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Flutter state management refers to the process of managing the state or data within a Flutter application. In Flutter, everything is a widget, and state management is crucial for maintaining the state of these widgets and updating them in response to user actions, network requests, or other events.
Whether you are building web applications or mobile applications, State Management is the key for managing application views. State Management is the strategic approach to manage all the interactions that a user performs on an application and then reflect those changes to UI, update databases, server requests etc. Any application has many UI controls such as text fields, radio buttons, buttons, checkboxes, dropdowns etc. State management refers to handling the states of such UI controls as most of the time one or more UI controls are depending on one-another, based on business logic requirements.
Every development framework has its own unique way to efficiently perform state management. Like Flutter, many frameworks have more than one approach.
State Management reflects the efficiency of the system and the care taken by developers to build that system so that every functionality and feature performs smoothly and precisely.
State management helps to align and integrate the core business logic inside the application with servers and databases. Without proper state management burden on users will increase and that would certainly decrease the effectiveness of an application. As well as by centralizing everything with State management, it will be easier to maintain a code base and will in-turn improve the code-quality and readability. There are various approaches to state management in Flutter, each with its own advantages and use cases. Here's a brief overview of some common state management techniques:
These are just a few examples of state management techniques in Flutter, and there are many other libraries and approaches available. The choice of state management solution depends on the specific requirements and complexity of the application.
There are three components related to this Provider State Management that we need to understand.
Now, there are different techniques to understand this provider approach, however, for the sake of simplicity, we are discussing the below variant of Provider State Management.
For Every Screen of Flutter application, we make a central point for managing state which is called a ChangeNotifier, which is just an ordinary class that extends ChangeNotifier class. It contains all the state data that are being used by different parts of corresponding screen. Now if something is a ChangeNotifier, and some of its data gets changed, it notifies the framework that the screen which is using the change notifier, needs to be rebuilt, since the corresponding screen’s state, ChangeNotifier, is changed. If you have already worked on MVVM than you can think your screen as View and ChangeNotifier as ViewModel or Controller in case of MVC.
BLoC, which stands for Business Logic Component, is a state management pattern commonly used in Flutter applications. It helps separate the presentation layer from the business logic, making the code more maintainable, testable, and scalable.
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Here's a brief overview of how BLoC works:
Business Logic: BLoC separates the business logic of your application from the UI layer. This means that all the complex logic, data manipulation, and interaction with external services are handled by BLoC classes.
Stream-based Architecture: BLoC relies heavily on streams and stream controllers to handle data flow. It exposes streams of data to the UI layer, which can then subscribe to these streams and update the UI accordingly.
Events and States: BLoC works with two main concepts: events and states. Events are user actions or external triggers that signal a change in the application state. States represent the different states of the UI based on the business logic. When events are triggered, the BLoC processes them and emits new states.
Separation of Concerns: BLoC promotes the separation of concerns by isolating the UI logic from the business logic. This makes it easier to maintain and test each part of your application independently.
Scalability and Reusability: BLoC can be easily reused across different parts of your application, making it scalable as your project grows. It also makes it easier to implement features that require complex business logic without cluttering your UI code.
To implement BLoC in Flutter, you typically use the following components:
Bloc: This is the main component responsible for handling events, processing them, and emitting new states. It often extends the Bloc class provided by the bloc package.
Events: Events represent user actions or other triggers that cause a change in the application state. These are typically dispatched to the BLoC by the UI layer.
States: States represent the different states of the UI based on the current application logic. The BLoC emits new states in response to events, which are then used by the UI layer to update the user interface.
BlocBuilder/BlocConsumer: These are Flutter widgets provided by the flutter_bloc package that make it easy to listen to state changes emitted by a BLoC and update the UI accordingly. Overall, BLoC is a powerful state management pattern for Flutter applications, especially for projects that require complex business logic or need to scale effectively.
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GetX is a popular state management and navigation solution for Flutter applications. It offers a lightweight and intuitive approach to managing state, handling navigation, and managing dependencies within your app. Here's a brief overview of key features and concepts in GetX:
State Management: GetX provides a reactive state management solution. It allows you to define and update stateful variables that automatically trigger UI updates when modified. GetX utilizes the reactive programming paradigm, making it easy to build reactive UIs without boilerplate code.
Dependency Injection: GetX includes a powerful dependency injection mechanism that simplifies managing dependencies in your Flutter app. It allows you to register dependencies and inject them into your classes using a simple syntax.
Route Management: GetX simplifies navigation in Flutter apps with its routing system. It allows you to define routes and navigate between screens using named routes. GetX's navigation system is easy to use and highly customizable.
