Passing Map or Class to widget is better practice? - flutter

Question

In my code, I have the Step class:
class Step{
String name;
bool completed;
Step({
#required this.name,
#required this.completed
});
Map<String, dynamic> toMap() => {
'name': name,
'completed': completed
};
}
I use Firebase as my backend and pull data from cloud firestore using StreamBuilder and pass it to my StepView widget:
StreamBuilder(
stream: Firestore.instance.collection('step').snapshots,
builder: (context, snapshot) {
sample_step = snapshot.data.documents[0].data;
return StepView(
step: sample_step
)
}
)
My question is: What is the better practice between two options:
Passing the raw data I pulled from cloud Firestone, which is a Map<String, dynamic>, to my widget:
class StepView extends StatefulWidget {
final Map<String, dynamic> step;
}
Or converting the Map to the Step class and pass that instance of Step class to my widget:
// Convert the Map<String, dynamic> sample_test to class Step
// Need to code the method fromMapToClass in Step class
new_step = Step.fromMapToClass(sample_step)
return StepView(
step: new_step
)
class StepView extends StatefulWidget {
final Step step;
}

Answer 1

That totally depends on how you prefer to code your widgets and which state management scheme you would use.
If I was at your place and I used ProviderModel or any other model for state management:
I would CONVERT the map to class object FIRST
You need to implement a method fromMapToClass in your class to be able to convert the firestore data to the required Step class object.
Your Step class should look somthing like this (the function could change depending upon you data)
class Step {
String name;
bool completed;
Step({#required this.name, #required this.completed});
Map<String, dynamic> toMap() => {'name': name, 'completed': completed};
Step.fromMapToClass(Map<String, dynamic> json) {
this.name = json['name']??"";
this.completed = json['completed']??false;
}
}
Then send the Step class object to my Widget Class (or StateManagement class which in ProviderModel case will be the Provider class that extends ChangeNotifier).
This way your widget will not have to handle the conversion part and can just focus on the design and implementation.