With Flutter Packages, Flutter becomes more preferable for writing easy-to-use and customizable codes for building applications running well on iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, etc. Even many of the developers praise the ingenuity of these packages as while developing an application, they need not think about STARTING FROM THE SCRATCH. This is one of the reasons why, in Google Trends, Flutter won a fierce battle of comparison with ReactNative in terms of the most searched Google query in April 2020 and is expected to continue the same trends in the coming years as well. Furthermore, these packages are powerful enough in reducing the development time and then, extend the capabilities of Flutter for helping businesses accomplish greater horizons of success. Curiously imagining what those Flutter capabilities could be!!
Top-10-Flutter-Packages-That-You-Must-Know
You may start counting then location tracking, built-in Abstraction, customizing various charts in a data-intensive manner, etcetera. Now, the time has come to take a look at the list of top FLUTTER PACKAGES curated below through which you can easily examine which package supports location tracking and which one is in favor of built-in Abstraction or any other capability beneficial from the business as well as development point-of-view. Let’s get started:
1. Location
This Flutter package helps you keep a track of your device’s geographic location. At times the question WHERE AM I AT THE CURRENT MOMENT is troubling you a lot, the location package comprising of useful data like latitude, longitude, speed, and altitude can be used for displaying the data of your location on maps installed in any of the mobile devices you are carrying. You may now be thinking how can I access the device’s location? For this, you need to enable the available location services by selecting the ALLOW ALL THE TIME option. Thankfully, this method will work and if not, you may do changes like checking for serviceEnabled and requestService; and adding them in the code. Then, look-see for hasPermission, requestPermission, and at last, getLocation. Now, this would be a matter-of-seconds task to access the geographic location (along with exact data of your device in which Flutter is present).
2. Dio This networking package of Flutter (developed provisionally by Flutter China) is renowned in the community of developers as a powerful HTTP client for client-optimized language DART. Moreover, you may expect various types of support from this package and they are: a) FILE LOADING b) GLOBAL CONFIGURATION c) REQ. CANCELLATION d) FORM DATA e) TIMEOUT f) INTERCEPTORS. Curious to know how this supports BENEFITS Flutter!! From filling the forms to loading the files comprising of certain functions and variables, all this is handled well by this package powerfully. Also, the intuitive API of this HTTP package can perform well the basic and advanced-level networking tasks as soon as you decide to get started with it. To do the start better, you first need to add dio: ^3.0.8 which is a dependency and then, install this global package through flutter pub get Or pub get. Kudos!! Bcoz you are now in a mode of performing requests related to your simple or advanced networking tasks on Flutter.
3. Device_info Another package for Flutter that instantaneously provides details about the version of the Operating System running in the background. Such a feature is useful in some cases where you do not care about the version of OS but still, you need to know every detail of the exact model streaming!! Finding some website links that can help you get started with the Flutter package – Device_Info!! You better, instead of trying that, apply these steps. The first step would be ADDING DEPENDENCIES to pubspec.yaml (it is a YAML [YET ANOTHER MARKUP LANGUAGE] file incorporated with project general settings like VERSION, NAME, & DESCRIPTION of the project accessing Flutter’s functionalities). The second step would be finding out the platform which is ANDROID or iOS through Platform.isAndroid, Platform.iOS. And the endmost step, running OS-specific getters in await mode for helping you write code with minimal overheads. Hurrah!! You have the device info. now….
4. SQFLite Known in the market as the BUILT-IN ABSTRACTION package for Flutter, you may expect access to its features on platforms – Android and iOS. Thinking UP what those features could be!! You may start counting – a) Batch Processing for handling cost-effectively larger amounts of PROJECT’S DATA b) Automatic VERSION MANAGEMENT to compare and identify the versions of files listed on Flutter during the start c) Helping Hands which track the implementation of UPDATE, INSERT, & DELETE queries d) Governing the Dependencies that occur amongst the DB operations (of Flutter) running in any of the background threads. Waiting for something else!! Is it the step that initiates the SQFLite package? For the answer, you can start the journey by adding dependencies as sqflite: ^1.1.0 #sqflite package, followed by its import in ASYNCHRONOUS mode.
