Getting Started

Use Supabase with Android Kotlin

Learn how to create a Supabase project, add some sample data to your database, and query the data from an Android Kotlin app.

1

Create a Supabase project

Go to database.new and create a new Supabase project.

When your project is up and running, go to the Table Editor, create a new table and insert some data.

Alternatively, you can run the following snippet in your project's SQL Editor. This will create a countries table with some sample data.

SQL_EDITOR

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-- Create the table
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create table countries (
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id bigint primary key generated always as identity,
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name text not null
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);
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-- Insert some sample data into the table
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insert into countries (name)
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values
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('Canada'),
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('United States'),
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('Mexico');
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alter table countries enable row level security;

Make the data in your table publicly readable by adding an RLS policy:

SQL_EDITOR

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create policy "public can read countries"
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on public.countries
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for select to anon
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using (true);

2

Create an Android app with Android Studio

Open Android Studio > New > New Android Project.

3

Install the Dependencies

Open build.gradle.kts (app) file and add the serialization plug, Ktor client, and Supabase client.

Replace the version placeholders $kotlin_version with the Kotlin version of the project, and $supabase_version and $ktor_version with the respective latest versions.

The latest supabase-kt version can be found here and Ktor version can be found here.


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plugins {
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...
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kotlin("plugin.serialization") version "$kotlin_version"
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}
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...
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dependencies {
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...
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implementation(platform("io.github.jan-tennert.supabase:bom:$supabase_version"))
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implementation("io.github.jan-tennert.supabase:postgrest-kt")
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implementation("io.ktor:ktor-client-android:$ktor_version")
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}

4

Add internet access permission

Add the following line to the AndroidManifest.xml file under the manifest tag and outside the application tag.


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...
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<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
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...

5

Initialize the Supabase client

You can create a Supabase client whenever you need to perform an API call.

For the sake of simplicity, we will create a client in the MainActivity.kt file at the top just below the imports.

Replace the supabaseUrl and supabaseKey with your own:

Project URL
Anon key

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import ...
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val supabase = createSupabaseClient(
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supabaseUrl = "https://xyzcompany.supabase.co",
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supabaseKey = "your_public_anon_key"
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) {
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install(Postgrest)
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}
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...

6

Create a data model for countries

Create a serializable data class to represent the data from the database.

Add the following below the createSupabaseClient function in the MainActivity.kt file.


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@Serializable
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data class Country(
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val id: Int,
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val name: String,
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)

7

Query data from the app

Use LaunchedEffect to fetch data from the database and display it in a LazyColumn.

Replace the default MainActivity class with the following code.

Note that we are making a network request from our UI code. In production, you should probably use a ViewModel to separate the UI and data fetching logic.


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class MainActivity : ComponentActivity() {
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override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
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super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
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setContent {
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SupabaseTutorialTheme {
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// A surface container using the 'background' color from the theme
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Surface(
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modifier = Modifier.fillMaxSize(),
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color = MaterialTheme.colorScheme.background
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) {
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CountriesList()
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}
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}
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}
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}
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}
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@Composable
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fun CountriesList() {
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var countries by remember { mutableStateOf<List<Country>>(listOf()) }
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LaunchedEffect(Unit) {
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withContext(Dispatchers.IO) {
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countries = supabase.from("countries")
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.select().decodeList<Country>()
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}
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}
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LazyColumn {
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items(
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countries,
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key = { country -> country.id },
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) { country ->
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Text(
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country.name,
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modifier = Modifier.padding(8.dp),
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)
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}
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}
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}

8

Start the app

Run the app on an emulator or a physical device by clicking the Run app button in Android Studio.