Why Flutter?

We all are aware of the fact that Flutter has been gaining considerable popularity. But why?

Of course due to the fact that it can develop mobile apps so quickly and easily. Not only that but learning Flutter is not a burdensome task. Whatever the level and type of mobile or web app development expertise and knowledge you own, Flutter is all you need to learn for call yourself a well-informed Flutter developer. You can gain a lot of wisdom just from going through the best Flutter guides, beginner's Flutter tutorials some offline and online learning resources. But all this is incomplete without a lot of dedication and self-learning.

You must be willing to know how to create an app from zero using a Flutter app development framework. If so, then dear reader, this is the guide you need.

Read this guide till the end to have a clear-cut understanding of everything about Flutter’s foundation.

Google's open-source UI framework, Flutter allows developers to create native-quality mobile, and web applications from a single codebase.

It is a valuable modern tool for developing stunning cross-platform applications that render native code on every device and operating system.

Flutter is compatible with

• Android,
• iOS,
• Linux,
• macOS
• Windows

How is it different from other Cross-platform frameworks?

Flutter App Development sets itself apart from other frameworks as it draws widgets using its superior performance and more efficient rendering engine rather than WebView or the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) widgets that came with the device. Most of its systems, like as gestures, animations, Flutter DevTools, and widgets, may be implemented using the Dart programming language.

This enables developers to easily read, modify, replace, or remove items. In addition, it gives complete control to the developers over the system.

Flutter is strong but not the only player in the cross-platform app development game. Let's compare it to some of its counterparts.

1.    React Native vs Flutter

Facebook's React Native is another prominent cross-platform framework. While both Flutter and React Native enable for cross-platform app creation, they differ in programming language (React Native leverages JavaScript) and component rendering (React Native relies on native components, while Flutter produces its own).

2.    Xamarin vs Flutter

Microsoft-owned framework Xamarin uses C# programming. Xamarin relies on native UI controls as opposed to Flutter, which uses its own rendering engine. It suggests that although UI development can be more challenging and time-consuming, Xamarin apps may replicate the look and feel of native apps.

3.    Ionic vs Flutter

Ionic is a cross-platform app development framework that uses web technologies including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. While Ionic apps and Flutter apps can both run on a variety of platforms, they do so with the suppoet of a WebView, which might cause performance issues.

What is the importance of learning Flutter?

You may be wondering why we should learn Flutter. Or why is it essential to learn it from the ground up? The answer is in the below mentioned fact!

There has been a huge surge in the mobile app development since the year 2021, making it difficult to create a UI that is both expressive and flexible. So in order to gear up the app development process, it is essential to learn flutter.

If these aren't convincing enough, consider the below-mentioned pointers to learn why you should learn Flutter:

• No Need to Rebuild – Using hot reload, developers may review changes to the code as soon as they are saved.
• No Cross-Platform Issues – Since Flutter is compiled ahead of time, it conforms to the write-once rule and gives native code experience.
• Creative Designing – You may use a 2-dimensional flare to build a plethora of animations.
• Single Codebase – Dart programming language employs a single piece of code for both the frontend and backend sections.
• IDE Support – It supports a variety of IDEs, including VS Code, Android Studio, and others.
• Best Community and Support – The Flutter team and community are very supportive and helpful to new learners..

Flutter’s Architecture

Flutter's architecture is intended to provide high-quality, high-performance apps on a wide range of platforms with a single codebase. Below provided is a breakdown of its primary components:

1.    Dart Programming Language

Dart is the object-oriented, class-based, garbage-collected language at the very core of Flutter. It may compile to native code or JavaScript, allowing Flutter to achieve great efficiency while simultaneously providing a developer-friendly workflow with quick reload.

2.    Flutter Engine

The Flutter engine is primarily written in C++ and supports low-level rendering via Google's Skia graphics library. It also interacts with platform-specific SDKs such as those provided by Android and iOS. Whenever a new frame needs to be painted, the engine is in charge of rasterizing composited scenes. It implements the core API of Flutter, including graphics (via Skia), text layout, accessibility support, file and network I/O, a Dart runtime, plugin architecture, and compile toolchain.

3.    Foundation Library

The Foundation library, written in Dart, contains essential classes and functions necessary to build Flutter apps, such as APIs for communicating with the engine.

4.    Widgets

The widget tree is the foundation of Flutter. Everything is a widget in Flutter. these widgets define how they appear based on their current setup and condition. When the state of a widget changes, it rebuilds its description, resulting in a new widget tree. Flutter analyzes new and old trees and refreshes the UI effectively.

5.    Packages and Plugins

Flutter supports packages and plugins, which enable developers to modularize and share code. Dart libraries are delivered as packages through the Dart Package Manager (pub). Plugins, on the contrary, are software packages that extend the functionality of a program by interacting with platform-specific APIs.

