Flutter: Avoiding the Top Mistakes
Shaurya Sharma
Posted on September 18, 2023
Widgets and Layout
- Avoid using SizedBox to artificially constrain size. Use MainAxisSize.min instead.
- Avoid deeply nesting Flex widgets like Column and Row. Extract contents to separate widgets.
- Extract repeating UI components into separate widgets early for better testability and reusability.
- Constrain child widget size to avoid RenderFlex overflow, for example with Expanded or Flexible.
- Provide layout information to widgets to avoid 'RenderBox was not laid out' errors.
- Constraint scrollable widgets like ListView when placed inside Column to avoid unbounded height.
- Use Expanded or SizedBox to constrain TextFormField inside Row to avoid unbounded width.
- Ensure parent widget is compatible with ParentDataWidget children.
- Don't call setState in build method, for example when showing Dialog, as it can lead to errors.
- Use OrientationBuilder to handle UI issues when orientation changes.
Architecture and Organization
- Decouple UI components from business logic by using dependency injection, for cleaner code.
- Use state management solutions like Provider early on for more complex apps.
- Learn basics of Android and iOS development to better understand Flutter.
- Implement features yourself before using packages to better learn fundamentals.
- Separate concerns following best practices for clean, maintainable code.
- Use named routes for clearer navigation instead of Navigator.push().
Testing and Quality
- Write tests like unit, widget, and integration tests to ensure app works as expected.
- Carefully handle errors to avoid crashes. Validate input and use catchError.
- Use Dart profiler to optimize performance and avoid lag and delays.
- Learn about Flutter widget lifecycles to avoid issues like not disposing controllers properly.
- Remember to fully restart app if bugs appear after adding a native plugin, as hot reload won't update native code.
Best Practices
- Use linter package for consistent, clean code. Enforce good practices.
- Extract reusable UI into widgets to optimize performance and reduce rebuilds.
- Ask questions! The Flutter community is helpful and wants to see you succeed.
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Shaurya Sharma
Posted on September 18, 2023
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