Flutter For Dummies

Description

Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Introduction How to Use This Book Conventions Used in This Book What You Don’t Have to Read Foolish Assumptions How This Book Is Organized Part 1, “Getting Ready” Part 2, “Flutter: A Burd’s-Eye View” Part 3, “Details, Details” Part 4, “The Part of Tens” More on the web! Icons Used in This Book Beyond the Book Where to Go from Here Part 1 Getting Ready Chapter 1 What Is Flutter? Hardware and Software (Things You May Already Know) Where Does Flutter Fit In? Cross-platform development A quick-and-easy development cycle A great way to think about app development Enough New Terminology! What’s Next? Chapter 2 Setting Up Your Computer for Mobile App Development The Stuff You Need What to Do Getting and installing the stuff For Mac users only Configuring Android Studio Running your first app Dealing with the Devil’s Details On installing Android Studio On launching Android Studio for the first time On installing Android Studio’s Flutter plugin On adding virtual devices On installing Flutter Divisiveness Among Devices Running apps on an Android device Testing apps on a physical device Using Android Studio Starting up The main window Running This Book’s Sample Programs Enjoying reruns If you’re finicky . . . Were These Setup Steps Fun or What? Part 2 Flutter: A Burd’s-Eye View Chapter 3 “Hello” from Flutter First Things First What’s it all about? A constructor’s parameters A note about punctuation Don’t relent — simply indent Classes, Objects, and Widgets A brief treatise on “within-ness” The documentation is your friend Making Things Look Nicer Creating a scaffold Adding visual tweaks Dart’s enum feature Hello from sunny California! Adding another widget Centering the text (Part 1) Centering the text (Part 2) Displaying an image Hey, Wait a Minute . . . Chapter 4 Hello Again Creating and Using a Function The function declaration A function call Parameters and the return value Programming in Dart: The Small Stuff Statements and declarations Dart’s typing feature Literals, variables, and expressions Two for the price of one Dart’s var keyword Built-in types Types that aren’t built-in Using import declarations Variations on a Theme from Die Flutter Mouse Type names in function declarations Naming your parameters What about the build function? More Fun to Come! Chapter 5 Making Things Happen Let’s All Press a Floating Action Button Stateless widgets and stateful widgets Widgets have methods Pay no attention to the framework behind the curtain Enhancing Your App More parameters, please The override annotation What does mean? Anonymous functions What belongs where Names that start with an underscore Whew! Chapter 6 Laying Things Out The Big Picture Creating bite-size pieces of code Creating a parameter list Living color Adding padding Your humble servant, the Column widget The SizedBox widget Your friend, the Container widget Nesting Rows and Columns More Levels of Nesting Using the Expanded Widget Expanded versus unexpanded Expanded widget saves the day Flexing some muscles How Big Is My Device? Part 3 Details, Details Chapter 7 Interacting with the User A Simple Switch Dart’s const keyword Compatible or NOT? Wait For It! How Much Do You Love Flutter? Dealing with Text Fields Callouts 1 and 2 Callout 3 Callout 4 Callout 5 Creating Radio Buttons Creating an enum Building the radio group Displaying the user’s choice Creating a Dropdown Button Building the dropdown button The little Reset button Making a Map Onward and Upward Chapter 8 Navigation, Lists, and Other Goodies Extending a Dart Class From One Page to Another An icon on a button Pushing and popping Passing Data from Source to Destination Passing Data Back to the Source Dart’s async and await keywords Taking control of the app bar’s Back button Passing Data in Both Directions Creating Named Routes Creating a List The ListView widget Creating list items one-by-one Another new Dart language feature Fetching Data from the Internet Using a public API Sending a URL to a server Making sense of a JSON response What’s Next? Chapter 9 Moving Right Along . . . Setting the Stage for Flutter Animation Moving Along a Straight Line Bouncing Around Animating Size and Color Changes Moving Along a Curve Dragging Things Around Where To Go From Here Part 4 The Part of Tens Chapter 10 Ten Ways to Avoid Mistakes Put Capital Letters Where They Belong Use Parentheses When (and Only When) They’re Appropriate Limit Access to Variables Call setState Make Adjustments for Indices Starting at Zero Use the Expanded Widget Add itemCount to Your ListView.builder Add Imports When They’re Required Declare Assets and Dependencies in pubspec.yaml Indent Your Code According to Dart Language Guidelines Chapter 11 Ten Ways to Enhance Your App Development Career Practice! Practice! Critique Your Own Code Have Others Review Your Code Find Out Which Technologies Your Nearby Companies Use Attend User Group Meetings Ask Questions Ask Yourself Whether You Truly Understand Learn Things That You May Never Need to Know Do What You Love to Do Get Plenty of Sleep Chapter 12 Ten Chapters about Flutter App Development Introduction What Is Flutter? Setting Up Your Computer for Mobile App Development ‘Hello’ from Flutter Hello Again Making Things Happen Laying Things Out Interacting with the User Navigation, Lists, and Other Goodies Moving Right Along . . . Part 5 Appendices Appendix A Doris’s Dating App Index EULA