Controllers: GetX introduces the concept of controllers, which are classes responsible for managing specific aspects of your application, such as state, business logic, or UI components. Controllers can be easily created and used to encapsulate logic and manage state within your app.
Reactive Services: GetX provides reactive services that allow you to manage global state and share data between different parts of your app. Reactive services can listen to changes in state and automatically update any components that depend on them.
GetX Widgets: GetX offers a set of widgets that simplify working with GetX in your Flutter app. These widgets include GetX, Obx, GetBuilder, and GetXWidget. They provide easy ways to bind UI elements to reactive state and update them automatically.
Performance: GetX is known for its excellent performance and efficiency. It leverages the power of Dart's reactive programming features to minimize unnecessary UI updates and optimize resource usage.
Overall, GetX is a versatile and powerful solution for state management, navigation, and dependency management in Flutter applications. Its simplicity, performance, and comprehensive feature set make it a popular choice among Flutter developers.
Redux is a predictable state management pattern and library commonly used in Flutter and other frontend frameworks like React. It helps manage the state of your application in a predictable and centralized manner, making it easier to understand, debug, and test.
Here's a brief overview of how Redux works and its key concepts:
Store: Redux maintains the state of your entire application in a single object called the "store". This store holds the current state tree of your application and provides methods to access, update, and subscribe to changes in the state.
Actions: Actions are plain JavaScript objects that represent events or updates in your application. They are the only way to modify the state in Redux. Actions contain a "type" field that describes the type of action being performed and additional data payload if necessary.
Reducers: Reducers are pure functions responsible for specifying how the application's state changes in response to actions. They take the current state and an action as arguments, and return a new state based on the action type."
State Mutation: In Redux, state is immutable. This means that instead of directly modifying the current state, reducers return a new state object with the updated data. Immutability ensures that the state remains consistent and makes it easier to track changes.
Dispatch: Dispatch is a method provided by the Redux store that allows you to dispatch actions to trigger state updates. When an action is dispatched, it flows through the reducers, and the state is updated accordingly.
Selectors: Selectors are functions used to extract specific pieces of data from the Redux state. They encapsulate the logic for deriving computed state values and help improve performance by avoiding unnecessary recalculations.
Middleware: Middleware provides a way to extend Redux's capabilities by intercepting dispatched actions before they reach the reducers. Middleware can be used for tasks such as logging, asynchronous operations, or handling side effects.
Overall, Redux provides a clear and structured approach to managing application state, making it easier to reason about and maintain large-scale applications. While it introduces some additional concepts and boilerplate compared to other state management solutions, its predictability and scalability make it a popular choice for complex frontend projects. In Flutter, you can use packages like flutter_redux or redux.dart to integrate Redux into your application.
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Riverpod is a state management library for Flutter that offers a simple and flexible approach to managing dependencies and state in your application. It is developed as an improved version of the Provider package and provides additional features and enhancements.
Here are some key features and concepts of Riverpod:
Provider: Riverpod introduces the concept of providers, which are objects that can hold and provide dependencies to other parts of your application. Providers can represent values, functions, or any other type of dependency.
Scoped Providers: Riverpod supports the concept of scoped providers, which allows you to define providers within a specific scope such as a widget subtree or a feature module. Scoped providers help manage the lifecycle of dependencies and improve encapsulation.
Provider Containers: Riverpod introduces the concept of provider containers, which are objects that manage the lifecycle of providers and their associated state. Provider containers can be used to organize and encapsulate the state and dependencies of different parts of your application.
Automatic Dependency Injection: Riverpod provides automatic dependency injection, which means that dependencies are automatically provided to consuming widgets without the need for manual passing or initialization. This simplifies the management of dependencies and reduces boilerplate code.
Reactive State Management: Riverpod offers built-in support for reactive programming, allowing you to define reactive providers that automatically update their value when their dependencies change. This makes it easy to build reactive UIs and manage complex state interactions.
Testability: Riverpod is designed with testability in mind and provides features to facilitate unit testing and integration testing of your application. You can easily mock dependencies and test different parts of your application in isolation.
Performance Optimization: Riverpod is optimized for performance and efficiency. It minimizes unnecessary rebuilds of UI components by only updating widgets that depend on changed state or dependencies.
Overall, Riverpod is a powerful and versatile state management solution for Flutter applications. Its simplicity, flexibility, and performance optimizations make it a popular choice among Flutter developers, particularly for projects that require complex state management or dependency injection.
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