An opinionated fast Ballast Navigation set-up for Compose multiplatform (Android & iOS for now)

Set up

Add dependency

Android:

implementation("com.dilivva.ballastnavigationext:ballastnavigationext:LATEST")

Multiplatform: Android & iOS

val commonMain by getting {
    dependencies { 
        //put your multiplatform dependencies here
        api("com.dilivva.ballastnavigationext:ballastnavigationext:LATEST")
    }
}

Define your Screens/Routes

Extend the BaseRoute interface:

enum class MainRoute(
    override val route: String
): BaseRoute{
    Home("/home"),
    SignIn("/sign-in"),
    SignUp("/sign-up"),
    ForgotPassword("/forgot-password"),
    Dashboard("/dashboard?email={?}"),
    Profile("/profile");
}

More on Ballast Route Matching

Create your Navigator Object

@Composable
fun MainNavigation() {
    val applicationScope = rememberCoroutineScope()
    val navigator = rememberNavigator(applicationScope, MainRoute.values())
}

The rememberNavigator assumes your first defined route in your enum class in the initial route. You can override that by passing in a callback that will return your desired initial route:

@Composable
fun MainNavigation() {
    var isLoggedIn by remember { mutableStateOf(false) }
    val applicationScope = rememberCoroutineScope()
    val navigator = rememberNavigator(applicationScope, MainRoute.values()) {
        if (isLoggedIn) MainRoute.Dashboard else MainRoute.Home
    }
}

Handle route changes

Destination(
    navigator = navigator,
    onNavigate = {
        when (it) {
        //Handle changes here...
        }
    }
)

Navigate!

Navigate to a screen:

navigator.navigate(MainRoute.SignIn)

Navigate back

navigator.navigateUp()

Navigate to a screen popping up backstack to a particular screen:

navigator.navigateWithPop(destination = MainRoute.Profile, popUpTo = MainRoute.Home)

Navigate to a screen after popping the backstack:

navigator.navigateWithPopAll(destination = MainRoute.Profile)

Passing data

Ballast Navigation supports passing data between destinations using query or path parameters. Read more

To pass data, just override the extras callback of any of the navigate** function:

navigator.navigate(MainRoute.Profile){
    pathParameter("user","john").queryParameter("email","john@gmail.com")
}

EXTRAS

Device Back press (Android):

The library automatically handles device back pressed, if you want to override that, pass in a value for onDeviceBackPressed:

Destination(
    //..//
    onDeviceBackPressed = {
        if (it == MainRoute.Dashboard){
        //close app
        }else{
            navigator.navigateUp() 
        }
    }
)

Transitions:

There's a default enter and exit animations (Slide in/out), but you can override that and pass in your own enter and exit animations to the animateIn and animateOut callbacks:

Destination(
    //..//
    animateIn = { },
    animateOut = { }
)

If a route cannot be matched noDestination callback will be invoked the library automatically does nothing, you can override that.

DeepLinking

Deep links are supported automatically with few extra setups

Android:

Define your scheme in the android Manifest:

<intent-filter>
    <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
    <!-- Accepts URIs that begin with "ballast://dashboard” -->
    <data android:scheme="ballast"
          android:host="app" />
</intent-filter>

That's all!

Test your deep link:

adb shell am start -W -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "ballast://app/dashboard?email=dilivva@email.com"

The above command deep links to the dashboard screen passing in an email address. So when deep linking to a screen in your app the pattern is as follows scheme://host/screen.

iOS

Define your URL scheme:

Lastly let the library handle the linking:

ContentView().onOpenURL { link in
    //Set up to support URL scheme
    DeepLinkResult.companion.setUrl(url: link.absoluteString)
}

That's all!!

Example screens

Android:

https://github.com/Dilivva/BallastNavigationExt/assets/61739400/67104fcf-8194-4b40-a6d0-7c249611fd47

iOS:

https://github.com/Dilivva/BallastNavigationExt/assets/61739400/4e5e05e5-a1ab-4768-9c07-33028916777a

Acknowledgements

Ballast: for the awesome routing/navigation library

License

BallastNavigationExt is licensed under the MIT License, see LICENSE.md.