Multiplatform Settings

This is a Kotlin library for Multiplatform apps, so that common code can persist key-value data.

Adding to your project
Usage
Experimental API
Building
Project Structure
License

Adding to your project

Multiplatform Settings is currently published to Maven Central, so add that to repositories.

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
    // ...
}

Then, simply add the dependency to your common source-set dependencies

commonMain {
    dependencies {
        // ...
        implementation("com.russhwolf:multiplatform-settings:0.7.4")
    }
}

See also the sample project, which uses this structure.

Usage

The Settings interface has implementations on the Android, iOS, macOS, watchOOS, tvOS, JS, JVM, and Windows platforms. (Note that the two JVM implementations and the Windows implementation are currently marked as experimental.)

Creating a Settings instance

When writing multiplatform code, you might need to interoperate with platform-specific code which needs to share the same data-source. To facilitate this, all Settings implementations wrap a delegate object which you could also use in your platform code.

Since that delegate is a constructor argument, it should be possible to connect it via any dependency-injection strategy you might already be using. If your project doesn't have such a system already in place, one strategy is to use expect declarations, for example

expect val settings: Settings
// or
expect fun createSettings(): Settings

Then the actual implementations can pass the platform-specific delegates. See Platform constructors below for more details on these delegates.

Some platform implementations also include Factory classes. These make it easier to manage multiple named Settings objects from common code, or to automate some platform-specific configuration so that delegates don't need to be created manually. The factory still needs to be injected from platform code, but then from common you can call

val settings1: Settings = factory.create("my_first_settings")
val settings2: Settings = factory.create("my_other_settings")

See Factories below for more details.

However, if all of your key-value logic exists in a single instance in common code, these ways of instantiation Settings can be inconvenient. To make pure-common usage easier, Multiplatform Settings now includes a separate module which provides a Settings() factory function, so that you can create a Settings instance like

val settings: Settings = Settings()

See No-arg module below for more details.

Platform constructors

The Android implementation is AndroidSettings, which wraps SharedPreferences.

val delegate: SharedPreferences // ...
val settings: Settings = AndroidSettings(delegate)

On iOS, macOS, tvOS, or watchOS, AppleSettings wraps NSUserDefaults.

val delegate: NSUserDefaults // ...
val settings: Settings = AppleSettings(delegate)

On JS, JsSettings wraps Storage.

val delegate: Storage // ...
val settings: Settings = JsSettings(delegate)

val settings: Settings = JsSettings() // use localStorage by default

Factories

For some platforms, a Factory class also exists, so that multiple named Settings instances can coexist with the names being controlled from common code.

On Android, this factory needs a Context parameter

val context: Context // ...
val factory: Settings.Factory = AndroidSettings.Factory(context)

On iOS and macOS, the factory can be instantiated without passing any parameter

val factory: Settings.Factory = AppleSettings.Factory()

No-arg module

To create a Settings instance from common without needing to pass platform-specific dependencies, add the multiplatform-settings-no-arg gradle dependency. This exports multiplatform-settings as an API dependency, so you can use it as a replacement for that default dependency.

implementation("com.russhwolf:multiplatform-settings-no-arg:0.7.4")

Then from common code, you can write

val settings: Settings = Settings()

This is implemented via an extension function operator fun Settings.Companion.invoke() to provide constructor-like syntax even though Settings has no constructor.

On Android, this delegates to the equivalent of PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences() internally. It makes use of a content-provider to get a context reference without needing to pass one manually.

On Apple platforms, it uses NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults. On JS, it uses localStorage. On JVM, it uses the JvmPreferences implementation with Preferences.userRoot() as a delegate.

Note that while the main multiplatform-settings module publishes common code to all available Kotlin platforms, the multiplatform-settings-no-arg module only publishes to platforms which have concrete implementations.

Settings API

Once the Settings instance is created, you can store values by calling the various putXXX() methods, or their operator shortcuts

settings.putInt("key", 3)
settings["key"] = 3

You can retrieve stored values via the getXXX() methods or their operator shortcuts. If a key is not present, then the supplied default will be returned instead.

val a: Int = settings.getInt("key")
val b: Int = settings.getInt("key", defaultValue = -1) 
val c: Int = settings["key", -1]

Nullable methods are also available to avoid the need to use a default value. Instead, null will be returned if a key is not present.

val a: Int? = settings.getIntOrNull("key")
val b: Int? = settings["key"]

The getXXX() and putXXX() operation for a given key can be wrapped using a property delegate. This has the advantage of ensuring that the key is always accessed with a consistent type.

val a: Int by settings.int("key")
val b: Int by settings.int("key", defaultValue = -1)

