Create ViewModels with dependencies   Part of Android Jetpack.

Following dependency injection's best practices, ViewModels can take dependencies as parameters in their constructor. These are mostly of types from the domain or data layers. Because the framework provides the ViewModels, a special mechanism is required to create instances of them. That mechanism is the ViewModelProvider.Factory interface. Only implementations of this interface can instantiate ViewModels in the right scope.

ViewModels with CreationExtras

If a ViewModel class receives dependencies in its constructor, provide a factory that implements the ViewModelProvider.Factory interface. Override the create(Class<T>, CreationExtras) function to provide a new instance of the ViewModel.

CreationExtras allows you to access relevant information that helps instantiate a ViewModel. Here's a list of keys that can be accessed from extras:

To create a new instance of SavedStateHandle, use the CreationExtras.createSavedStateHandle().createSavedStateHandle()) function and pass it to the ViewModel.

The following is an example of how to provide an instance of a ViewModel that takes a repository scoped to the Application class and SavedStateHandle as dependencies:

    import androidx.lifecycle.SavedStateHandle
    import androidx.lifecycle.ViewModel
    import androidx.lifecycle.ViewModelProvider
    import androidx.lifecycle.ViewModelProvider.AndroidViewModelFactory.Companion.APPLICATION_KEY
    import androidx.lifecycle.createSavedStateHandle
    import androidx.lifecycle.viewmodel.CreationExtras

    class MyViewModel(
        private val myRepository: MyRepository,
        private val savedStateHandle: SavedStateHandle
    ) : ViewModel() {

        // ViewModel logic
        // ...

        // Define ViewModel factory in a companion object
        companion object {

            val Factory: ViewModelProvider.Factory = object : ViewModelProvider.Factory {
                @Suppress("UNCHECKED_CAST")
                override fun <T : ViewModel> create(
                    modelClass: Class<T>,
                    extras: CreationExtras
                ): T {
                    // Get the Application object from extras
                    val application = checkNotNull(extras[APPLICATION_KEY])
                    // Create a SavedStateHandle for this ViewModel from extras
                    val savedStateHandle = extras.createSavedStateHandle()

                    return MyViewModel(
                        (application as MyApplication).myRepository,
                        savedStateHandle
                    ) as T
                }
            }
        }
    }

import static androidx.lifecycle.SavedStateHandleSupport.createSavedStateHandle;
import static androidx.lifecycle.ViewModelProvider.AndroidViewModelFactory.APPLICATION_KEY;

import androidx.lifecycle.SavedStateHandle;
import androidx.lifecycle.ViewModel;
import androidx.lifecycle.viewmodel.ViewModelInitializer;

public class MyViewModel extends ViewModel {

    public MyViewModel(
        MyRepository myRepository,
        SavedStateHandle savedStateHandle
    ) { /* Init ViewModel here */ }

    static final ViewModelInitializer<MyViewModel> initializer = new ViewModelInitializer<>(
        MyViewModel.class,
        creationExtras -> {
            MyApplication app = (MyApplication) creationExtras.get(APPLICATION_KEY);
            assert app != null;
            SavedStateHandle savedStateHandle = createSavedStateHandle(creationExtras);

            return new MyViewModel(app.getMyRepository(), savedStateHandle);
        }
    );
}

Then, you can use this factory when retrieving an instance of the ViewModel:

import androidx.activity.viewModels

class MyActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

    private val viewModel: MyViewModel by viewModels { MyViewModel.Factory }

    // Rest of Activity code
}

import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity;
import androidx.lifecycle.ViewModelProvider;

public class MyActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

MyViewModel myViewModel = new ViewModelProvider(
    this,
    ViewModelProvider.Factory.from(MyViewModel.initializer)
).get(MyViewModel.class);

// Rest of Activity code
} 

import androidx.lifecycle.viewmodel.compose.viewModel

@Composable
fun MyScreen(
    modifier: Modifier = Modifier,
    viewModel: MyViewModel = viewModel(factory = MyViewModel.Factory)
) {
    // ...
}