5. package:async This is more of a UTILITY Alternative of the WEEK rather than a package for Flutter as this useful addition supports things like STREAMS. You may now question whether or not STREAMS are an asynchronous sort of support!! Yes, with such STREAMS, you receive a sequence of user-generated events indicating something which has fizzled out during the time of code-execution. Besides, you may spot a bunch of USEFUL ADDITIONS within this error-detection package and they are streamGroup, AsyncCache. The first one (i.e. streamGroup) lets you merge streams of various functions into a solo one for better time-switching solutions for the existing codes. And the second is AsyncCache, saving time as well as the extra hustles when a class generates a cached result for all sets of repeated calls made to a Flutter function within a specified period. So, you must use STREAMS and other useful additions offered by package:async for better handling of the events.
6. Path-provider Call it a Flutter plugin or Flutter package which has helped a lot of developers by letting them identify the locations usually accessed either on the iOS or Android-based systems. Quoting in your mind “WHAT THOSE DIRECTORIES COULD BE” helping this plug-in fetch the path of the location? The first one is the Temporary Directory while the second one – Application Documents Directory. Both these directories support internal as well as external storage thereby making it easier for the path-provider package to get the location of private or public documents rushing either on Android or iOS platforms. What else is now left as a requisite for identifying the commonly-accessed paths through this Path-provider package available in many stabler versions like 2.0.3, 2.0.1, 1.6.14, 1.5.1, etcetera!!
7. Url_launcher A brilliantly handy Flutter package that aids the launching of absolute or relative URLs on any of the mobile platforms like iOS and Android. Thinking about how you can use Url_launcher on open-source cross-platform Flutter!! Just search for the command pubspec assist: add dependency, and STOP after you select it. Now, with your keyboard, start typing cloud firestone (This is a package name and you are free to choose the one which you really need) and as you select it, you will have access to the usage of Url_launcher for launching any type of URLs. Indeed, the prime motive of using this transitive package (WHICH ALSO SUPPORTS MULTIPLE SCHEMA TYPES LIKE Emails, Sms, Maps, etcetera) is to attract the users to other webpages so that they may find the solutions (in terms of services they require) at lesser hustles. So, what you should experiment with now is to launch NATIVE WEBPAGES with the appropriate encoding of URL and browse YouTube, Wikipedia, or Twitter for better and error-free knowledge.
8. fl_chart A FANTASTIC Flutter package that lets you feel the customized looks of data-intensive bar charts, pie charts, scattered charts, donut charts, and line charts. If you are one of those who think that adding impressive charts is a suitable choice for beginner and expert-level Flutter projects or Flutter apps, considering the package will let you bank towards the environment comprising of filtering, analysis of various data-representation models. Let’s proceed further with its installation!! Firstly, you will be adding dependencies via dependencies:fl_chart: ^0.1.5. And at last, installing this package through flutter packages get from the command line. For what you are waiting now? Sow the seeds of fl_chart to the database of Flutter and help more users with easy interpretation of their large amounts of data whose performance will become more and more exceptional on a yearly basis.
9. package_info Looking for a Flutter package to help you with query information like build number (can be used to identify phone’s name like Samsung Galaxy A21), version of any of the applications installed on platforms supporting the functionalities of Android and iOS!! package_info, along with its better BUG-REPORTING capability, can be installed with these steps.
Then, download this Application package via $ flutter pub get. Lastly, $ flutter run (for app rebuilding). In the company of all these steps, you can use well the handiness of this package while checking either the version of the OPERATING SYSTEMS, apps you are using, or the name of the phone via build number amongst a wider crowd of people working online or offline.
10. rxdart A Flutter package encompassed with EXTENDED CAPABILITIES like DART STREAMS and STREAM CONTROLLERS. Even this wonderful package has enabled the developers to seamlessly integrate REACT NAVITE’s (React Native is a UI framework originally created by Facebook for developing iOS, tvOS, macOS, Windows, and Android apps) capabilities with those acquired by the Flutter applications. Notwithstanding you can make smarter use of a number of additional operators in any of your Flutter projects like extension methods (benefitting Stream Classes a lot), Subjects (two additional Stream Controllers offered by rxdart with extended capabilities like emitting errors before a user subscribes to a STREAM), and Stream Classes – itself. Besides, the package decently lets the developers go around the businesses of the companies they are working for through asynchronous programming thereby revamping the user experience. And you can also do the same by getting yourself STARTED with import ‘package:flutter/material.dart’.