Beginning App Development with Flutter - Create Cross-Platform Mobile Apps

Create iOS and Android apps with Flutter using just one codebase. App development on multiple platforms has historically been difficult and complex. This book breaks down complex concepts and tasks into easily digestible segments with examples, pictures, and hands-on labs with starters and solutions.

In doing so, you'll develop a basic understanding of the Dart programming language; the entire Flutter development toolchain; the differences between stateful and stateless widgets; and a working knowledge of the architecture of apps. All the most important parts of app development with Flutter are covered in this book. Work with themes and styles. Develop custom widgets. Teach your app to respond to gestures like taps, swipes, and pinches. Design, create and control the layout of your app. Create tools to handle form data entry from users. And ultimately create killer multiscreen apps with navigation, menus, and tabs.

Flutter is Google's new framework for creating mobile apps that run on iOS and Android phones both.You had to be a super-developer to write apps for iOS or Android alone. But writing for both? Forget about it! You had to be familiar with Swift, Java/Kotlin, Xcode, Eclipse, and a bunch of other technologies simultaneously. Beginning App Development with Flutter simplifies the entire process.

What You'll Learn

Get the most out of great Flutter widgets

Create custom widgets, both stateless and stateful
Exercise expert control over your Flutter layouts
Make your app respond to gestures like swiping, pinching and tapping
Initiate async Ajax calls to RESTful APIs - including Google Firebase!

Who This Book Is For Developers who have coded in Java, C#, C++, or any similar language. It brings app development within the reach of younger developers, so STEM groups are likely to pick up the technology. Managers, product owners, and business analysts need to understand Flutter's capabilities.

List of contents

Section: Introduction to Flutter

1. Hello Flutter

Chapter Synopsis: Setting the stage for the book. Give the reader a feel for why they're here. What problems does Flutter solve? Why the boss would choose Flutter versus some other solution.
What is covered in this book

Brief chapter overview and roadmap
What is notcovered and where to find answers to your questions

The Dart language itself - There's an overview and cheatsheet in the Appendix
Deploying to a store
Device-specific programming
Who is this book for?

Who's a good fit and who is not
Where to go to satisfy the prerequisites
What is Flutter?

Problems it solves Where it came from - Brief history and origins
Competitors to Flutter

What other options are available? What might you use if not Flutter? Advantages and disadvantages of Flutter vs the other options

React Native
Progressive Web Apps
WebView solutions (Ionic, etc.)
Truly native coding (Swift, Objective-C, Java, Kotlin)
Characteristics of Flutter - Big picture things to keep in mind to successfully code in Flutter

This ain't the web!
Imperative UI
You're writing using Dart
Everything is a widget (Define widgets and explain the big win of widgets)
Widgets composition You have to watch state

2. How do I develop in Flutter?

Chapter synopsis: Flutter has a unique set of tools but it isn't always straightforward what each tool does and how to use it. This chapter guides the reader through the process of write-debug-test-run.
Installing Flutter tooling - A very brief and high-level coverage of where to get the tools. It should be brief because the details are likely to change regularly.
Overview of each tool

The emulators

iOS simulator through XCode
Android emulator through Android Studio
The IDE - Visual Studio Code

Alternatives: Android Studio, Atom, jBoss, etc.
The Flutter CLI
How to check and repair your toolchain through Flutter doctor
How to scaffold a new app
How to run in an emulator
When errors occur
How to debug

print() statement
Flutter inspector or DartCode VS Code plugin
Watch mode

Section: Foundational Flutter

3. Everything is widgets

Chapter Synopsis: Widgets are super-important to Flutter since they're the building blocks of every Flutter app. We show why and provide the motivation and basic tools to create widgets. Reminder about widgets
Composition

Define composition
Provide real-world examples
Why it is such a win
Comparison with Web Components, React, Angular, and Vue
The categories of Flutter UI widgets
For each category, we'll explain why we'd use them, what they have in common, and give one or two examples of the most fundamental and needed widgets in each category.
Value Widgets

Example: Text widget
Style Widgets

Example: Center widget
Composition Widgets
Example: Container widget
Navigation Widgets

Example: AppBar widget
Bringing the chapter together: Composing them in a custom widget
Stateful vs. Stateless widgets

What is state?
How to create a custom stateless widget (Note: creating a stateful widget is complex so we're saving it for the State chapter).

