Streamlining State Management in Flutter: The Evolution of BLoC
A New Era of State Management
Flutter, a relatively new cross-platform software development framework, has made significant strides in its short lifespan. One area where Flutter shines is state management, with BLoC (Business Logic Component) being one of the oldest and most reliable forms of state management within Flutter. As Flutter continues to evolve, the flutterbloc library has also undergone significant changes, including the recent release of flutterbloc 8.
Breaking Changes and Migration
The latest release of flutter_bloc 8 brings some breaking changes that require users to upgrade their code manually. While this may seem daunting, the benefits of these changes far outweigh the effort required to migrate. The new implementation introduces event handlers, making it easier to work with streams and enabling apps to function in a more consistent and reliable manner.
The Limitations of mapEventToState
In the previous version of flutter_bloc, the mapEventToState function was central to state management. However, this function had several limitations. It was often long and cumbersome, making code readability suffer. Additionally, it returned a Stream
Introducing Event Handlers
With the introduction of event handlers in flutter_bloc 8, the code is significantly shorter and more readable. Events are registered as event handlers, and responses are handled by calling emit with the new state. This change not only improves code readability but also eliminates the need to work with streams.
Migrating to flutter_bloc 8
To migrate to the new version of flutter_bloc, you’ll need to upgrade your package in your pubspec.yaml file. Then, you can start migrating your code to the new way of doing things. This involves setting up event handlers and using events as the types of events that you register to listen to.
Long-Running Operations with await and Streams
In flutter_bloc 8, long-running operations with await are simplified, and the control flow is more logical. You can use the emit function to pass in new states into your BLoC. When working with streams, you can use await for to emit new states as the stream serves them up. This eliminates the need for yield generator functions, making the code more intuitive and easier to understand.
Conclusion
The latest release of flutterbloc 8 is a significant improvement over its predecessor. While the breaking changes may require some manual migration, the benefits of the new implementation far outweigh the effort. With event handlers and improved stream management, flutterbloc 8 makes it easier to create robust and reliable apps in Flutter.