Nullable delegates exists so that absence of a key can be indicated by null instead of a default value

val a: Int? by settings.nullableInt("key")

The key parameter can be omitted for delegates, and the property name will be reflectively used instead.

val a: Int by settings.int() // internally, key is "a"

Existence of a key can be queried

val a: Boolean = settings.hasKey("key")
val b: Boolean = "key" in settings

Values can also be removed by key

settings.remove("key")
settings -= "key"
settings["key"] = null

Finally, all values in a Settings instance can be removed

settings.clear()

The set of keys and amount of entries can be retrieved

val keys: Set<String> = settings.keys
val size: Int = settings.size

Note that for the AppleSettings implementation, some entries are unremovable and therefore may still be present after a clear() call. Thus, size is not generally guaranteed to be zero after a clear().

Testing

A testing dependency is available to aid in testing code that interacts with this library.

implementation("com.russhwolf:multiplatform-settings-test:0.7.4")

This includes a MockSettings implementation of the Settings interface, which is backed by an in-memory MutableMap on all platforms.

Other platforms

The Settings interface is published to all available platforms. Developers who desire implementations outside of the defaults provided are free to add their own implementations, and welcome to make pull requests if the implementation might be generally useful to others. Note that implementations which require external dependencies should be places in a separate gradle module in order to keep the core multiplatform-settings module dependency-free.

Experimental API

This is a pre-1.0 library based on the alpha-release multiplatform functionality, so some occasional API breakage may occur. Certain APIs are marked with @ExperimentalSettingsApi or @ExperimentalSettingsImplementation to highlight areas that have extra risk of API changes or unexpected behavior.

Experimental Implementations

Apple Keychain

In addition to the default AppleSettings implementation, there's also a KeyChainSettings on the Apple platforms that stores data on the Apple keychain. Construct it by passing a String which will be interpreted as a service name

val serviceName: String // ...
val settings: Settings = KeychainSettings(serviceName)

JVM

Two pure-JVM implementations exist. JvmPreferencesSettings wraps Preferences and JvmPropertiesSettings wraps Properties.

val delegate: Preferences // ...
val settings: Settings = JvmPreferencesSettings(delegate)

val delegate: Properties // ...
val settings: Settings = JvmPropertiesSettings(delegate)

Windows

There is a Windows implementation WindowsSettings which wraps the Windows registry.

val rootKey: String = "SOFTWARE\\..." // Will be interpreted as subkey of HKEY_CURRENT_USER
val settings: Settings = WindowsSettings(rootKey)

Listeners

Update listeners are available using an experimental API, only for the AndroidSettings, AppleSettings, and JvmPreferencesSettings implementations. These are marked with the ObservableSettings interface, which includes an addListener() method.

val observableSettings: ObservableSettings // ...
val settingsListener: SettingsListener = observableSettings.addListener(key) { /* ... */ }

// Typed listener extension functions are also available
val settingsListener: SettingsListener = observableSettings.addIntListener(key) { int: Int -> /* ... */ }
val settingsListener: SettingsListener = observableSettings.addNullableIntListener(key) { int: Int? -> /* ... */ }

The SettingsListener returned from the call should be used to signal when you're done listening:

settingsListener.deactivate()

On Apple platforms, the AppleSettings listeners are designed to work within the Kotlin/Native threading model. If all interaction with the class is on a single thread, then nothing will be frozen. In multithreaded usage, the AppleSettings can be configured to freeze listeners, making it safe to set listeners when the class might be used across threads.

Serialization module

A kotlinx-serialization integration exists so it's easier to save non-primitive data

implementation("com.russhwolf:multiplatform-settings-serialization:0.7.4")

This essentially uses the Settings store as a serialization format. Thus for a serializable class

@Serializable
class SomeClass(val someProperty: String, anotherProperty: Int)

an instance can be stored or retrieved

val someClass: SomeClass
val settings: Settings

// Store values for the properties of someClass in settings
settings.encodeValue(SomeClass.serializer(), "key", someClass)

// Create a new instance of SomeClass based on the data in settings
val newInstance: SomeClass = settings.decodeValue(SomeClass.serializer(), "someClass", defaultValue)
val nullableNewInstance: SomeClass = settings.decodeValueOrNull(SomeClass.serializer(), "someClass")

There's also a delegate API, similar to that for primitives

val someClass: SomeClass by settings.serializedValue(SomeClass.serializer(), "someClass", defaultValue)
val nullableSomeClass: SomeClass? by settings.nullableSerializedValue(SomeClass.serializer(), "someClass")

Usage requires accepting both the @ExperimentalSettingsApi and @ExperimentalSerializationApi annotations.

