problems using databinding: val vs var and the use invalidateAll()

Question

This is actually 2 questions.

1. I noticed that databinding doesn't work if in the Person data class I set the name parameter to be val instead of var. The code will break with the following error:

error: cannot find symbol
import com.example.android.aboutme.databinding.ActivityMainBindingImpl;
                                              ^
  symbol:   class ActivityMainBindingImpl
  location: package com.example.android.aboutme.databinding

Why does it happen?

2. Why do I need to call invalidateAll() in doneClick()? The documentation says that it "Invalidates all binding expressions and requests a new rebind to refresh UI". Isn't the purpose of databinding to connect data and views in such a way that an update to the data immediately updates the views?

MainActivity:

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

    private lateinit var binding: ActivityMainBinding
    val person = Person("Bob")

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        binding = DataBindingUtil.setContentView(this, R.layout.activity_main)
        binding.person = person

        binding.apply {
            btnDone.setOnClickListener { doneClick(it) }
        }
    }

    private fun doneClick(view: View) {
        binding.apply {
            person?.nickname = etNickname.text.toString()
            invalidateAll()
            etNickname.visibility = View.GONE
            tvNickname.visibility = View.VISIBLE
            btnDone.visibility = View.GONE
        }

        hideKeybord(view)
    }

    private fun hideKeybord(view: View) {
        val imm = getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE) as InputMethodManager
        imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(view.windowToken, 0)
    }
}

Person:

class Person(var name: String, var nickname: String? = null)

activity_main.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto">

    <data>

        <variable
            name="person"
            type="com.example.android.aboutme.Person" />
    </data>

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:paddingStart="@dimen/padding"
        android:paddingEnd="@dimen/padding">

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/tv_name"
            style="@style/NameStyle"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="@={person.name}"
            android:textAlignment="center" />

        <EditText
            android:id="@+id/et_nickname"
            style="@style/NameStyle"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:ems="10"
            android:hint="@string/what_is_your_nickname"
            android:inputType="textPersonName"
            android:textAlignment="center" />

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/btn_done"
            style="@style/Widget.AppCompat.Button.Colored"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
            android:layout_marginTop="@dimen/layout_margin"
            android:fontFamily="@font/roboto"
            android:text="@string/done" />

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/tv_nickname"
            style="@style/NameStyle"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="@={person.nickname}"
            android:textAlignment="center"
            android:visibility="gone" />

        <ImageView
            android:id="@+id/star_image"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_marginTop="@dimen/layout_margin"
            android:contentDescription="@string/yellow_star"
            app:srcCompat="@android:drawable/btn_star_big_on" />

        <ScrollView
            android:id="@+id/bio_scroll"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:layout_marginTop="@dimen/layout_margin">

            <TextView
                android:id="@+id/bio_text"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:lineSpacingMultiplier="@dimen/line_spacing_multiplier"
                android:text="@string/bio"
                android:textAppearance="@style/NameStyle" />

        </ScrollView>
    </LinearLayout>
</layout>

Answer 1

Qustion 1:

I noticed that databinding doesn't work if in the Person data class I set the name parameter to be val instead of var.

Why does it happen?

Because you're using two-way databinding.

In your layout you have this:

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/tv_name"
    style="@style/NameStyle"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="@={person.name}"
    android:textAlignment="center" />

The @= in android:text="@={person.name}", specifically, tells databinding "I want to set the TextView's text to the person's name value and I want to update the person's name when the TextView text changes".

When you use the @= databinding will look for a setter for the attribute you're assingning. In this case, it's looking for a setter for the name attribute on the Person class. In Kotlin, this means having a property named name that is a var.

If you do not intend to update the person's name attribute when the TextView changes (which I assume you don't, you'd generally do that with an EditText), then change that line to just @ (android:text="@{person.name}"). Then you can make name a val because you're only reading from it for databinding.

---

Question 2:

Why do I need to call invalidateAll() in doneClick()?

You actually don't ...

The documentation says that it "Invalidates all binding expressions and requests a new rebind to refresh UI". Isn't the purpose of databinding to connect data and views in such a way that an update to the data immediately updates the views?

Yes, but: databinding is not magic. If the UI is to update it must be told to do so and changing your data does not magically tell databinding that it has to update. Something has to tell databinding that a) it's time to update and b) what it needs to update.

So what you have right now with invalidateAll() is the shotgun approach. You updated the one nickname field and then you yelled at databinding "hey, update everything!", so it rebinds all views based on the current state of Person which of course includes "nickname" so that view gets updated.

What you want to do is update only the fields that are bound to nickname because that is the one thing that changed and, preferably, you want to do it automatically when nickname changes. For that, you need to observe the state of the nickname field and react to it changing.

You can do this in a few ways:

1. Use LiveData

In this approach you have the fields of the model you want to bind be LiveData objects (val nickname = MutableLiveData<String>()) and you add a LifeCycleOwner to the binding so it can observe the LiveData objects.

Databinding is set up to use LiveData so your xml does not need to change. But now the properties are observable and when you update the name on Person (person?.nickname?.value = "New Nickname") databinding will be notified automatically and will update the state of the associated view.

You will not have to call invalidateAll().

2. Use Observable Fields

This is conceptually the same as #1 but this came before LiveData was introduced. Nowadays you can consider this deprecated and use the LiveData approach, but I'll mention it for completeness.

Again, instead of having a regular property of type String you wrap that property in an observable data structure (val nickname = ObservableString()) that will notify databinding when the value has changed. Again, databinding is set up to work with this so you don't have to change your XML.

3. Use Observable Objects

With this option, you make your Person class (or preferably a ViewModel) extend Observable and manage notifying databinding yourself as the fields change. You would go this route if you have special logic that has to happen when updating some fields and a simple "set and notify" is not enough. This option is far more complicated and I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to read the docs to see how this option works. For the vast majority of cases you should be able to do what you need with option #1.

---

Parting thought on this line:

person?.nickname = etNickname.text.toString()

If you set up databinding correctly, this should not be necessary. :) If you set up etNickname to use two-way binding and make person.nickname properly observable, the person.nickname attribute will automatically update to the text value in etNickname when it changes!

That is the beauty of databinding.

Hope that helps!