4. Value Widgets

Chapter Synopsis: Deep dive into widgets that hold a value, especially user-input fields
What's the pubspec.yaml file?
Text widget
ListView widget

ListView for a small list
ListTitle
Using a ListView.builder() for memory efficiency
Image widget
Input widgets

TextField widget
Form widget
TextFormField widget (Yes, it's different)
CheckBox widget
RadioButton widget
DropDownButton and DropDownMenuItem widgets
Validating input data

5. Responding to Gestures

Chapter Synopsis: How to make your program do things in response to user actions like taps, swiping, pinching, and the like The button family

RaisedButton widget
FlatButton widget
IconButton widget
FloatingActionButton widget
CupertinoButton
Custom gestures on custom widgets
Step 1 - Decide on your gestures

About the author

Rap Payne has focused on mobile development since he started Agile Gadgets, a mobile app development company in 2003. He is a consultant, trainer, and entrepreneur who has written apps, mentored developers, and taught software development classes for Fortune 500 companies like Boeing, Walmart, Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, Honda,CVS, GE, Chase, HP, Lockheed, Exxon-Mobil, Lowe's, Nike, J.C. Penney, USAA, Walgreen's, and government agencies like the US Air Force, Navy, Army, NASA, Britain's GCHQ, Canada's postal service, and several provincial governments, to name a few.
As a professional mentor and trainer, Rap has developed a talent for communicating highly complex ideas in easy-to-understand ways. And as a real-world developer, he understands the need to teach these topics using practical and realistic examples and exercises.

Summary

Create iOS and Android apps with Flutter using just one codebase.  App development on multiple platforms has historically been difficult and complex. This book breaks down complex concepts and tasks into easily digestible segments with examples, pictures, and hands-on labs with starters and solutions. 
In doing so, you'll develop a basic understanding of the Dart programming language; the entire Flutter development toolchain; the differences between stateful and stateless widgets; and a working knowledge of the architecture of apps. All the most important parts of app development with Flutter are covered in this book. Work with themes and styles. Develop custom widgets. Teach your app to respond to gestures like taps, swipes, and pinches. Design, create and control the layout of your app. Create tools to handle form data entry from users. And ultimately create killer multiscreen apps with navigation, menus, and tabs.
Flutter is Google's new framework for creating mobile apps that run on iOS and Android phones both.You had to be a super-developer to write apps for iOS or Android alone. But writing for both? Forget about it! You had to be familiar with Swift, Java/Kotlin, Xcode, Eclipse, and a bunch of other technologies simultaneously. Beginning App Development with Flutter simplifies the entire process.

What You'll Learn

• Get the most out of great Flutter widgets
  
• Create custom widgets, both stateless and stateful
• Exercise expert control over your Flutter layouts
• Make your app respond to gestures like swiping, pinching and tapping
• Initiate async Ajax calls to RESTful APIs — including Google Firebase!

Who This Book Is For

Developers who have coded in Java, C#, C++, or any similar language. It brings app development within the reach of younger developers, so STEM groups are likely to pick up the technology. Managers, product owners, and business analysts need to understand Flutter's capabilities. 

Product details

• Authors: Rap Payne
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 07.01.2020
• EAN: 9781484251805
• ISBN: 978-1-4842-5180-5
• No. of pages: 309
• Dimensions: 157 mm x 23 mm x 234 mm
• Weight: 511 g
• Illustrations: 2 SW-Abb., 126 Farbabb.
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > IT, data processing > Operating systems, user interfaces; B, Mobile Computing, Apple Computer, Professional and Applied Computing, Apple (Mac OS) operating systems, Apple and iOS, Macintosh programming