Shorten usage of Fields in include, where, and orderBy API functions

[vestrel00]

Problem

The suggested usage of Fields in the library results in too long statements due to redundancy of using Fields.. For example,

.where((Fields.Email.Address startsWith "a") and (Fields.Email.Address endsWith "gmail.com"))

While this is the only way Fields can be used by Java users, we can shorten it for Kotlin users. Actually, Kotlin users can already remove the redundant calls to Fields. this by using run on it,

.where(Fields.run { (Email.Address startsWith "a") and (Email.Address endsWith "gmail.com") })

However, it is not obvious and requires consumers to still use Fields. once.

Consumers could also import all properties of Fields. However, it could cause a lot of name clashes between the name of the field (e.g. Email) and the name of the entity (e.g. Email).

Solution

Remove the need for consumers to use Fields.run (and other equivalent field sets), in include, where, and orderBy API functions.

Usage for Kotlin users would look like,

.where{ (Email.Address startsWith "a") and (Email.Address endsWith "gmail.com") }

This also gets rid of the need for consumers to know that they should be using Fields to begin with, even though it is mentioned in the documentation.

We can take this a step further by providing extensions for a field sets,

.where{ Email { (Address startsWith "a") and (Address endsWith "gmail.com") } }

And even further by providing extensions for individual fields,

.where{ Email.Address { startsWith("a") and endsWith("gmail.com") } }

Checklist

• Add the extra functions to all APIs
• Update sample Kotlin code in API class docs
• Update all relevant howto pages
• Update README
• Update medium and dev.to blog code snippets
• Update sample app usages

[jayasuryat]

Hi @vestrel00,
(Continuing conversation from here)

Would this thread be appropriate to continue the above mentioned conversation?

[vestrel00]

Hey! Welcome 🔥 Anywhere is fine. This is okay. If you'd like, you can start a new discussion https://github.com/vestrel00/contacts-android/discussions/new it's all up to you. I have no preference 😁

For my reference and other contributors, this is about this thread in Reddit; https://www.reddit.com/r/Kotlin/comments/rtxfdm/comment/hr19srb/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

[jayasuryat]

Started a new discussion (#162) to continue on this.

[vestrel00]

Based on that discussion, I'm reopening this issue and assigning it to you @jayasuryat! Please delete my 500 lines of code here and replaced it with your 2 lines of code!!! GENIUS!

[vestrel00]

Included in release; https://github.com/vestrel00/contacts-android/releases/tag/0.1.10