Datasets:
Ekhlass
/
flutter_docs

Dataset card Data Studio Files
xet
Community
1
text
stringlengths
1
372
use code generation for medium to large projects
JSON serialization with code generation means having an external library
generate the encoding boilerplate for you. after some initial setup,
you run a file watcher that generates the code from your model classes.
for example, json_serializable and built_value are these
kinds of libraries.
this approach scales well for a larger project. no hand-written
boilerplate is needed, and typos when accessing JSON fields are caught at
compile-time. the downside with code generation is that it requires some
initial setup. also, the generated source files might produce visual clutter
in your project navigator.
you might want to use generated code for JSON serialization when you have a
medium or a larger project. to see an example of code generation based JSON
encoding, see serializing JSON using code generation libraries.
<topic_end>
<topic_start>
is there a GSON/Jackson/Moshi equivalent in flutter?
the simple answer is no.
such a library would require using runtime reflection, which is disabled in
flutter. runtime reflection interferes with tree shaking, which dart has
supported for quite a long time. with tree shaking, you can “shake off” unused
code from your release builds. this optimizes the app’s size significantly.
since reflection makes all code implicitly used by default, it makes tree
shaking difficult. the tools cannot know what parts are unused at runtime, so
the redundant code is hard to strip away. app sizes cannot be easily optimized
when using reflection.
although you cannot use runtime reflection with flutter,
some libraries give you similarly easy-to-use APIs but are
based on code generation instead. this
approach is covered in more detail in the
code generation libraries section.
<topic_end>
<topic_start>
serializing JSON manually using dart:convert
basic JSON serialization in flutter is very simple. flutter has a built-in
dart:convert library that includes a straightforward JSON encoder and
decoder.
the following sample JSON implements a simple user model.
<code_start>
{
"name": "john smith",
"email": "john@example.com"
}
<code_end>
with dart:convert,
you can serialize this JSON model in two ways.
<topic_end>
<topic_start>
serializing JSON inline
by looking at the dart:convert documentation,
you’ll see that you can decode the JSON by calling the
jsonDecode() function, with the JSON string as the method argument.
<code_start>
final user = jsonDecode(jsonString) as Map<String, dynamic>;
print('Howdy, ${user['name']}!');
print('We sent the verification link to ${user['email']}.');
<code_end>
unfortunately, jsonDecode() returns a dynamic, meaning
that you do not know the types of the values until runtime. with this approach,
you lose most of the statically typed language features: type safety,
autocompletion and most importantly, compile-time exceptions. your code will
become instantly more error-prone.
for example, whenever you access the name or email fields, you could quickly
introduce a typo. a typo that the compiler doesn’t know about since the
JSON lives in a map structure.
<topic_end>
<topic_start>
serializing JSON inside model classes
combat the previously mentioned problems by introducing a plain model
class, called user in this example. inside the user class, you’ll find:
with this approach, the calling code can have type safety,
autocompletion for the name and email fields, and compile-time exceptions.
if you make typos or treat the fields as ints instead of strings,
the app won’t compile, instead of crashing at runtime.
user.dart
<code_start>
class user {
final string name;
final string email;
user(this.name, this.email);
User.fromJson(Map<String, dynamic> json)
: name = json['name'] as string,
email = json['email'] as string;
Map<String, dynamic> toJson() => {
'name': name,
'email': email,
};
}
<code_end>
the responsibility of the decoding logic is now moved inside the model
itself. with this new approach, you can decode a user easily.
<code_start>
final userMap = jsonDecode(jsonString) as Map<String, dynamic>;
final user = User.fromJson(userMap);
print('Howdy, ${user.name}!');
print('We sent the verification link to ${user.email}.');
<code_end>
to encode a user, pass the user object to the jsonEncode() function.
you don’t need to call the toJson() method, since jsonEncode()
already does it for you.