The development of a mobile application is necessary for every business. However, picking the right tech bundle to develop the app is always a responsible debate. Many options are available in the market, but why do you need Flutter?
Flutter was launched in May 2017 as an open-source and cross-platform user interface SDK. Google created Flutter to develop an app for iOS and Android, even web applications. There are key reasons to consider using Flutter for the best Android apps. You can finish with one code base to maintain, debug, and update your application.
This is a massive benefit compared to creating your apps immanently. Swift is used to develop your iOS apps and Java or Kotlin is used to develop Android apps. You need to make modifications at various places within it to update any feature in your app. However, it is more difficult and error-ready.
You just need to have knowledge of one language, Dart, if you use Flutter. Dart is a powerful language and simple to work with. You can create your Android apps, the best iPhone apps, and web apps after learning and understanding how to use them. People just need to learn one language rather than many.
Dart is very similar to many object-oriented programming languages. It is for those who have already done any kind of programming. Google used this programming language to develop strong tools such as Google Fiber and Google AdWords. But its usage will have a significant influence on apps for computer in the future.
The Structure of a Flutter App
You will find that everything in the Flutter app is a widget such as Lego blocks. You just need to put a widget onto another widget to develop the application. The first step to do is to create a scaffold (a blank screen for our app) to develop an app using Flutter.
It is essential to add (pre-built widgets) a container below and an app bar at the top of that. The container is a box and will contain the contents of the application. The app bar seems like the app bar/toolbar that acts like one. It seems relatively as the Android UI design.
However, the scaffold is like your parent layout and the container is the nested/fragment layout, and the app bar is a toolbar. The container features a column and it can be nested too like any other widget. It heaps the widgets/items vertically. This column has 2 items, including some text at the bottom and a row at the top.
Do you know about a row? It is just a widget because everything is a widget. A row can arrange the widgets horizontally. You can add some text and an icon in the row to go deeper into the widget tree. Use the column to lay them out and use a row if you need to position widgets horizontally.
You can use a text widget to add text and use an icon widget if you need to add an icon. Use the image widget to add images. Your widget tree will become like a group of widgets that are embedded with each other. People can create a remarkable and interactive UI using these widgets.
You can download/set up the tools to get started with app development.
Fundamentals for Flutter App Development
- Development environment setup: Windows, Mac, or Linux-based computer.
- IDE: Visual Studio Code/ Android Studio.
- Disk Space: You need a minimum of 10GB of free space.
- Tools: Git
Note: Flutter just needs 1.64GB but you will need extra space to install Android Studio. We will cover here only Android application development using Android Studio and Windows system.
You must have a version of Java 11 installed and set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to the JDK’s folder. There are 3 important steps to complete the installation process.
- Install the Flutter SDK
- install Android Studio
- Install Android Emulator
Installation of the Flutter SDK
Go to https://docs.flutter.dev/get-started/install/windows. Download the Flutter SDK for Windows and follow the installation instructions. After the completion of installation, update the environment variable specified in the installation guide.
Installation of Android Studio
Download Android Studio and follow the instructions specified in the Flutter installation link. After the completion of the Android Studio installation, experience the Android Studio setup wizard. It will install the latest Android SDK, Android SDK build tools, and Android SDK platform tools.
The latest technology trends confirm that these tools are essential for Flutter to develop the Android app. You will find a “Welcome screen” display when you open the Android Studio. Browse for the Flutter and Dart repositories and configure Flutter and Dart in Android Studio.
You must click on the Plugin menu to search Flutter and click the Install option. It will install the Dart plugin. Restart Android Studio after completion. You will find a new menu item on the Welcome screen, “New Flutter Project”, after successful installation.
Installation of Android Emulator
The latest technology news said you need to install an Android Emulator to run your application. People can also select to run the application on a physical device but first create a Flutter app. To start, you need to click on “New Flutter Project” on the welcome screen and click Flutter menu.
Confirm that the Flutter SDK path is listed, then, click on the “Next” button. Provide the project name as “Project My Flutter”, select the location, and type “Application”. Select your desired Android and iOS development language. You must select the platforms to develop the application.
Click on the “Finish” button to develop your first Flutter app. You can click on the “Create” button if you find the IDE is displaying a popup to create a new directory. Now, set up the Android Emulator to run your application. Click on “Tools > Device Manager” to get the Android Emulator.
