Debugging Kotlin apps can be a nightmare, especially in multi-module projects with complex dependency graphs and multiple app versions running on a wide range of devices.
The Koin IDE Plugin might help make things a little easier.
It’s designed to make your debugging process smoother.
It can help you visualize your app’s structure, navigate your code more efficiently, and also identify and resolve both configuration and performance issues early in the development process.
Let’s walk through how you can use it to improve the debugging of your Android and KMP apps as well as your SDK libraries
As your project’s codebase grows, understanding how Koin’s modules, components, and dependencies are structured is important to avoid errors and ensure maintainability.
The Koin IDE Plugin helps you visualize your Koin configuration directly in your IDE, providing a clear tree representation of your module organization, test modules, start entries, parameters, and dependencies.
The Koin Configuration view offers a comprehensive picture of how everything is connected, almost like having a map for your code. This makes it easier to manage complexity, reduce errors, and onboard new team members.
Now, let’s talk about navigation. Finding where your dependencies are declared and used across your project can be tedious. The Koin IDE Plugin simplifies this with two-way navigation.
With the Koin Configuration view, you can navigate your Koin setup using a tree structure. Click on modules, components, or parameters, and you’ll be taken directly to the relevant source code. In the code, gutter icons provide a quick way to jump from the code to the corresponding Koin module or dependency declaration, and vice versa.
This makes it easy to find what you're looking for without having to search manually, saving you time and effort. It’s one of those features that once you use it, you’ll wonder how you ever worked without it.
How often have you encountered issues only to realize they were caused by a missing dependency or a misconfigured module? The Koin IDE Plugin helps you catch these configuration issues early, before runtime. You don’t need to wait for a compilation; the plugin identifies problems in real-time as you write your code. This is what we call configuration safety.
As you code, the plugin automatically flags missing dependencies and configuration errors in the Koin Configuration tree view in real time. For a centralized summary of all configuration issues, including descriptions and severity, the plugin offers a dedicated 'Configuration Issues' view.
That means you can fix issues right as they come up rather than waiting until later in the process. It’s a nice way to stay on top of things without letting small problems snowball into bigger ones.
Detecting performance bottlenecks and structural issues early not only saves time but also helps avoid costly downtime in production.
Whether it’s slow startup times, components blocking your main or background threads, or slow dependency resolutions, the plugin automatically identifies these issues in real-time within your Android Studio or IntelliJ environment. This works for Android apps, KMP apps, and SDK library projects.
Detected issues are listed in the "Application Issues" view, along with the number of impacted user sessions.
To start using this, you can configure the Kotzilla SDK in your debug build via the "New App" button. The SDK captures only essential debugging data using the Koin container, ensuring no business logic or user-sensitive information is captured.
Investigating issues traditionally involves adding manual traces or logs in your code to track down the root cause, such as when you suspect a performance problem in a ViewModel.
With the plugin, you can click on the issues detected in real-time and jump directly into the Kotzilla Console for additional insights. The Console provides detailed information, including the number of impacted user sessions and app versions. You can also investigate specific user sessions to visualize the flow of components and dependencies, as well as how these are spread across different threads and screen navigation.
This approach allows you to pinpoint the root cause much faster, eliminating the need for manually adding trace statements throughout your code.
If you’ve been looking for ways to make your Kotlin development workflow smoother, the Koin IDE Plugin is definitely worth checking out.
Whether you’re dealing with complex configurations or performance issues or just want a better way to visualize your dependencies, this tool can help you get a clearer picture and debug more efficiently.
It won’t automatically fix everything, but it will provide visibility into the lifecycle and execution of your components and dependencies across different threads.