Unlock the Power of AWS Amplify: A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Flutter To-Do App
In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, organizations are increasingly turning to cloud-based models to accelerate development and improve efficiency. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is at the forefront of this revolution, offering a comprehensive suite of services and products that enable developers to build scalable, secure, and high-performance applications. One such service is AWS Amplify, a powerful platform that simplifies the development process by providing a set of tools and services for web and mobile app development.
Getting Started with Amplify
To get started with Amplify, you’ll need to download the starter app, which includes prebuilt UI components. Open the app in your editor, build, and run it. Next, install the Amplify CLI globally using the command npm install -g @aws-amplify/cli. This will configure Amplify and prompt you to sign in to the AWS Console.
Setting Up Your Project
To set up your project, add the Amplify plugins to your Flutter app by updating the pubspec.yaml file. Then, update the target iOS platform to 13.0 or later and the Android SDK version to 21 or later.
Creating a Data Model
Create a data model using GraphQL Schemas. Navigate to Amplify Admin, select the Data feature, and choose the To-do list schema. Add fields and types, including a boolean field for task completion. Then, test locally and generate the data model.
Integrating Amplify
Integrate Amplify DataStore and use the generated model. Update the todo_view.dart file to initialize Amplify Libraries and create a list of Todo types. Next, update the _fetchTodos method to use the CRUD API locally using DataStore.
Creating a To-Do Item
Update the _saveTodo method to create a new Todo item and save it using DataStore. Then, query the Todo items and update the UI state to display the fetched data.
Listening to Todo Updates
Add a StreamSubscription to listen for Todo model update events. Update the _initializeApp method to fetch the Todo list when an update event occurs.
Updating a Todo
Update the _toggleIsComplete method to update a Todo item using the copyWith method. Then, pass the new instance to Amplify.DataStore.save() to update the Todo item.
Deleting a Todo
Update the _deleteTodo method to delete a Todo item using DataStore.delete().
Connecting to the Cloud
Connect your app to AWS by deploying your Amplify sandbox backend. Provide the required data, select your deployment region, and click on Confirm Deployment. Then, add authentication and update your local project with the deployed environment.
Adding Additional Plugins
Add additional plugins to ensure DataStore has access to the API access it requires for communicating with the cloud. Update the pubspec.yaml file and add the plugins before configuring Amplify.
And that’s it! You’ve successfully built a fully-featured CRUD application using AWS Amplify and Flutter. Explore more about authentication, storage, functions, REST/GraphQL APIs, and other libraries from the AWS docs.