' Kotlin property delegate
    // from the activity-ktx artifact
    private val model: NameViewModel by viewModels()

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)

        // Other code to setup the activity...

        // Create the observer which updates the UI.
        val nameObserver = Observer<String> { newName ->
            // Update the UI, in this case, a TextView.
            nameTextView.text = newName
        }

        // Observe the LiveData, passing in this activity as the LifecycleOwner and the observer.
        model.currentName.observe(this, nameObserver)
    }
}

After observe() is called with nameObserver passed as parameter, onChanged() is immediately invoked providing the most recent value stored in mCurrentName. If the LiveData object hasn't set a value in mCurrentName, onChanged() is not called.

Update LiveData objects

LiveData has no publicly available methods to update the stored data. The MutableLiveData class exposes the setValue(T) and postValue(T) methods publicly and you must use these if you need to edit the value stored in a LiveData object. Usually MutableLiveData is used in the ViewModel and then the ViewModel only exposes immutable LiveData objects to the observers.

After you have set up the observer relationship, you can then update the value of the LiveData object, as illustrated by the following example, which triggers all observers when the user taps a button:

button.setOnClickListener {
    val anotherName = "John Doe"
    model.currentName.setValue(anotherName)
}

Calling setValue(T) in the example results in the observers calling their onChanged() methods with the value John Doe. The example shows a button press, but setValue() or postValue() could be called to update mName for a variety of reasons, including in response to a network request or a database load completing; in all cases, the call to setValue() or postValue() triggers observers and updates the UI.

Note: Note: You must call the setValue(T) method to update the LiveData object from the main thread. If the code is executed in a worker thread, you can use the postValue(T) method instead to update the LiveData object.

The advantages of using LiveData

• Ensures your UI matches your data state. LiveData follows the observer pattern. LiveData notifies Observer objects when the lifecycle state changes. You can consolidate your code to update the UI in these Observer objects. Instead of updating the UI every time the app data changes, your observer can update the UI every time there's a change.
• No memory leaks. Observers are bound to Lifecycle objects and clean up after themselves when their associated lifecycle is destroyed.
• No crashes due to stopped activities. If the observer's lifecycle is inactive, such as in the case of an activity in the back stack, then it doesn’t receive any LiveData events.
• No more manual lifecycle handling. UI components just observe relevant data and don’t stop or resume observation. LiveData automatically manages all of this since it’s aware of the relevant lifecycle status changes while observing.
• Proper configuration changes. If an activity or fragment is recreated due to a configuration change, like device rotation, it immediately receives the latest available data.
• Sharing resources. You can extend a LiveData object using the singleton pattern to wrap system services so that they can be shared in your app. The LiveData object connects to the system service once, and then any observer that needs the resource can just watch the LiveData object.

Links

https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/architecture/livedata