Android lifecycle library ViewModel using dagger 2

Today I learnt a way to avoid having to write factories for my ViewModel classes:

class ViewModelFactory<T : ViewModel> @Inject constructor(
    private val viewModel: Lazy<T>
) : ViewModelProvider.Factory {
    @Suppress("UNCHECKED_CAST")
    override fun <T : ViewModel?> create(modelClass: Class<T>): T = viewModel.get() as T
}

EDIT: As pointed out by @Calin in the comments, we are using Dagger's Lazy in the code snippet above, not Kotlin's.

Rather than injecting the ViewModel, you can inject a generic ViewModelFactory into your activities and fragments and obtain an instance of any ViewModel:

class MyActivity : Activity() {

    @Inject
    internal lateinit var viewModelFactory: ViewModelFactory<MyViewModel>
    private lateinit var viewModel: MyViewModel

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        AndroidInjection.inject(this)
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        this.viewModel = ViewModelProviders.of(this, viewModelFactory)
            .get(MyViewModel::class.java)
        ...
    }

    ...
}

I used AndroidInjection.inject(this) as with the dagger-android library, but you can inject your activity or fragment the way you prefer. All that is left is to make sure you provide your ViewModel from a module:

@Module
object MyModule {
    @JvmStatic
    @Provides
    fun myViewModel(someDependency: SomeDependency) = MyViewModel(someDependency)
} 

Or applying the @Inject annotation to its constructor:

class MyViewModel @Inject constructor(
    someDependency: SomeDependency
) : ViewModel() {
    ...
}

You need to implement your own ViewModelProvider.Factory. There is an example app created by Google demonstrating how to connect Dagger 2 with ViewModels. LINK. You need those 5 things:

In ViewModel:

@Inject
public UserViewModel(UserRepository userRepository, RepoRepository repoRepository) {

Define annotation:

@Documented
@Target({ElementType.METHOD})
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@MapKey
@interface ViewModelKey {
    Class<? extends ViewModel> value();
}

In ViewModelModule:

@Module
abstract class ViewModelModule {
    @Binds
    @IntoMap
    @ViewModelKey(UserViewModel.class)
    abstract ViewModel bindUserViewModel(UserViewModel userViewModel);

In Fragment:

@Inject
ViewModelProvider.Factory viewModelFactory;

@Override
public void onActivityCreated(@Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) {
            userViewModel = ViewModelProviders.of(this, viewModelFactory).get(UserViewModel.class);

Factory:

@Singleton
public class GithubViewModelFactory implements ViewModelProvider.Factory {
    private final Map<Class<? extends ViewModel>, Provider<ViewModel>> creators;

    @Inject
    public GithubViewModelFactory(Map<Class<? extends ViewModel>, Provider<ViewModel>> creators) {
        this.creators = creators;
    }

    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    @Override
    public <T extends ViewModel> T create(Class<T> modelClass) {
        Provider<? extends ViewModel> creator = creators.get(modelClass);
        if (creator == null) {
            for (Map.Entry<Class<? extends ViewModel>, Provider<ViewModel>> entry : creators.entrySet()) {
                if (modelClass.isAssignableFrom(entry.getKey())) {
                    creator = entry.getValue();
                    break;
                }
            }
        }
        if (creator == null) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("unknown model class " + modelClass);
        }
        try {
            return (T) creator.get();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            throw new RuntimeException(e);
        }
    }
}

I believe there is a second option if you don't want to use the factory mentioned in Robert's answer. It is not necessarily better solution but it is always good to know the options.

You can leave your viewModel with default constructor and inject your dependencies just as you do in case of activities or other elements created by system. Example:

ViewModel:

public class ExampleViewModel extends ViewModel {

@Inject
ExampleDependency exampleDependency;

public ExampleViewModel() {
    DaggerExampleComponent.builder().build().inject(this);
    }
}

Component:

@Component(modules = ExampleModule.class)
public interface ExampleComponent {

void inject(ExampleViewModel exampleViewModel);

}

Module:

@Module
public abstract class ExampleModule {

@Binds
public abstract ExampleDependency bindExampleDependency(ExampleDependencyDefaultImplementation exampleDependencyDefaultImplementation);

}

Cheers, Piotr