10 Tips For Flutter Users to Succeed On The App

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Flutter is one of the fastest-growing cross-platform mobile app development frameworks. As of this writing, Flutter has over 600K monthly active users and about 200K weekly active users. It’s no wonder why so many developers have taken an interest in it! However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t without its challenges. Getting started with Flutter can feel like a steep learning curve for beginner programmers. So, if you’re looking to get up and running with Flutter apps as soon as possible, you’ve come to the right place! This blog post serves as a crash course on everything you need to know before developing your first Flutter app.

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## Know the basics of Flutter To truly understand how Flutter works, it’s important to first understand a few key concepts. First and foremost, Flutter is a framework. This means it’s a software program that lets you create apps. The main difference between a framework and an app is that an app is focused on a single function, whereas a framework allows you to create multiple apps with different functions. The second concept to understand is that Flutter apps are made up of “widgets.” Widgets are the building blocks of apps. They are small units that are used to create apps like buttons, text boxes, and checkboxes. Flutter uses what is known as a “widget-based” UI. This means that the UI (user interface) is made up of widgets. It is a type of UI that is similar to HTML and CSS. ## ## Install Flutter and Dart Before you can get started writing Flutter apps, there are a few things you’ll need to do first. First, you’ll need to install Flutter (a Google-created SDK) and the Dart programming language. You can find step-by-step installation directions here. It’s important to note that Flutter apps are written in the Dart programming language, not in regular JavaScript. This is super important because if your team is currently writing apps with regular JavaScript and you try to write a Flutter app, you’ll run into problems! ## Write your first app To truly understand how Flutter works, you’ll want to create your first app. A good place to start is with the “Hello World” app. Let’s walk through it together. To begin writing your first app, you’ll first want to open up the Flutter IDE. You can do this by clicking File > New in the top menu bar. A dropdown menu will appear; click on Flutter. Once the IDE has opened, click the “New Flutter Project” button in the top-right corner. You’ll be prompted to enter a name for your app. Name your app “Hello World” and click “Create.” Once created, you’ll be prompted to choose between a “Create New” and “Open” option. Click “Open” and open the “hello_world” folder. Once the folder opens, click on the “main.dart” file. Once the file loads, you’ll see a bunch of code. Don’t worry about it for now; we’ll take a look at it in detail in a bit. For now, let’s focus on building our app. Once you’re done, you should have an app like this: ## Use a Dependency Manager As you start building more and more Flutter apps, you’ll notice that you’ll come to rely on certain tools and frameworks more often than others. To help speed up your workflow, you can create your own Dart packages and store them in a third-party repository called a “dependency manager.” There are many different dependency managers out there, but the most popular one is called “pub.” To use pub, you’ll first have to create your own Dart package. You can do this by clicking on “New” in the top menu bar and selecting “Publishing”. Once you click “Publish,” a pop-up will appear; click “Create New Repository” and enter a name. Once the repository is created, you can upload your Dart package by clicking “Upload a new package” in the same menu you clicked “Create New Repository” in. Once your package is uploaded, you can go to the “pub” website and add your package. ## Use estimations and timings One of the best ways to streamline your development process is by creating estimations and timings for your projects. This will allow your team to plan their work more efficiently, maximizing productivity and minimizing the risk of overworking. It’s important to note that the more you use estimations and timings, the more accurate you’ll become at predicting project durations. Once you’ve become more comfortable with this method, you’ll be able to predict project durations with high accuracy. There are many different methods of creating estimations and timings, but below are a few helpful tips. - For estimations, it helps to break down your project into smaller, more manageable chunks. - For timings, try to create them based on your team members’ availability. ## Don’t write everything in code just yet While it’s important to be diligent and write as much code as you can, it’s also important to leave some things out. You may be so eager to start writing as much code as you can that you end up creating features that you don’t need and/or writing code that you won’t actually be using. - Avoid writing out every single layout and animation in code. - Instead, write the code for the core functionality of the app. Then, use an animation or layout designer to create the layout and animations. These tools allow you to create the layout and animations without having to write any code. ## Explore different options for animations & layouts As you create more and more apps, you may come to notice that most apps have distinct ways of displaying data. In other words, you may notice that certain layouts and animations are used in nearly all of your apps. You don’t have to create these animations and layouts from scratch every single time. Instead, you can create them once and then use them as needed. - Animations: There are a few different ways you can create animations in Flutter. You can create them from within code, use an animation library, or use an animation and layout designer. - Layouts: There are also several ways to create layouts in Flutter. You can create them from within code, use an existing layout, or use an animation and layout designer. ## Conclusion As you can see, there’s a lot to learn before you can start developing your first Flutter app. It can feel like a lot to take in, but if you take your time and follow each step as outlined here, you’ll soon be developing apps in no time! Once you’re ready to get started, be sure to bookmark this article so you can come back to it easily. You may also want to bookmark a Flutter resources page like this one.