NetworkBoundResource with Kotlin coroutines

Question

Do you have any ideas how to implement repository pattern with NetworkBoundResource and Kotlin coroutines? I know we can launch a coroutine withing a GlobalScope, but it may lead to coroutine leak. I would like to pass a viewModelScope as a parameter, but it is a bit tricky, when it comes to implementation (because my repository doesn't know a CoroutineScope of any ViewModel).

abstract class NetworkBoundResource<ResultType, RequestType>
@MainThread constructor(
    private val coroutineScope: CoroutineScope
) {

    private val result = MediatorLiveData<Resource<ResultType>>()

    init {
        result.value = Resource.loading(null)
        @Suppress("LeakingThis")
        val dbSource = loadFromDb()
        result.addSource(dbSource) { data ->
            result.removeSource(dbSource)
            if (shouldFetch(data)) {
                fetchFromNetwork(dbSource)
            } else {
                result.addSource(dbSource) { newData ->
                    setValue(Resource.success(newData))
                }
            }
        }
    }

    @MainThread
    private fun setValue(newValue: Resource<ResultType>) {
        if (result.value != newValue) {
            result.value = newValue
        }
    }

    private fun fetchFromNetwork(dbSource: LiveData<ResultType>) {
        val apiResponse = createCall()
        result.addSource(dbSource) { newData ->
            setValue(Resource.loading(newData))
        }
        result.addSource(apiResponse) { response ->
            result.removeSource(apiResponse)
            result.removeSource(dbSource)
            when (response) {
                is ApiSuccessResponse -> {
                    coroutineScope.launch(Dispatchers.IO) {
                        saveCallResult(processResponse(response))

                        withContext(Dispatchers.Main) {
                            result.addSource(loadFromDb()) { newData ->
                                setValue(Resource.success(newData))
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }

                is ApiEmptyResponse -> {
                    coroutineScope.launch(Dispatchers.Main) {
                        result.addSource(loadFromDb()) { newData ->
                            setValue(Resource.success(newData))
                        }
                    }
                }

                is ApiErrorResponse -> {
                    onFetchFailed()
                    result.addSource(dbSource) { newData ->
                        setValue(Resource.error(response.errorMessage, newData))
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

Update (2020-05-27):

A way which is more idiomatic to the Kotlin language than my previous examples, uses the Flow APIs, and borrows from Juan's answer can be represented as a standalone function like the following:

inline fun <ResultType, RequestType> networkBoundResource(
    crossinline query: () -> Flow<ResultType>,
    crossinline fetch: suspend () -> RequestType,
    crossinline saveFetchResult: suspend (RequestType) -> Unit,
    crossinline onFetchFailed: (Throwable) -> Unit = { Unit },
    crossinline shouldFetch: (ResultType) -> Boolean = { true }
) = flow<Resource<ResultType>> {
    emit(Resource.Loading(null))
    val data = query().first()

    val flow = if (shouldFetch(data)) {
        emit(Resource.Loading(data))

        try {
            saveFetchResult(fetch())
            query().map { Resource.Success(it) }
        } catch (throwable: Throwable) {
            onFetchFailed(throwable)
            query().map { Resource.Error(throwable, it) }
        }
    } else {
        query().map { Resource.Success(it) }
    }

    emitAll(flow)
}

The above code can be called from a class, e.g. a Repository, like so:

fun getItems(request: MyRequest): Flow<Resource<List<MyItem>>> {
    return networkBoundResource(
        query = { dao.queryAll() },
        fetch = { retrofitService.getItems(request) },
        saveFetchResult = { items -> dao.insert(items) }
    )
}

Original answer:

This is how I've been doing it using the livedata-ktx artifact; no need to pass in any CoroutineScope. The class also uses just one type instead of two (e.g. ResultType/RequestType) since I always end up using an adapter elsewhere for mapping those.

import androidx.lifecycle.LiveData
import androidx.lifecycle.liveData
import androidx.lifecycle.map
import nihk.core.Resource