Alternatively, use the ViewModel factory DSL to create factories using a more idiomatic Kotlin API:

import androidx.lifecycle.SavedStateHandle
import androidx.lifecycle.ViewModel
import androidx.lifecycle.ViewModelProvider
import androidx.lifecycle.ViewModelProvider.AndroidViewModelFactory.Companion.APPLICATION_KEY
import androidx.lifecycle.createSavedStateHandle
import androidx.lifecycle.viewmodel.initializer
import androidx.lifecycle.viewmodel.viewModelFactory

class MyViewModel(
    private val myRepository: MyRepository,
    private val savedStateHandle: SavedStateHandle
) : ViewModel() {
    // ViewModel logic

    // Define ViewModel factory in a companion object
    companion object {
        val Factory: ViewModelProvider.Factory = viewModelFactory {
            initializer {
                val savedStateHandle = createSavedStateHandle()
                val myRepository = (this[APPLICATION_KEY] as MyApplication).myRepository
                MyViewModel(
                    myRepository = myRepository,
                    savedStateHandle = savedStateHandle
                )
            }
        }
    }
}

Factories for ViewModel version older than 2.5.0

If you're using a version of ViewModel older than 2.5.0, you need to provide factories from a subset of classes that extend ViewModelProvider.Factory and implement the create(Class<T>) function. Depending on what dependencies the ViewModel needs, a different class needs to be extended from:

• AndroidViewModelFactory if the Application class is needed.
• AbstractSavedStateViewModelFactory if SavedStateHandle needs to be passed as a dependency.

If Application or SavedStateHandle aren't needed, simply extend from ViewModelProvider.Factory.

The following example uses an AbstractSavedStateViewModelFactory for a ViewModel that takes a repository and a SavedStateHandle type as a dependency:

class MyViewModel(
private val myRepository: MyRepository,
private val savedStateHandle: SavedStateHandle
) : ViewModel() {

// ViewModel logic ...

// Define ViewModel factory in a companion object
companion object {
    fun provideFactory(
        myRepository: MyRepository,
        owner: SavedStateRegistryOwner,
        defaultArgs: Bundle? = null,
    ): AbstractSavedStateViewModelFactory =
        object : AbstractSavedStateViewModelFactory(owner, defaultArgs) {
            @Suppress("UNCHECKED_CAST")
            override fun <T : ViewModel> create(
                key: String,
                modelClass: Class<T>,
                handle: SavedStateHandle
            ): T {
                return MyViewModel(myRepository, handle) as T
            }
        }
    }
}

import androidx.annotation.NonNull;
import androidx.lifecycle.AbstractSavedStateViewModelFactory;
import androidx.lifecycle.SavedStateHandle;
import androidx.lifecycle.ViewModel;

public class MyViewModel extends ViewModel {
    public MyViewModel(
        MyRepository myRepository,
        SavedStateHandle savedStateHandle
    ) { /* Init ViewModel here */ }
}

public class MyViewModelFactory extends AbstractSavedStateViewModelFactory {

    private final MyRepository myRepository;

    public MyViewModelFactory(
        MyRepository myRepository
    ) {
        this.myRepository = myRepository;
    }

    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    @NonNull
    @Override
    protected <T extends ViewModel> T create(
        @NonNull String key, @NonNull Class<T> modelClass, @NonNull SavedStateHandle handle
    ) {
        return (T) new MyViewModel(myRepository, handle);
    }
}

Then, you can use factory to retrieve your ViewModel:

import androidx.activity.viewModels

class MyActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

    private val viewModel: MyViewModel by viewModels {
        MyViewModel.provideFactory((application as MyApplication).myRepository, this)
    }

    // Rest of Activity code
}

import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity;
import androidx.lifecycle.ViewModelProvider;

public class MyActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    MyViewModel myViewModel = new ViewModelProvider(
        this,
        ViewModelProvider.Factory.from(MyViewModel.initializer)
    ).get(MyViewModel.class);

    // Rest of Activity code
}

import androidx.lifecycle.viewmodel.compose.viewModel

@Composable
fun MyScreen(
    modifier: Modifier = Modifier,
    viewModel: MyViewModel = viewModel(
        factory = MyViewModel.provideFactory(
            (LocalContext.current.applicationContext as MyApplication).myRepository,
            owner = LocalSavedStateRegistryOwner.current
        )
    )
) {
    // ...
}