Flutterexperts

State management is one of the most important aspects of app development. In a large and complex application, keeping track of the state of different widgets and managing the flow of data can quickly become a challenging task. This is where Redux comes in.

Redux is a state management library that is widely used in React and React Native applications. It is also a popular choice for state management in Flutter, a UI toolkit for building natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop.

It provides a centralized store for storing the state of an application, and it follows the unidirectional data flow pattern. In Flutter, Redux can be used to manage the state of an application, making it easier to understand, maintain, and scale.

In this blog, we’ll explore how to integrate Redux into a Flutter application and understand the key concepts of Redux.

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Table Of Contents::

What is Redux

Why use Redux in Flutter

Integrating Redux into a Flutter application

Conclusion

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What is Redux?

Redux is a predictable state management library that is based on the principles of Flux architecture. It is designed to make it easy to manage the state of an application in a centralized and consistent way. The core concepts of Redux are:

1. State: The state of an application is the data that changes over time, such as user data, API responses, or UI state.
2. Actions: Actions are events that are dispatched from the view layer to modify the state of the application. Actions have a type and can also have payload data.
3. Reducer: The reducer is a pure function that takes the current state and an action as inputs and returns the updated state. The reducer defines how the state should be updated based on the action type.
4. Store: The store is the central place where the state of the application is stored. The store is created by passing the reducer function to it.

By following these core concepts, Redux makes it easy to manage the state of an application consistently and predictably.

Why use Redux in Flutter?

Flutter provides a rich set of built-in widgets and tools for building complex UIs. However, as the size and complexity of a Flutter application grow, it becomes more challenging to manage the state of the application. This is where Redux comes in. By using Redux, you can centralize the state of your application and make it easier to manage.

Some of the benefits of using Redux in Flutter are:

1. Predictable state management: With Redux, the state of the application is managed in a centralized and consistent way. This makes it easier to understand how the state changes over time and debug any issues that may arise.
2. Scalability: As the size and complexity of a Flutter application grows, Redux makes it easier to manage the state of the application. By following the core concepts of Redux, you can quickly scale the state management of your application.
3. Reusable code: By centralizing the state of the application, you can write reusable code that can be shared across different parts of the application.
4. Easy to test: Because the reducer is a pure function, it is easy to write automated tests. This makes it easier to ensure that the state of the application is being updated correctly

Integrating Redux into a Flutter application:

In Flutter, there are several packages available for implementing Redux, such as flutter_redux and redux_thunk. To get started with Redux in Flutter, you need to install the flutter_redux package and create a store for your application.

dependencies:
flutter_redux: ^7.0.0

The store is created using the createStore() function, which takes the initial state of the store and a reducer as arguments. The initial state is a plain Dart object, and the reducer is a Dart function that takes the store’s current state and action and returns the next state of the store.

1. Define your application state and action:

class AppState {
int counter;

AppState({this.counter = 0});
}

enum Actions { incrementCounter }

2. Create the reducer:

AppState appReducer(AppState state, dynamic action) {
if (action == Actions.incrementCounter) {
return AppState(counter: state.counter + 1);
}
return state;
}

3. Create the store:

final store = Store<AppState>(
appReducer,
initialState: AppState(),
);

Once the store is created, you can use the StoreProvider widget to provide the store to the rest of the application. The StoreProvider widget takes the store and a child widget as arguments, and it makes the store available to the child widget and all its descendants.

4. Use the StoreProvider widget to provide the store to your application:

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
@override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return StoreProvider<AppState>(
store: store,
child: MaterialApp(
title: 'Redux Example',
home: MyHomePage(),
),
);
}
}

In the child widget, you can use the StoreBuilder widget to access the state of the store. The StoreBuilder widget takes a builder function as an argument, which takes the store and returns a widget. The builder function is called whenever the state of the store changes, and it returns the updated UI.

5. Use the StoreBuilder widget to access the state of the store in a widget:

class MyHomePage extends StatelessWidget {
@override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(
title: Text('Redux Example'),
),
body: Center(
child: StoreBuilder<AppState>(
builder: (context, store) {
return Text(
'Counter: ${store.state.counter}',
style: TextStyle(fontSize: 24),
);
},
),
),
floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton(
onPressed: () {
store.dispatch(Actions.incrementCounter);
},
child: Icon(Icons.add),
),
);
}
}

This example demonstrates a basic integration of Redux in a Flutter app. The example shows how to create the store, provide it to the application, access the state of the store, and dispatch actions to update the state.

Note: This is just a basic example to get you started with Redux in Flutter. You can extend and customize it to fit your needs.

Conclusion:

Redux is a powerful state management library that can simplify the state management of a Flutter application. By using Redux, you can keep the state of your application in a single store, and you can manage the flow of data using actions and reducers. With its simple approach, Redux can help you build large and complex Flutter applications with ease.

❤ ❤ Thanks for reading this article ❤❤

If I got something wrong? Let me know in the comments. I would love to improve.

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