Visualization of composable functions in Jetpack Compose Navigation is not supported in Android Studio at the moment. However as a workaround you could use Jetpack Navigation library and preview your composable widgets inside of fragments.
Workaround:
To get preview working, we can use Jetpack Navigation library (non-compose version) for handling navigation inside the app and previewing graphs. Therefore, we need to use our composable widgets inside of a Fragment.
Create XML resource for your Fragment with a root element being ComposeView:
<androidx.compose.ui.platform.ComposeView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:id="@+id/composeView"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
tools:composableName="com.example.myapplication.HomeScreenKt.PreviewHome" />
In tools:composableName attribute specify full path to your annotated @Preview function.
Then create a Fragment for your composable widget (how):
class HomeFragment : Fragment() {
private var _binding: FragmentHomeBinding? = null
private val binding get() = _binding!!
override fun onCreateView(
inflater: LayoutInflater,
container: ViewGroup?,
savedInstanceState: Bundle?
): View = FragmentHomeBinding
.inflate(inflater, container, false)
.also { _binding = it }
.root
override fun onViewCreated(view: View, savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onViewCreated(view, savedInstanceState)
initComposeView()
}
override fun onDestroyView() {
super.onDestroyView()
_binding = null
}
private fun initComposeView() {
with(binding.composeView) {
setViewCompositionStrategy(ViewCompositionStrategy.DisposeOnViewTreeLifecycleDestroyed)
setContent {
HomeScreen()
}
}
}
}
Create graph res/navigation/home_graph and add your fragment:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<navigation xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:id="@+id/home_graph"
app:startDestination="@id/homeFragment">
<fragment
android:id="@+id/homeFragment"
android:name="com.example.myapplication.HomeFragment"
android:label="HomeFragment"
tools:layout="@layout/fragment_home" />
</navigation>
Don't forget to specify tools:layout tag as it tells Android Studio to draw the preview of XML file.
Build project and you will see working preview of a composable function inside the navigation graph!
