I am new to flutter. Something worries me, I don't know if it is normal. I know the code will render if the widget is of type StateFulWidget. But in this case, I have a stateLessWidget and for some reason it renders 2 times. is this normal?
this is my code:
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
void main() {
runApp(MyApp());
}
class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
// This widget is the root of your application.
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
print("main");
return MaterialApp(title: 'Provider Example', initialRoute: '/', routes: {
'/': (context) => Page2(),
});
}
}
class Page2 extends StatelessWidget {
Page2() {
print("page2");
}
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Container();
}
}
this is the output:
Restarted application in 832ms.
I/flutter ( 4439): main
I/flutter ( 4439): page2 --> next two lines are the same, the widget is render again
I/flutter ( 4439): main
I/flutter ( 4439): page2
Flutter build method is what creates and return your rendered widget on the screen, so the build must be called everytime something change in the UI, and it need to rebuild. According to the Documentation
The build method will be called after:
After calling initState.
After calling didUpdateWidget.
After receiving a call to setState.
After a dependency of this State object changes (e.g., an InheritedWidget referenced by the previous build changes).
After calling deactivate and then reinserting the State object into the tree at another location.
So even if you have a Stateless Widget, flutter can and will rebuild multiple times, this why you should avoid putting logic handlers inside your Widgets, specially the build, let this method as simple as possible with only what it actually needs to build the widget.
Also, during animations, transitions... Your widget will be rebuild a lot of times in order to perfom the animation. If you want to avoid unnecessary builds there's some ways you can do it, by making using of the const widgets, if you that a certain Widget won't change during runtime like a Text('Hi') this kind of Widget just need to be build once, so you can use a const keyword to it.
Related
When setState is called in a widget's state, the corresponding element in the element tree gets marked as dirty, and the widget gets rebuilt. However, how does it handle descendents? For example, the Text widget below gets rebuilt when its ancestor SampleWidgetState gets rebuilt.
Why?
class SampleWidget extends StatefulWidget {
#override
SampleWidgetState createState() => SampleWidgetState();
}
class SampleWidgetState extends State<SampleWidget> {
String text = "text1";
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Column(
children: [
Text(text),
ElevatedButton(
child: Text('call SetState'),
onPressed: () {
setState(() {
text = "text2";
});
},
),
],
);
}
}
from Flutter's official documentation, inside Flutter:
In response to user input (or other stimuli), an element can become dirty, for example if the developer calls setState() on the associated state object. The framework keeps a list of dirty elements and jumps directly to them during the build phase, skipping over clean elements. During the build phase, information flows unidirectionally down the element tree, which means each element is visited at most once during the build phase. Once cleaned, an element cannot become dirty again because, by induction, all its ancestor elements are also clean.
I guess this answer what Flutter does under the hood in the updating process of the widget's descendents.
SampleWidgetState is a state class, when you calling the setState() its mean build() method will reinvoke, everything inside will rebuild. thats how its works.
if you want to prevent the descendents to not rebuild, there is several ways,
use const keyword.
warp the widget you want to change its own state, example use StatefullBuilder
refactor widget to statefulwidget so its have its own state
in your case, Text widget consume SampleWidgetState : String text = "text1";, its mean Text widget is not independent, its dependent on that state.
I hope some simple pseudocode is enough so that both me and you can understand the question and answer.
The problem I'm facing is especially hard when using flutter-web, where the refresh restarts the whole program.
I want to use the path parameters to build objects in a child widgets build method.
GoRouter(routes:...,GoRoute(path="/categories/:category/",
builder:(context,state){
category = state.params['category];
return ParentWidget(category);}
ParentWidget extends StatelessWidget {
build(context){
return ChildWidget();}}
ChildWidget extends StatlessWidget {
build(context){
return "do something with category";}}
Now one way which I can think of and should technically work without any errors would be to pass the params first into the ParentWidget and then pass it along to the next child and so on. But if there's a long chain of child widgets it gets quite tedious and I'm guessing error prone as well. The other thing I was thinking was to use providers: pass the param once again to the parent widget and then make the parent widget send it to a provider. But then the question becomes, where do I do it? Apparently I shouldn't update a provider on build(), but if I do it on initState() it only does it bugs out if I change into a route that include the same widget tree but different path e.g. /categories/apples -> /categories/bananas.
