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Table of Contents
Introduction xxi
Part I: The Foundations of Flutter Programming
Chapter 1: Introducing Flutter and Getting Started 3
Introducing Flutter 4
Defining Widgets and Elements 5
Understanding Widget Lifecycle Events 5
The StatelessWidget Lifecycle 6
The StatefulWidget Lifecycle 6
Understanding the Widget Tree and the Element Tree 8
Stateless Widget and Element Trees 9
Stateful Widget and Element Trees 10
Installing the Flutter SDK 13
Installing on macOS 13
System Requirements 13
Get the Flutter SDK 13
Check for Dependencies 14
iOS Setup: Install Xcode 14
Android Setup: Install Android Studio 14
Set Up the Android Emulator 15
Installing on Windows 15
System Requirements 15
Get the Flutter SDK 16
Check for Dependencies 16
Install Android Studio 16
Set Up the Android Emulator 17
Installing on Linux 17
System Requirements 17
Get the Flutter SDK 18
Check for Dependencies 19
Install Android Studio 19
Set Up the Android Emulator 19
Configuring the Android Studio Editor 20
Summary 20
Chapter 2: Creating a Hello World App 25
Setting Up the Project 25
Using Hot Reload 30
Using Themes to Style Your App 33
Using a Global App Theme 33
Using a Theme for Part of an App 35
Understanding Stateless and Stateful Widgets 37
Using External Packages 38
Searching for Packages 39
Using Packages 40
Summary 41
Chapter 3: Learning Dart Basics 43
Why Use Dart? 43
Commenting Code 44
Running the main() Entry Point 45
Referencing Variables 45
Declaring Variables 46
Numbers 47
Strings 47
Booleans 47
Lists 47
Maps 48
Runes 48
Using Operators 49
Using Flow Statements 51
if and else 51
ternary operator 52
for Loops 52
while and do-while 53
while and break 54
continue 54
switch and case 55
Using Functions 55
Import Packages 57
Using Classes 57
Class Inheritance 60
Class Mixins 60
Implementing Asynchronous Programming 61
Summary 62
Chapter 4: Creating a Starter Project Template 65
Creating and Organizing Folders and Files 65
Structuring Widgets 69
Summary 74
Chapter 5: Understanding the Widget Tree 77
Introduction to Widgets 77
Building the Full Widget Tree 79
Building a Shallow Widget Tree 85
Refactoring with a Constant 86
Refactoring with a Method 86
Refactoring with a Widget Class 91
Summary 99
Part II: Intermediate Flutter: Fleshing Out an App
Chapter 6: Using Common Widgets 103
Using Basic Widgets 103
SafeArea 107
Container 108
Text 112
RichText 112
Column 114
Row 115
Column and Row Nesting 115
Buttons 119
FloatingActionButton 119
FlatButton 121
RaisedButton 121
IconButton 122
PopupMenuButton 123
ButtonBar 126
Using Images and Icons 130
AssetBundle 130
Image 131
Icon 132
Using Decorators 135
Using the Form Widget to Validate Text Fields 139
Checking Orientation 143
Summary 149
Chapter 7: Adding Animation to an App 151
Using AnimatedContainer 152
Using AnimatedCrossFade 155
Using AnimatedOpacity 160
Using AnimationController 164
Using Staggered Animations 170
Summary 175
Chapter 8: Creating an App’s Navigation 177
Using the Navigator 178
Using the Named Navigator Route 188
Using Hero Animation 188
Using the BottomNavigationBar 193
Using the BottomAppBar 199
Using the TabBar and TabBarView 203
Using the Drawer and ListView 207
Summary 217
Chapter 9: Creating Scrolling Lists and Effects 221
Using the Card 222
Using the ListView and ListTile 223
Using the GridView 230
Using the GridView.count 230
Using the GridView.extent 232
Using the GridView.builder 233
Using the Stack 237
Customizing the CustomScrollView with Slivers 243
Summary 250
Chapter 10: Building Layouts 253
A High-Level View of the Layout 253
Weather Section Layout 256
Tags Layout 256
Footer Images Layout 257
Final Layout 257
Creating the Layout 257
Summary 265
Chapter 11: Applying Interactivity 267
Setting Up GestureDetector: The Basics 267
Implementing the Draggable and Dragtarget Widgets 275
Using the GestureDetector for Moving and Scaling 278
Using the InkWell and InkResponse Gestures 289
Using the Dismissible Widget 296
Summary 303
Chapter 12: Writing Platform-Native Code 307
Understanding Platform Channels 307
Implementing the Client Platform Channel App 309
Implementing the iOS Host Platform Channel 313
Implementing the Android Host Platform Channel 318
Summary 322
Part III: Creating Production-Ready Apps
Chapter 13: Saving Data with Local Persistence 327
Understanding the JSON Format 328
Using Database Classes to Write, Read, and Serialize JSON 330
Formatting Dates 331
Sorting a List of Dates 332
Retrieving Data with the FutureBuilder 333
Building the Journal App 335
Adding the Journal Database Classes 339
Adding the Journal Entry Page 344
Finishing the Journal Home Page 359
Summary 371
Chapter 14: Adding The Firebase and Firestore Backend 375
What are Firebase and Cloud Firestore? 376
Structuring and Data Modeling Cloud Firestore 377
Viewing Firebase Authentication Capabilities 380
Viewing Cloud Firestore Security Rules 381
Configuring the Firebase Project 383
Adding a Cloud Firestore Database and Implementing Security 391
Building the Client Journal App 395
Adding Authentication and Cloud Firestore Packages to the Client App 395
Adding Basic Layout to the Client App 403
Adding Classes to the Client App 406
Summary 409
Chapter 15: Adding State Management to the Firestore Client App 411
Implementing State Management 412
Implementing an Abstract Class 414
Implementing the InheritedWidget 415
Implementing the Model Class 416
Implementing the Service Class 417
Implementing the BLoC Pattern 417
Implementing StreamController, Streams, Sinks, and StreamBuilder 419
Building State Management 421
Adding the Journal Model Class 422
Adding the Service Classes 424
Adding the Validators Class 430
Adding the BLoC Pattern 432
Adding the AuthenticationBloc 432
Adding the AuthenticationBlocProvider 435
Adding the LoginBloc 436
Adding the HomeBloc 441
Adding the HomeBlocProvider 443
Adding the JournalEditBloc 444
Adding the JournalEditBlocProvider 447
Summary 449
Chapter 16: Adding Blocs to Firestore Client App Pages 453
Adding the Login Page 454
Modifying the Main Page 460
Modifying the Home Page 465
Adding the Edit Journal Page 472
Summary 484
Index 489
