Hi there :slightly_smiling_face: What is the best way to integrate Channels/Flow with LiveData ?

# coroutines

[ahulyk]

Hi there 🙂 What is the best way to integrate Channels/Flow with LiveData ?

[gildor]

There is no official adapter yet

[gildor]

But you can easily write simple ad-hoc implementation yourself

[ahulyk]

Thanks 🙂

[gildor]

for now you have to use ConflatedBroadcastChannel (or flow which uses conflated channel) to implement adapter for LiveData

[tseisel]

ConflatedBroadcastChannel is the closest thing to LiveData. You could create a LiveData subclass that wraps a ConflatedBroadcastChannel.
You can also use the liveData function from androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-livedata-ktx : https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/architecture/coroutines#livedata

[gildor]

You could create a LiveData subclass that wraps a ConflatedBroadcastChannel

I would rather create adapter LiveData.asFlow() and Flow.asLiveData() than use inheritance

[Joaquim Ley]

Hey if you figure out a working solution consider posting 😉

[ahulyk]

suspend fun <T> BroadcastChannel<T>.asLiveData(): LiveData<T> {
    val liveData = MutableLiveData<T>()
    consumeEach { value ->
        liveData.postValue(value)
    }
    return liveData
}

this shoud work - will test it later

[gildor]

it will not work

[gildor]

this function will suspend until channel is closed which broke it main use case

[ahulyk]

What is the best way to fix that? Passing Scope as parameter?

[gildor]

Something like:

fun <T> BroadcastChannel<T>.consumeAsLiveData(scope: CoroutineScope): LiveData<T> {
    val liveData = MutableLiveData<T>()
    scope.launch { 
        consumeEach { 
            liveData.postValue(it)
        }
    }
    return liveData
}

[gildor]

or even the same for ReceiveChannel

[Zach Klippenstein (he/him) [MOD]]

there is a liveData coroutine builder function that you can use for this too:
https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/architecture/coroutines#livedata

fun <T> BroadcastChannel<T>.consumeAsLiveData(scope: CoroutineScope): LiveData<T> = liveData {
    consumeEach { 
        emit(it)
    }
}