Ps. For some reason I don't remember what the problem with refreshing was. (It has something to do with resetting the providers). But I'll update it when I remember.
go_router has it's params in its state.
Hence pass the state to the page
Router
GoRoute(
name: "test",
path: "/test/:id",
builder: (context, state) {
return SampleWidget(
goRouterState: state, 👈 Pass state here
);
},
),
Usage
context.goNamed("test", params: {"id": "123"}),
Accesing in the page
class SampleWidget extends StatelessWidget {
GoRouterState? goRouterState;
SampleWidget({super.key, this.goRouterState});
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
print(goRouterState?.params.toString()); 👈 access anywhere like so
return const Scaffold(
body: ...
);
}
}
is there a difference in these 3 codes:
First: when i call my function inside onInit().
#override
void onInit() {
super.onInit();
fetchProductsFromAPI();
}
Second: when i call my function inside of build method, in stateless widget.
class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
fetchProductsFromAPI();
return GetMaterialApp(
home: ShoppingPage(),
);
}
}
Third: when i call my function outside of build method, in stateless widget.
class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
fetchProductsFromAPI();
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return GetMaterialApp(
home: ShoppingPage(),
);
}
}
Yes, there is a difference. You can read about flutter widget life cycle to have more details:
Life cycle in flutter
https://medium.flutterdevs.com/app-lifecycle-in-flutter-c248d894b830
In summary
When you call your method outside of build method (your 3rd example).
This is what is usually recommended when you can do it.
See is there any difference between assigning value to the variable inside of initState or not in Flutter StatefulWidget?
This will be run only once, when the class is created.
Inside the initState (your 1st example)
At this moment, your widget is being created. Some getters are already available, like the context. This method is called only once.
Inside the build method (your 2nd example)
This is usually the worst approach. Your method will be called for each and every build (you can consider 1 build = 1 frame) which can lead to poor performances. It is recommended to move those calls out of the build method when possible (and if it makes sense)
See How to deal with unwanted widget build?
First:
Put it on initState then the function fetchProductsFromAPI will only call first time your widget create
Second:
I highly recommend you do not use this approach, because build method will be trigger many time when widget need to rebuild, if you put it there, your app will be fetchProductsFromAPI at a lot of unexpected times.
Example when you need to call setState() for some changes, you don't want to call fetch API
Third:
This way will cause compile error, I don't think you can put it there like your code above
I am trying to create tests for my Flutter application. Simple example:
class MyWidget extends StatelessWidget {
#override
build(BuildContext context) {
return MySecondWidget();
}
}
I would like to verify that MyWidget is actually calling MySecondWidget without building MySecondWidget.
void main() {
testWidgets('It should call MySecondWidget', (WidgetTester tester) async {
await tester.pumpWidget(MyWidget());
expect(find.byType(MySecondWidget), findsOneWidget);
}
}
In my case this will not work because MySecondWidget needs some specific and complex setup (like an API key, a value in a Provider...). What I would like is to "mock" MySecondWidget to be an empty Container (for example) so it doesn't raise any error during the test.
How can I do something like that ?
There is nothing done out of the box to mock a widget. I'm going to write some examples/ideas on how to "mock"/replace a widget during a test (for example with a SizedBox.shrink().
But first, let me explain why I think this is not a good idea.
In Flutter you are building a widget tree. A specific widget has a parent and usually has one or several children.
Flutter chose a single pass layout algorithm for performance reasons (see this):
Flutter performs one layout per frame, and the layout algorithm works in a single pass. Constraints are passed down the tree by parent objects calling the layout method on each of their children. The children recursively perform their own layout and then return geometry up the tree by returning from their layout method. Importantly, once a render object has returned from its layout method, that render object will not be visited again until the layout for the next frame. This approach combines what might otherwise be separate measure and layout passes into a single pass and, as a result, each render object is visited at most twice during layout: once on the way down the tree, and once on the way up the tree.
