Mastering Flutter: A Beginner’s Guide to Hooks

Unlock the Power of Flutter Hooks

Imagine building robust, maintainable, and efficient Flutter apps with ease. Thanks to the inspiration from React Hooks and Dan Abramov’s work, the developers at Dash Overflow have brought Hooks to Flutter. This innovative approach simplifies widget lifecycle management, reducing code duplication and increasing code sharing.

What are Flutter Hooks?

Flutter Hooks are a new kind of object that manages widget lifecycles, allowing for increased code-sharing between widgets and reduced duplicates in code. The flutter_hooks library provides a clean and robust way to manage a widget’s lifecycle.

Built-in Flutter Hooks

The flutter_hooks library includes several built-in Hooks, such as:

• useEffect: Fetches data from a server and sets the fetch to the local state
• useState: Manages local states in apps
• useMemoized: Memoizes heavy functions to achieve optimal performance
• useRef: Creates a reference to a widget
• useCallback: Creates a memoized callback function
• useContext: Provides access to the current context
• useValueChanged: Listens to value changes

Getting Started with Flutter Hooks

To use Flutter Hooks, you need to install the flutter_hooks library by running the following command in a terminal inside a Flutter project:

flutter pub add flutter_hooks

Then, import the library and you’re ready to go!

The useState Hook

The useState Hook helps you create and manage state in a widget. It’s similar to React’s useState Hook. When you call useState with an initial state, it returns a ValueNotifier instance, which stores the state. When the state changes, the Hook rebuilds the widget to display the new value.

The useEffect Hook

The useEffect Hook is similar to React’s useEffect Hook. It takes a function callback as a parameter and runs side effects in a widget, such as fetching data from a server or performing HTTP requests. The Hook also provides a way to cancel subscriptions or other cleanups when the widget is disposed of.

The useMemoized Hook

The useMemoized Hook memoizes/caches the instance of complex objects created from a builder function. This function is passed to the Hook, and if the widget rerenders, the Hook checks its dependencies to determine whether to call the function again.

Creating Custom Hooks

Flutter Hooks enables you to create your own custom Hooks using two methods: a function or class. When creating custom Hooks, remember to follow two rules: use the use prefix to indicate that the function is a Hook, and do not render Hooks conditionally.

Conclusion

Flutter Hooks have revolutionized the way we build Flutter widgets, making it easier to write clean, maintainable, and efficient code. By reducing code duplication and increasing code sharing, Flutter Hooks have become an essential tool for any Flutter developer. Get started with Flutter Hooks today and take your app development to the next level!