Advantages of Flutter

1.    Material Design and Cupertino widgets

Flutter comes with groundbreaking support for Cupertino in iOS and Material Design in Android widget sets. It makes sure that there is a native-like UI on both platforms leading to an unending and familiar UX.

2.    Flutter’s Safety

Null-safety is supported on the syntax level. Since Flutter's UI code is single-threaded and computational threads are often run in their own sandboxes, there shouldn't be any shared or dangerous resources in any scenario.

3.    Own Rendering Engine

Some cross-platform solutions have the drawback of being quite identical on iOS and Android. Flutter is the ideal choice in such a situation because it provides packages with a selection of special widgets for both operating systems.

4.    Increased Time-to-Market Speed

Comparatively speaking, the Flutter development framework is more responsive than others. At times, it can be tough to predict if iOS or Android versions will be able to deliver the product on time. This is where Flutter shows its magic by allowing cross-platform usage.

5.    Strong industry adoption

Companies like Google, Alibaba, Tencent, and others employ Flutter, which has grown significantly in popularity. As it becomes more well-known, Google and the Flutter community will continue to provide support and upgrades.

Pre-Requisites to Learn Flutter

1.    OOPs Concept

Given that OOPs are the foundation language for C++ and Java, it is critical that you fully understand them.

2.    C++ / Java Knowledge

It’s not a compulsion to know about the concepts of c++ in detail but it can be fruitful at any point of time in future.

3.    Learning Dart Programming

You must be comfortable with Dart programming before learning Flutter. However, there is no need to be concerned for Dart. Because it's a general-purpose programming language of Google and is straightforward to learn.

4.    Native Android App development

The ability to construct precise and detailed applications requires knowledge of native Android development. You may also read articles on the best strategies for boosting Android app performance to help you with android app development company.

5.    Material Design Concept

Material components for Flutter combine engineering and design with diverse components to ensure a uniform user experience across platforms and apps. You must read the material design rules in order to create user-friendly interfaces. As a result, it is another important prerequisite for learning Flutter.

Developing a Simple Flutter App

Now that you have a general understanding of Flutter, you will develop your first Flutter app. You'll learn how to make a basic yet functional hello world App.

1.    Installing Flutter

There are several ways to install Flutter on your PC, but the simplest is to get the installer from the Flutter website or Github:

Following are the various operating systems where you can setup instructions:

• macOS
• Windows
• Linux

Due to its ease of use and support for numerous features, we'll be using VS Code as our IDE. Install the Flutter plugin, which will additionally install Dart, when using Visual Studio Code. Additionally, there are great options like IntelliJ or Android Studio.

2.    Create Flutter project

It's time to start your Flutter project now that you've installed Flutter and configured the necessary dependencies for your IDE.

To make a Flutter project in VS Code, follow these steps:

• Select View > Command Palette.
• Enter "flutter" and then choose Flutter: New Project.
• Enter a project name and press Enter.
• Choose or create your parent directory.
• After the project has been created, you will see the main.dart file.

3.    Launching the project

• The VS Code status bar can be found at the bottom of the window.
• Choose a device from the Device Selector.
• Select Flutter from the options menu. Then, pick a debug configuration.
• Now, click Debug> Begin Debugging.
• The app will open up, and you will see the initial screen of the app.

4.    The code

Replace the present code in main.dart with the following:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() => runApp(MyApp());

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {

  @override

  Widget build(BuildContext context) {

    return MaterialApp(

      title: 'Welcome to Flutter',

      home: Scaffold(

        appBar: AppBar(

          title: Text('Welcome to Flutter'),

        ),

        body: Center(

          child: Text('Hello World'),

        ),

      ),

    );

  }

}

When you run your app, you will find a simple application that displays "Hello World."

5.    Codebase Breakdown

• This application generates a Material design. Material is a prominent visual design language for mobile and web applications. Material widgets are available in a wide variety from Flutter.
• To turn the app into a widget, the MyApp class extends StatelessWidget.
• The Scaffold widget comes with a standard app bar, title, and body. The word "Welcome to Flutter" serves as the title, and the body is a word child widget that says "Hello World."
• The major responsibility of a widget is to offer a construct() method that defines how to show sub-widgets in terms of the hierarchical widget tree.

Conclusion

Well done! You have completed your first Flutter application. What’s more interesting is you can make these basic with or without taking assistance from any expert flutter app development company. So, now you should have a good idea of what Flutter is and why it’s so popular.

This is just the initial stage of your Flutter adventure. There's a lot to learn about Flutter before you can use it like an expert, from different types of widgets to Flutter themes and much more. Flutter, in our opinion, is worth giving a shot!