Android Room LiveData Observer not updating

Question

I have a Fragment with a RecyclerView in it. I use a ViewModel to hold the LiveData to show from a Room database and try to update the RecyclerView by observing the data in the ViewModel. But the Observer only ever gets called once when I open the fragment. I update the Room databse from a different Fragment than the Observer is on.

Wheter I add a new Event or delete or update one, the Observer never gets called! How can I get the Observer to be called properly? Where is my mistake?

Fragment

The code in onViewCreated does not work in onCreate, it return null on the line val recyclerview = upcoming_recycler. You also see at the end of onViewCreated where I open a new fragment, from which the database gets updated. Note that the UpcomingFragment is in a different FragmentLayout than the EventEditFragment!

class UpcomingFragment : Fragment(R.layout.fragment_upcoming) {

    private val clubDb by lazy {
        ClubDatabase.getClubDatabase(requireContext().applicationContext)
    }

    private val eventAdapter = EventAdapter(null, this)

    private val upcomingViewModel: UpcomingViewModel by viewModels()

    override fun onViewCreated(view: View, savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onViewCreated(view, savedInstanceState)

        val recyclerView = upcoming_recycler
        recyclerView.layoutManager = LinearLayoutManager(context)
        recyclerView.setHasFixedSize(true)

        upcomingViewModel.eventsToShow.observe(viewLifecycleOwner, Observer { events ->
            Log.d(TAG, "Live data changed in upcomingfragment!!!")
            eventAdapter.setData(events.toTypedArray())
        })

        recyclerView.adapter = eventAdapter

        // add a new Event
        upcoming_fab.setOnClickListener {
            parentFragmentManager.beginTransaction()
                .replace(R.id.main_fragment_layout_overlay, EventEditFragment())
                .addToBackStack(EVENT_EDIT_FRAGMENT)
                .commit()
        }
        // and more stuff...
    }
    //the rest of the class
}

ViewModel

class UpcomingViewModel(application: Application) : ViewModel() {
    val eventsToShow: LiveData<List<Event>>

    init {
        val roundToDay = SimpleDateFormat("dd.MM.yyy", Locale.GERMAN)
        var today = Date()
        today = roundToDay.parse(roundToDay.format(today))!!
        val tomorrow = Date(today.time + 86400000L)
        eventsToShow = ClubDatabase.getClubDatabase(application.applicationContext).clubDao()
            .getEventsByClubIdAfterDate(CURRENT_CLUB_ID, tomorrow)
    }
}

EventAdapter

class EventAdapter(
    private var dataSet: Array<Event>?,
    private val onEventItemClickListener: OnEventItemClickListener
) : RecyclerView.Adapter<EventAdapter.EventViewHolder>() {

    class EventViewHolder(val view: View) : RecyclerView.ViewHolder(view)

    override fun onCreateViewHolder(parent: ViewGroup, viewType: Int): EventViewHolder {
        val view =
            LayoutInflater.from(parent.context).inflate(R.layout.event_item_layout, parent, false)
        return EventViewHolder(view)
    }

    override fun onBindViewHolder(holder: EventViewHolder, position: Int) {
        // show the item & add onEventItemClickListener for updating
    }

    fun setData(new: Array<Event>) {
        this.dataSet = new
        this.notifyDataSetChanged()
    }

    override fun getItemCount(): Int {
        return dataSet?.size ?: 0
    }
}

Database

@Database(
entities = [Event::class, Member::class, RequiredMembersForEvents::class, AttendedMembersForEvents::class],
version = 9,
exportSchema = false
)
@TypeConverters(Converters::class)
abstract class ClubDatabase : RoomDatabase() {
    abstract fun clubDao(): ClubDao

    companion object {
        @Volatile
        private var INSTANCE: ClubDatabase? = null

        fun getClubDatabase(context: Context): ClubDatabase {
            return INSTANCE ?: synchronized(this) {
                val instance = INSTANCE
                return if (instance != null) {
                    instance
                } else {
                    Room.databaseBuilder(
                        context.applicationContext,
                        ClubDatabase::class.java,
                        "club-db"
                    )
                        .allowMainThreadQueries()
                        .fallbackToDestructiveMigration()
                        .build()
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

DAO

@Dao
interface ClubDao {

    @Query("SELECT * FROM events WHERE clubId = :clubId AND dateTimeFrom > :date ORDER BY dateTimeFrom ASC")
    fun getEventsByClubIdAfterDate(clubId: String, date: Date): LiveData<List<Event>>

    // the rest of the DAO
}

Answer 1

Check your database singleton implementation, since variable INSTANCE there - is always null. You should set it at first time when you've got the instance of the class. Otherwise your app has a deal with different instances of your Database class.

Probably that causes a problem, when though some changes were made to database, but LiveData's observer for these changes was not triggered.