This week in Flutter #35: An issue that covers two weeks

Last week there was no newsletter because it was Christmas. So this issue contains more links than usual. And the Flutter team published a lot of videos in the last two weeks, so there is plenty to watch.

This week I have been using build-time environment variables to simplify flavors in some of the Flutter apps I am working on. I find it more maintainable compared to having a main file for each flavor.

How are you improving the maintenance of your Flutter app? Do you implement these small changes to make future work easier? Let me know by leaving a comment.

- Michele Volpato

Development 🧑‍💻

🔗 Visualize the Flutter render tree with Explo

Do you miss the Debug View Hierarchy from Xcode? The Explo package attempts to recreate that exact feature in Flutter. Read how to use it in this article by Gabriel Terwesten.

🔗 Event-Based Flutter Example

Read how to implement the publisher-subscriber pattern using the event_bus package in this new article by Bart van Wezel.

🔗 Weekend App: 3D Print Cost Calculator

Do you want to know how much a 3D printer would cost you? Reme Le Hane created an app for that. He writes about it, and the technologies he used, in this article.

🔗 How to implement a shimmer effect in Flutter

In this article, by David Adegoke, you’ll learn how to replace those ugly circular progress indicators with a much better, from the user experience point of view, shimmering effect.

🔗 Flutter – How to deal with global variables

Global variables are frowned upon by many developers. You should avoid having a global state that can be modified and accessed by any object anywhere in your code. In the article Event-Based Flutter Example, linked above, Bart van Wezel uses a global variable in the example code. In this article, he proposes other solutions to get rid of it.

🔗 How to add Firebase to a Flutter app with FlutterFire CLI (including multiple flavors)

With the latest version of Flutter, you can delete the old GoogleService-Info.plist and google-services.json files, and replace them with a Dart file generated with the new FlutterFire CLI. Learn how in this tutorial by Andrea Bizzotto.

Backend 🗄

🔗 Announcing Appwrite Dart SDK 2.0

There is an update of the Dart SDK for Appwrite, the open-source backend server that winks at Firebase. In October they released a new version of the Flutter SDK, and now they updated the Dart one as well. Read what’s new in this article by Damodar Lohani.

Tools 🛠

🔗 Introducing Nylo v2.2.3 for Flutter | Micro-framework

Nylo is a collection of tools that makes it easier for a developer to create a Flutter app. It includes a route file that you can customize for route management, some configuration files, and tools like an app icon generator. I haven’t tried it yet. It sounds to me that I am adding “one more tool” I need to keep updated. But don’t let yourself be scared by my doubts. Try it. Nylo is maintained by Anthony Gordon.

🔗 MIX: A tool for building design systems in Flutter

How do you handle a design system for your Flutter app? Your company, or the client you are working for, might already have a design system, and if they don’t, they should. A design system makes the communication between designers and developers easy. You either implement the design from scratch with your Flutter app Theme or you can use a tool like Mix, as Souvik Biswas explains in this article. Careful: it is still in beta.

Others 🤷‍♂️

🔗 path_provider (Package of the Week) 🎦

Find commonly used locations on the filesystem with path_provider.

🔗 Bringing the Dashboard to life | Learning to Fly 🎦

Khanh Nguyen is building the MyDash app. The dashboard, theme, fonts, navigation bar, and some state management are the focus of this episode.

🔗 Tear-offs | Decoding Flutter 🎦

In this video, Craig Labenz explains tear-offs and how to use them.

🔗 Third time’s the charm: Testing our Skeleton app (The Boring Flutter Development Show, Ep. 54) 🎦

Many videos this week. In this one, Andrew Fitz Gibbon and Craig Labenz attempt, once again, to test the new Skeleton app. Spoiler alert: they won’t (fully) make it this time either.

That’s it for this week.

If you want to comment on any of this week’s entries, you can do it in the comment section below.

Have a bug-free week,

- Michele Volpato