Coroutine APIs

A separate multiplatform-settings-coroutines dependency includes various coroutine APIs.

implementation("com.russhwolf:multiplatform-settings-coroutines:0.7.4")

// Or, if you use native-mt coroutines release
implementation("com.russhwolf:multiplatform-settings-coroutines-native-mt:0.7.4")

This adds flow extensions for all types which use the listener APIs internally.

val observableSettings: ObservableSettings // Only works with ObservableSettings
val flow: Flow<Int> by observableSettings.intFlow("key", defaultValue)
val nullableFlow: Flow<Int?> by observableSettings.intOrNullFlow("key")

Usage requires accepting both the @ExperimentalSettingsApi and @ExperimentalCoroutinesApi annotations.

In addition, there are two new Settings-like interfaces: SuspendSettings, which looks similar to Settings but all functions are marked suspend, and FlowSettings which extends SuspendSettings to also include Flow-based getters similar to the extensions mentioned above.

val suspendSettings: SuspendSettings // ...
val a: Int = suspendSettings.getInt("key") // This call will suspend

val flowSettings: FlowSettings // ...
val flow: Flow<Int> = flowSettings.getIntFlow("key")

There are APIs provided to convert between these different interfaces so that you can select one to use primarily from common.

val settings: Settings // ...
val suspendSettings: SuspendSettings = settings.toSuspendSettings()

val observableSettings: ObservableSettings // ...
val flowSettings: FlowSettings = observableSettings.toFlowSettings()

// Wrap suspend calls in runBlocking
val blockingSettings: Settings = suspendSettings.toBlockingSettings()

DataStore

An implementation of FlowSettings on the Android exists in the multiplatform-settings-datastore dependency, based on Jetpack DataStore

implementation("com.russhwolf:multiplatform-settings-datastore:0.7.4")

This provides a DataStoreSettings class

val dataStore: DataStore // = ...
val settings: FlowSettings = DataStoreSettings(dataStore)

You can use this in shared code by converting other ObservableSettings instances to FlowSettings. For example:

// Common
expect val settings: FlowSettings

// Android
actual val settings: FlowSettings = DataStoreSettings(/*...*/)

// iOS
actual val settings: FlowSettings = AppleSettings(/*...*/).toFlowSettings()

Or, if you also include platforms without listener support, you can use SuspendSettings instead.

// Common
expect val settings: SuspendSettings

// Android
actual val settings: SuspendSettings = DataStoreSettings(/*...*/)

// iOS
actual val settings: SuspendSettings = AppleSettings(/*...*/).toSuspendSettings()

// JS
actual val settings: SuspendSettings = JsSettings().toSuspendSettings()

Building

The project includes multiple CI jobs configured using Azure pipelines. On PRs or updates to the master branch, the script in azure-pipelines.yml runs. This builds the library and runs unit tests for all platforms across Linux, Mac, and Windows hosts. In addition, the library build artifacts are deployed to the local maven repository and the sample project is built for the platforms on which it is implemented. This ensures that the sample remains in sync with updates to the library.

An addition pipeline is defined in azure-pipelines-deploy.yml, which runs whenever a tag is pushed to the remote. This builds the library for all platforms and uploads artifacts to Bintray. Uploaded artifacts must still be published manually.

Project Structure

The library logic lives in the commonMain, androidMain, and iosMain sources. The common source holds the Settings interface which exposes apis for persisting values of the Int, Long, String, Float, Double, and Boolean types. The common source also holds property delegate wrappers and other operator functions for cleaner syntax and usage. The platform sources then hold implementations, delegating to whichever delegate that platform uses. The macOS platform reads from the same sources as iOS. The experimental JVM and JS implementations reside in the jvmMain and jsMain sources, respectively

Some unit tests are defined which can be run via ./gradlew test. These use Robolectric on Android to mock out the android-specific behavior, and use the ios simulator to run the ios tests. The macOS tests run natively on macOS hosts. The experimental JS implementation uses the default test setup for the new JS plugin, and the experimental JVM implementation runs standard junit tests.

There is also a sample project to demonstrate usage, which is configured as a separate IDEA/gradle project in the sample directory. It includes a shared module with common, and platform-specific sources, to demo a shared logic layer consuming the library. Several gradle modules consume shared, including app-android for Android, app-tornadofx for TornadoFX on the JVM, and app-browser for the Javascript browser target. In addition, the app-ios directory holds an Xcode project which builds an iOS app in the usual way, consuming a framework produced by shared.

The shared module includes some simple unit tests in common code to demonstrate using the MockSettings implementation to mock out the Settings interface when testing code that interacts with it.

License

Copyright 2018-2020 Russell Wolf

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

Made with JetBrains tools

arkivanov/multiplatform-settings