Android - Jetpack Compose - Koin

This tutorial lets you write an Android application with Jetpack Compose UI and use Koin dependency injection to retrieve your components. You need around 10 min to do the tutorial.

:::note update - 2024-11-28 :::

Get the code

:::info The source code is available at on Github :::

Gradle Setup

Add the Koin Android and Koin Compose dependencies like below:

groovy

dependencies {

    // Koin for Android
    implementation("io.insert-koin:koin-android:$koin_version")
    // Koin for Jetpack Compose
    implementation("io.insert-koin:koin-androidx-compose:$koin_version")
}

Application Overview

The idea of the application is to manage a list of users, and display it in our MainActivity class with a ViewModel and Jetpack Compose UI:

Users -> UserRepository -> UserService -> UserViewModel -> MainActivity (Compose UI)

The "User" Data

We will manage a collection of Users. Here is the data class:

kotlin

data class User(val name: String, val email: String)

We create a "Repository" component to manage the list of users (add users or find one by name). Here below, the UserRepository interface and its implementation:

kotlin

interface UserRepository {
    fun findUserOrNull(name: String): User?
    fun addUsers(users: List<User>)
}

class UserRepositoryImpl : UserRepository {

    private val _users = arrayListOf<User>()

    override fun findUserOrNull(name: String): User? {
        return _users.firstOrNull { it.name == name }
    }

    override fun addUsers(users: List<User>) {
        _users.addAll(users)
    }
}

The UserService Component

Let's write a service component to manage user operations:

kotlin

interface UserService {
    fun getUserOrNull(name: String): User?
    fun loadUsers()
    fun prepareHelloMessage(user: User?): String
}

class UserServiceImpl(
    private val userRepository: UserRepository
) : UserService {

    override fun getUserOrNull(name: String): User? = userRepository.findUserOrNull(name)

    override fun loadUsers() {
        userRepository.addUsers(listOf(
            User("Alice", "[email protected]"),
            User("Bob", "[email protected]"),
            User("Charlie", "[email protected]")
        ))
    }

    override fun prepareHelloMessage(user: User?): String {
        return user?.let { "Hello '${user.name}' (${user.email})! 👋" } ?: "❌ User not found"
    }
}

The Koin module

Use the module function to declare a Koin module. A Koin module is the place where we define all our components to be injected.

kotlin

val appModule = module {

}

Let's declare our components. We want singletons of UserRepository and UserService:

kotlin

val appModule = module {
    single<UserRepositoryImpl>() bind UserRepository::class
    single<UserServiceImpl>() bind UserService::class
}

:::info This tutorial uses the Koin Compiler Plugin DSL (single<T>(), viewModel<T>()) which provides auto-wiring at compile time. See Compiler Plugin Setup for configuration. :::

Displaying User with ViewModel

Let's write a ViewModel component to display a user:

kotlin

class UserViewModel(private val userService: UserService) : ViewModel() {

    fun sayHello(name: String): String {
        val user = userService.getUserOrNull(name)
        val message = userService.prepareHelloMessage(user)
        return "[UserViewModel] $message"
    }
}

UserService is referenced in UserViewModel's constructor

We declare UserViewModel in our Koin module. We declare it as a viewModel definition, to not keep any instance in memory (avoid any leak with Android lifecycle):

kotlin

val appModule = module {
    single<UserRepositoryImpl>() bind UserRepository::class
    single<UserServiceImpl>() bind UserService::class
    viewModel<UserViewModel>()
}

Injecting ViewModel in Jetpack Compose

With Jetpack Compose, we use ComponentActivity instead of AppCompatActivity, and we build our UI with composable functions instead of XML layouts.

The UserViewModel component will be created, resolving the UserService instance with it. To get it into our Compose UI, we use the koinViewModel() function:

kotlin

class MainActivity : ComponentActivity() {

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContent {
            MaterialTheme {
                MainScreen()
            }
        }
    }
}

@OptIn(ExperimentalMaterial3Api::class)
@Composable
fun MainScreen(
    viewModel: UserViewModel = koinViewModel()
) {
    var nameInput by remember { mutableStateOf("") }
    var greetingMessage by remember { mutableStateOf("") }

    Scaffold(
        topBar = {
            TopAppBar(
                title = { Text("Koin Sample") }
            )
        }
    ) { paddingValues ->
        Column(
            modifier = Modifier
                .fillMaxSize()
                .padding(paddingValues)
                .padding(16.dp),
            verticalArrangement = Arrangement.spacedBy(16.dp),
            horizontalAlignment = Alignment.CenterHorizontally
        ) {
            OutlinedTextField(
                value = nameInput,
                onValueChange = { nameInput = it },
                label = { Text("Enter name") },
                modifier = Modifier.fillMaxWidth()
            )

            Button(
                onClick = {
                    val userName = nameInput.trim().ifEmpty { "Alice" }
                    greetingMessage = viewModel.sayHello(userName)
                },
                modifier = Modifier.fillMaxWidth()
            ) {
                Text("Say Hello")
            }

            if (greetingMessage.isNotEmpty()) {
                Text(
                    text = greetingMessage,
                    style = MaterialTheme.typography.bodyLarge,
                    textAlign = TextAlign.Center,
                    modifier = Modifier.fillMaxWidth()
                )
            }
        }
    }
}

That's it, your Compose app is ready!

:::info The koinViewModel() function retrieves a ViewModel instance from Koin and automatically binds it to the Compose lifecycle. This is the Compose-specific way to inject ViewModels, replacing the by viewModel() delegate used in traditional Android Views. :::

Key Compose Concepts

ComponentActivity: Base class for Compose apps (instead of AppCompatActivity)
setContent: Sets the Composable content as the activity's UI
@Composable: Functions that build UI declaratively
remember & mutableStateOf: Compose state management for reactive UI updates
koinViewModel(): Koin's Compose integration for ViewModel injection

Start Koin

We need to start Koin with our Android application. Just call the startKoin() function in the application's main entry point, our MainApplication class:

kotlin

class MainApplication : Application(){
    override fun onCreate() {
        super.onCreate()

        startKoin{
            androidLogger()
            androidContext(this@MainApplication)
            modules(appModule)
        }
    }
}

:::info The modules() function in startKoin load the given list of modules :::

Koin module: DSL comparison

Here is the Koin module declaration using Classic DSL (manual wiring):

kotlin

val appModule = module {
    single<UserRepository> { UserRepositoryImpl() }
    single<UserService> { UserServiceImpl(get()) }
    viewModel { UserViewModel(get()) }
}

With Compiler Plugin DSL (auto-wiring at compile time):

kotlin

val appModule = module {
    single<UserRepositoryImpl>() bind UserRepository::class
    single<UserServiceImpl>() bind UserService::class
    viewModel<UserViewModel>()
}

:::tip The Compiler Plugin DSL requires the Koin Compiler Plugin. It provides compile-time dependency resolution and cleaner syntax. :::

Compose vs XML Views

This tutorial demonstrates the same functionality as the Android ViewModel tutorial, but using Jetpack Compose instead of XML layouts:

Aspect	XML Views	Jetpack Compose
Activity Base	`AppCompatActivity`	`ComponentActivity`
UI Definition	XML layout files	`@Composable` functions
ViewModel Injection	`by viewModel()` delegate	`koinViewModel()` function
State Management	LiveData/StateFlow	`remember` + `mutableStateOf`
UI Updates	View binding + observers	Automatic recomposition

:::tip For a version using Koin Annotations with Compose, see the Compose Multiplatform Annotations tutorial. :::