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Refer to the next section for more information on doing work |
in the background, and how Flutter differs from iOS.<topic_end> |
<topic_start> |
Moving to the background thread |
Since Flutter is single threaded and runs an event loop |
(like Node.js), you don’t have to worry about |
thread management or spawning background threads. |
If you’re doing I/O-bound work, |
such as disk access or a network call, |
then you can safely use async/await and you’re done. |
If, on the other hand, you need to do computationally intensive |
work that keeps the CPU busy, you want to move it to an |
Isolate to avoid blocking the event loop.For I/O-bound work, declare the function as an async function, |
and await on long-running tasks inside the function: |
<code_start>Future<void> loadData() async { |
final Uri dataURL = Uri.parse('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts'); |
final http.Response response = await http.get(dataURL); |
setState(() { |
data = jsonDecode(response.body); |
}); |
}<code_end> |
This is how you typically do network or database calls, |
which are both I/O operations.However, there are times when you might be processing |
a large amount of data and your UI hangs. |
In Flutter, use Isolates to take advantage of |
multiple CPU cores to do long-running or |
computationally intensive tasks.Isolates are separate execution threads that do not share |
any memory with the main execution memory heap. |
This means you can’t access variables from the main thread, |
or update your UI by calling setState(). |
Isolates are true to their name, and cannot share memory |
(in the form of static fields, for example).The following example shows, in a simple isolate, |
how to share data back to the main thread to update the UI. |
<code_start>Future<void> loadData() async { |
final ReceivePort receivePort = ReceivePort(); |
await Isolate.spawn(dataLoader, receivePort.sendPort); |
// The 'echo' isolate sends its SendPort as the first message. |
final SendPort sendPort = await receivePort.first as SendPort; |
final List<Map<String, dynamic>> msg = await sendReceive( |
sendPort, |
'https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts', |
); |
setState(() { |
data = msg; |
}); |
} |
// The entry point for the isolate. |
static Future<void> dataLoader(SendPort sendPort) async { |
// Open the ReceivePort for incoming messages. |
final ReceivePort port = ReceivePort(); |
// Notify any other isolates what port this isolate listens to. |
sendPort.send(port.sendPort); |
await for (final dynamic msg in port) { |
final String url = msg[0] as String; |
final SendPort replyTo = msg[1] as SendPort; |
final Uri dataURL = Uri.parse(url); |
final http.Response response = await http.get(dataURL); |
// Lots of JSON to parse |
replyTo.send(jsonDecode(response.body) as List<Map<String, dynamic>>); |
} |
} |
Future<List<Map<String, dynamic>>> sendReceive(SendPort port, String msg) { |
final ReceivePort response = ReceivePort(); |
port.send(<dynamic>[msg, response.sendPort]); |
return response.first as Future<List<Map<String, dynamic>>>; |
}<code_end> |
Here, dataLoader() is the Isolate that runs in |
its own separate execution thread. |
In the isolate, you can perform more CPU intensive |
processing (parsing a big JSON, for example), |
or perform computationally intensive math, |
such as encryption or signal processing.You can run the full example below: |
<code_start>import 'dart:async'; |
import 'dart:convert'; |
import 'dart:isolate'; |
import 'package:flutter/material.dart'; |
import 'package:http/http.dart' as http; |
void main() { |
runApp(const SampleApp()); |
} |
class SampleApp extends StatelessWidget { |
const SampleApp({super.key}); |
@override |
Widget build(BuildContext context) { |
return const MaterialApp( |
title: 'Sample App', |
home: SampleAppPage(), |
); |
} |
} |
class SampleAppPage extends StatefulWidget { |
const SampleAppPage({super.key}); |
@override |
State<SampleAppPage> createState() => _SampleAppPageState(); |
} |
class _SampleAppPageState extends State<SampleAppPage> { |
List<Map<String, dynamic>> data = <Map<String, dynamic>>[]; |
@override |
void initState() { |
super.initState(); |
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