Android Jetpack Passing Data Between Composables - multithreading

Question

I'm trying to pass a constantly updating variable "message" across my Jetpack Composables. I have a draggable box that tracks the coordinates of the box but I'm trying to send the real-time data through a TCP connection. However, I noticed that the current coordinate of the draggable box isn't passing through to the other Composable or the socket -only the same value is passed despite message changing continuously due to me dragging the box. Also, the moment dataSendButton() is pressed, the createDragImage() and its draggable box stops animating/running.
var message = "" // global Android send message
class MainActivity : ComponentActivity() {
private var textView: TextView? = null
dataSendButton()
createDragImage()
...
}
}
}
#Composable
fun createDragImage(){
val context = LocalContext.current
...
Box() {
var offsetX by remember { mutableStateOf(0f) }
var offsetY by remember { mutableStateOf(0f) }
Box(
Modifier
.offset { IntOffset(offsetX.roundToInt(), offsetY.roundToInt()) }
.background(Color.Transparent)
.size(150.dp)
.border(BorderStroke(4.dp, SolidColor(Color.Red)))
.pointerInput(Unit) {
detectDragGestures { change, dragAmount ->
change.consumeAllChanges()
offsetX = someConstantX
offsetY += dragAmount.y
message = offsetY.toString()
...
#Composable
fun dataSendButton() {
val context = LocalContext.current
...
Button(
onClick = {
// **ISSUE: message in this composable is not getting updated with message value from createDragImage()
val b1 = MainActivity.TCPconnector_client(context, message)
b1.execute()
},
{
Text(text = "Send Data", color = Color.White, fontSize = 20.sp)
}
}
}
}
}

Answer 1

It is because that is not how you store state in Compose.
Change the declaration of the variable.
var message by mutableStateOf(...)
Then the changes to it will trigger a recomposition, and so the rest of the code should remain the same. It is always recommended to store the state holders in a viewmodel, and pass the viewmodel around instead.
This is a working code with viewmodel
class MainActivity : ComponentActivity() {
private var textView: TextView? = null
val vm by viewmodels<MViewModel>()
dataSendButton(vm.message, vm:: onMessageChange)
createDragImage(vm.message)
...
}
}
}
#Composable
fun createDragImage(message: String, onMessageChange: (String) -> Unit){
val context = LocalContext.current
...
Box() {
var offsetX by remember { mutableStateOf(0f) }
var offsetY by remember { mutableStateOf(0f) }
Box(
Modifier
.offset { IntOffset(offsetX.roundToInt(), offsetY.roundToInt()) }
.background(Color.Transparent)
.size(150.dp)
.border(BorderStroke(4.dp, SolidColor(Color.Red)))
.pointerInput(Unit) {
detectDragGestures { change, dragAmount ->
change.consumeAllChanges()
offsetX = someConstantX
offsetY += dragAmount.y
onMessageChange (offsetY.toString())
...
#Composable
fun dataSendButton(message: String) {
val context = LocalContext.current
...
Button(
onClick = {
// **ISSUE: message in this composable is not getting updated with message value from createDragImage() // This seems to be an error. Calling a Composable from onClick?
val b1 = MainActivity.TCPconnector_client(context, message)
b1.execute()
},
{
Text(text = "Send Data", color = Color.White, fontSize = 20.sp)
}
}
}
}
}
class MViewModel: ViewModel(){
var message by mutableStateOf("")
private set //do not allow external modifications to ensure consistency
fun onMessageChange (newMessage: String){
message = newMessage
}
}
Note this is the ideal way of doing such implementation. However, for your specific case, if you do not need to access it anywhere else, only changing the declaration as described in the second line of the answer should do
Thanks