From this, we need to understand that a parent needs its children to build to get their sizes and then render itself properly. If you remove its children, it might behave completely differently.
It is better to mock the services if possible. For example, if your child makes an HTTP request, you can mock the HTTP client:
HttpOverrides.runZoned(() {
// Operations will use MyHttpClient instead of the real HttpClient
// implementation whenever HttpClient is used.
}, createHttpClient: (SecurityContext? c) => MyHttpClient(c));
If the child needs a specific provider you can provide a dummy one:
testWidgets('My test', (tester) async {
tester.pumpWidget(
Provider<MyProvider>(
create: (_) => MyDummyProvider(),
child: MyWidget(),
),
);
});
If you still want to change a widget with another one during your tests, here are some ideas:
1. Use Platform.environment.containsKey('FLUTTER_TEST')
You can either import Platform from dart:io (not supported on web) or universal_io (supported on web).
and your build method could be:
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
final isTest = Platform.environment.containsKey('FLUTTER_TEST');
if (isTest) return const SizedBox.shrink();
return // Your real implementation.
}
2. Use the annotation #visibleForTesting
You can annotate a parameter (ex: mockChild) that is only visible/usable in a test file:
class MyWidget extends StatelessWidget {
const MyWidget({
#visibleForTesting this.mockChild,
});
final Widget? child;
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return mockChild ?? // Your real widget implementation here.
}
}
And in your test:
tester.pumpWidget(
MyWidget(
mockChild: MyMockChild(),
),
);
You can mock MySecondWidget (eg using Mockito) but you do need to change your real code to create a MockMySecondWidget when in test mode, so it's not pretty. Flutter does not support object instantiation based on a Type (except through dart:mirrors but that is not compatible with Flutter), so you cannot 'inject' the type as a dependency. To determine if you are in test mode use Platform.environment.containsKey('FLUTTER_TEST') - best to determine this once upon startup and set the result as a global final variable, which will make any conditional statements quick.
One way to do it, is to wrap the child widget into a function, and pass the function to parent widget's constructor:
class MyWidget extends StatelessWidget {
final Widget Function() buildMySecondWidgetFn;
const MyWidget({
Key? key,
this.buildMySecondWidgetFn = _buildMySecondWidget
}): super(key: key);
#override
build(BuildContext context) {
return buildMySecondWidgetFn();
}
}
Widget _buildMySecondWidget() => MySecondWidget();
Then you can make up your mock widget, pass it thru buildMySecondWidgetFn in test.
In flutter we can pass a stateless widget that returns a MaterialApp instance to the runApp() function like this:
void main()=>runApp(new MyApp());
class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return new MaterialApp(
...
);
}
}
or we can pass the instance of MaterialApp directly to the runApp() function like so:
void main()=>runApp(
new MaterialApp(
...
);
);
What is the difference between these to ways? Thanks.
There's no difference in visual behavior.
What changes is how hot reload behaves.
For example if you used runApp(MaterialApp()), changing from
runApp(MaterialApp(title: 'Foo'))
to
runApp(MaterialApp(title: 'Bar'))
then the hot reload wouldn't take changes into consideration.
While if you had the following class :
class MyApp {
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return MaterialApp(
title: 'Foo',
);
)
}
and used it like this :
runApp(MyApp())
then changing title of MyApp would be correctly hot reloaded.
For hot-reload to be able to keep the state, it applies code changes and re-runs build() so that the view is updated. If the whole app would be restarted, the previous state would be lost. This is not desired. If you want this use hot restart instead.
This also means that changes to code that is only executed when the whole app is restarted, will not be applied to the current state.
For more details about hot-reload and limitations see https://flutter.io/docs/development/tools/hot-reload
To add custom behavior on hot-reload the method State<T>.reassemble can be overridden https://docs.flutter.io/flutter/widgets/State/reassemble.html
In one case you have a class, which you can add more methods to, and use them. In one case you don't.