Coroutines Channel Example

This tutorial will show you how to use a Kotlin Channel rather than LiveData or StateFlow. This is for purposes where you need to send only a one-time event. If you use LiveData or StateFlow and for example the configuration changes, the event gets raised again. However with Kotlin Channels you can send only a one-time event.

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What is a Channel?

According to Kotlin documentation, a Channel is a non-blocking primitive for communication between a sender (via SendChannel) and a receiver (via ReceiveChannel). Conceptually, a channel is similar to Java's java.util.concurrent.BlockingQueue, but it has suspending operations instead of blocking ones and can be closed.

Read more here.

Let's look at an example with Android.

Example 1: Kotlin Android Coroutines Channel Example

A simple beginner friendly example. Here are what you will learn from this example:

• Kotlin Coroutines
• Viewmodel
• Channel
• Flow
• ViewBinding

Here are the demo images of the created project:

Step 1: Create Project

Start by creating an empty Android Studio project.

Step 2: Dependencies

In your app/build.gradle add the following dependencies:

    // coroutines
    implementation 'org.jetbrains.kotlinx:kotlinx-coroutines-core:1.4.1'
    implementation 'org.jetbrains.kotlinx:kotlinx-coroutines-android:1.4.1'

    // viewmodel
    implementation "androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-viewmodel-ktx:2.2.0"

    // lifecycle
    implementation "androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-ktx:2.2.0"

    // activity ktx for viewmodel
    implementation "androidx.activity:activity-ktx:1.1.0"

Step 3: Enable Java8 and ViewBinding

In the same app/build.gradle enable Java8 and Viewbinding as follows inside the android{} closure:

    compileOptions {
        sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
        targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
    }

    kotlinOptions {
        jvmTarget = '1.8'
    }

    buildFeatures {
        viewBinding true
    }

Step 4: Design Layout

Place a MaterialButton inside your activity_main.xml as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.coordinatorlayout.widget.CoordinatorLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:id="@+id/parent_layout"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <com.google.android.material.button.MaterialButton
        android:id="@+id/show_b"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="center"
        android:text="@string/show_snackbar"
        app:elevation="10dp" />
</androidx.coordinatorlayout.widget.CoordinatorLayout>

Step 5: Create ViewModel

Create the MainViewModel.kt and add the following imports:

import android.content.res.Resources
import androidx.lifecycle.ViewModel
import androidx.lifecycle.viewModelScope
import kotlinx.coroutines.channels.Channel
import kotlinx.coroutines.flow.receiveAsFlow
import kotlinx.coroutines.launch

Extend the ViewModel class:

class MainViewModel : ViewModel() {

Create a private event channel:

    private val eventChannel = Channel<MainEvent> { }

and event an event flow:

    val eventFlow = eventChannel.receiveAsFlow()

Trigger a fake call:

    fun triggerEvent(res: Resources) = viewModelScope.launch {
        eventChannel.send(MainEvent.ErrorEvent(res.getString(R.string.error)))
    }

Here is the full code:

MainViewModel.kt

import android.content.res.Resources
import androidx.lifecycle.ViewModel
import androidx.lifecycle.viewModelScope
import kotlinx.coroutines.channels.Channel
import kotlinx.coroutines.flow.receiveAsFlow
import kotlinx.coroutines.launch

class MainViewModel : ViewModel() {

    // create channel ! do not expose to fragment or activity
    private val eventChannel = Channel<MainEvent> { }

    // so receive it as flow
    val eventFlow = eventChannel.receiveAsFlow()

    // fake call
    fun triggerEvent(res: Resources) = viewModelScope.launch {
        eventChannel.send(MainEvent.ErrorEvent(res.getString(R.string.error)))
    }

    sealed class MainEvent {
        data class ErrorEvent(val message: String) : MainEvent()
    }
}

Step 5: MainActivity

In the MainActivity, when the MaterialButton is clicked we will trigger the simulated call. Here is the full code:

MainActivity.kt

import android.content.res.Resources
import androidx.lifecycle.ViewModel
import androidx.lifecycle.viewModelScope
import kotlinx.coroutines.channels.Channel
import kotlinx.coroutines.flow.receiveAsFlow
import kotlinx.coroutines.launch

class MainViewModel : ViewModel() {

    // create channel ! do not expose to fragment or activity
    private val eventChannel = Channel<MainEvent> { }

    // so receive it as flow
    val eventFlow = eventChannel.receiveAsFlow()

    // fake call
    fun triggerEvent(res: Resources) = viewModelScope.launch {
        eventChannel.send(MainEvent.ErrorEvent(res.getString(R.string.error)))
    }

    sealed class MainEvent {
        data class ErrorEvent(val message: String) : MainEvent()
    }
}

Run

Copy the code or download it in the link below, build and run.

Reference

Here are the reference links:

Number	Link
1.	Download Example
2.	Follow code author