text
stringlengths
1
372
for example, on iOS, you can use the cupertino widgets
to produce an interface that looks like apple’s iOS design language.
<topic_end>
<topic_start>
how do i update widgets?
in Xamarin.Forms, each page or element is a stateful class,
that has properties and methods.
you update your element by updating a property,
and this is propagated down to the native control.
in flutter, widgets are immutable and you can’t directly update them
by changing a property, instead you have to work with the widget’s state.
this is where the concept of stateful vs stateless widgets comes from.
a StatelessWidget is just what it sounds like—
a widget with no state information.
StatelessWidgets are useful when the part of the user interface
you are describing doesn’t depend on anything
other than the configuration information in the object.
for example, in Xamarin.Forms, this is similar
to placing an image with your logo.
the logo is not going to change during runtime,
so use a StatelessWidget in flutter.
if you want to dynamically change the UI based on data received
after making an HTTP call or a user interaction,
then you have to work with StatefulWidget
and tell the flutter framework that
the widget’s state has been updated,
so it can update that widget.
the important thing to note here is at the core
both stateless and stateful widgets behave the same.
they rebuild every frame, the difference is
the StatefulWidget has a state object
that stores state data across frames and restores it.
if you are in doubt, then always remember this rule: if a widget changes
(because of user interactions, for example) it’s stateful.
however, if a widget reacts to change, the containing parent widget can
still be stateless if it doesn’t itself react to change.
the following example shows how to use a StatelessWidget.
a common StatelessWidget is the text widget.
if you look at the implementation of the text widget
you’ll find it subclasses StatelessWidget.
<code_start>
const text(
'i like flutter!',
style: TextStyle(fontWeight: FontWeight.bold),
);
<code_end>
as you can see, the text widget has no state information associated with it,
it renders what is passed in its constructors and nothing more.
but, what if you want to make “i like flutter” change dynamically,
for example, when clicking a FloatingActionButton?
to achieve this, wrap the text widget in a StatefulWidget
and update it when the user clicks the button,
as shown in the following example:
<code_start>
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
void main() {
runApp(const SampleApp());
}
class SampleApp extends StatelessWidget {
/// this widget is the root of your application.
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> {
/// default placeholder text
string textToShow = 'i like flutter';
void _updateText() {
setState(() {
// update the text
textToShow = 'flutter is awesome!';
});
}
@override
widget build(BuildContext context) {
return scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(title: const Text('Sample app')),
body: center(child: Text(textToShow)),
floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton(
onPressed: _updateText,
tooltip: 'update text',
child: const Icon(Icons.update),
),
);
}
}
<code_end>
<topic_end>
<topic_start>
how do i lay out my widgets? what is the equivalent of an XAML file?