// Adapted from: https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/architecture/coroutines
abstract class NetworkBoundResource<T> {

    fun asLiveData() = liveData<Resource<T>> {
        emit(Resource.Loading(null))

        if (shouldFetch(query())) {
            val disposable = emitSource(queryObservable().map { Resource.Loading(it) })

            try {
                val fetchedData = fetch()
                // Stop the previous emission to avoid dispatching the saveCallResult as `Resource.Loading`.
                disposable.dispose()
                saveFetchResult(fetchedData)
                // Re-establish the emission as `Resource.Success`.
                emitSource(queryObservable().map { Resource.Success(it) })
            } catch (e: Exception) {
                onFetchFailed(e)
                emitSource(queryObservable().map { Resource.Error(e, it) })
            }
        } else {
            emitSource(queryObservable().map { Resource.Success(it) })
        }
    }

    abstract suspend fun query(): T
    abstract fun queryObservable(): LiveData<T>
    abstract suspend fun fetch(): T
    abstract suspend fun saveFetchResult(data: T)
    open fun onFetchFailed(exception: Exception) = Unit
    open fun shouldFetch(data: T) = true
}

Like @CommonsWare said in the comments, however, it'd be nicer to just expose a Flow<T>. Here's what I've tried coming up with to do that. Note that I haven't used this code in production, so buyer beware.

import kotlinx.coroutines.flow.*
import nihk.core.Resource

abstract class NetworkBoundResource<T> {

    fun asFlow(): Flow<Resource<T>> = flow {
        val flow = query()
            .onStart { emit(Resource.Loading<T>(null)) }
            .flatMapConcat { data ->
                if (shouldFetch(data)) {
                    emit(Resource.Loading(data))

                    try {
                        saveFetchResult(fetch())
                        query().map { Resource.Success(it) }
                    } catch (throwable: Throwable) {
                        onFetchFailed(throwable)
                        query().map { Resource.Error(throwable, it) }
                    }
                } else {
                    query().map { Resource.Success(it) }
                }
            }

        emitAll(flow)
    }

    abstract fun query(): Flow<T>
    abstract suspend fun fetch(): T
    abstract suspend fun saveFetchResult(data: T)
    open fun onFetchFailed(throwable: Throwable) = Unit
    open fun shouldFetch(data: T) = true
}

Answer 2

@N1hk answer works right, this is just a different implementation that doesn't use the flatMapConcat operator (it is marked as FlowPreview at this moment)

@FlowPreview
@ExperimentalCoroutinesApi
abstract class NetworkBoundResource<ResultType, RequestType> {

    fun asFlow() = flow {
        emit(Resource.loading(null))

        val dbValue = loadFromDb().first()
        if (shouldFetch(dbValue)) {
            emit(Resource.loading(dbValue))
            when (val apiResponse = fetchFromNetwork()) {
                is ApiSuccessResponse -> {
                    saveNetworkResult(processResponse(apiResponse))
                    emitAll(loadFromDb().map { Resource.success(it) })
                }
                is ApiErrorResponse -> {
                    onFetchFailed()
                    emitAll(loadFromDb().map { Resource.error(apiResponse.errorMessage, it) })
                }
            }
        } else {
            emitAll(loadFromDb().map { Resource.success(it) })
        }
    }

    protected open fun onFetchFailed() {
        // Implement in sub-classes to handle errors
    }

    @WorkerThread
    protected open fun processResponse(response: ApiSuccessResponse<RequestType>) = response.body

    @WorkerThread
    protected abstract suspend fun saveNetworkResult(item: RequestType)

    @MainThread
    protected abstract fun shouldFetch(data: ResultType?): Boolean

    @MainThread
    protected abstract fun loadFromDb(): Flow<ResultType>

    @MainThread
    protected abstract suspend fun fetchFromNetwork(): ApiResponse<RequestType>
}