If a ViewModel obtains data from one or more external sources (such as databases or web services) it is important to separate the code involved in handling those data sources from the ViewModel class. Failure to do this would, after all, violate the separation of concerns guidelines. To avoid mixing this functionality in with the ViewModel, Google’s architecture guidelines recommend placing this code in a separate Repository module.
A repository is not an Android architecture component, but rather a Java class created by the app developer that is responsible for interfacing with the various data sources. The class then provides an interface to the ViewModel allowing that data to be stored in the model.
Figure 32-4
