Pass data back to previous fragment using Android Navigation

Question

I've started using Android Architecture Components (Navigation and Safe Args, View Models) along with Koin library.

Currently, I've got a problem with passing arguments between two fragments - I need to pass a string value from fragment A to fragment B, modify this value in fragment B and pass it back to fragment A.

I've found one possible solution to my problem - shared view models. Unfortunately, this approach has one problem because I can pass and modify values between screens, but when the fragment A navigate to another destination the value in the shared view model is still stored and not cleared.

Is there any different solution of passing and modifying data between fragments in Android Navigation? I want to avoid clearing this one value by hand (when the fragment A is destroyed).

Answer 1

Android just released a solution for this; Passing data between Destinations (Navigation 2.3.0-alpha02), basically, in fragment A you observe changes in a variable and in fragment B you change that value before executing popBackStack().

Fragment A:

override fun onViewCreated(view: View, savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
val navController = findNavController();
// We use a String here, but any type that can be put in a Bundle is supported
navController.currentBackStackEntry?.savedStateHandle?.getLiveData("key")?.observe(
    viewLifecycleOwner) { result ->
    // Do something with the result.
  }
}

Fragment B:

navController.previousBackStackEntry?.savedStateHandle?.set("key", result)
navController.popBackStack()