Duration

4 days

Overview

This course is an introduction to Flutter application development. It covers how to create and compile projects using VSCode or Android Studio, basics of the Dart language and uploading the completed app on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

During this course, you will create a reasonably complex Flutter application. In the process, you will learn about widgets, animation, Material design, list views, grid views and Firebase.

Programs you will write:

About Me - an app that displays your personal information

Light - a simple flashlight app

Recipes - an app that displays recipes

Fooderlich - a food app

A Flutter app that uses Firebase for data storage

Course Objectives

Upon completion of this program, participants should be able to:

Create a reasonably complex Flutter application, using widgets, animation, Material design, list views, grid views and Firebase. You'll also learn how to publish your apps to the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

Course Pre-requisites

Knowledge of a programming language is recommended

System Requirements

A Mac computer running macOS 10.15 Catalina or 11.0 Big Sur

A Windows computer running Windows 10 or higher

VSCode 1.54.x or higher

Android Studio 4.1.x or higher

Xcode 12.x or higher

References

Day 1 - Using Dartpad

1. A Dart tour
Hello World
Variables
Control flow statements
Functions
Comments
Imports
Classes
Inheritance
Mixins
Interfaces and abstract classes
Async
Exceptions
2. Basic Flutter Layout concepts
Row and column classes
Axis size and alignment
Flexible widget
Expanded widget
Sizedbox widget
Spacer widget
Text widget
Icon widget
Image widget
Putting it all together

Lunch

3. Implicit animations
What are implicit animations?
Example: Fade in text effects
Example: Shape-shifting effect
Using animation curves
4. The About Me app
App basics
Adding widgets
Adding the Scaffold widget
Adding Text widgets
Styling Text widgets
Adding Images

Tea break

Test IDE
Show the folders in the sample app
Sign up for Flutter Apprentice

Day 2 - Using Android Studio or VSCode

5. The Light app
Using cupertino.dart
Adding a stateless widget
Adding a button
Changing the background color
Stateful widgets
the setState() function
6. The Recipes app
Creating a new app
Making the app yours
Clearing the app
Building a recipe list
Adding a recipe detail page

Challenge: Customize the Recipes app with local food

Lunch

7. Basic Widgets
Getting started
Styling your app
Setting a theme
App structure and navigation
Creating custom recipe cards

Challenge: Build your first Flutter app part 1 and 2

Day 3

8. Understanding Widgets
What is a widget
Unboxing Card2
Rendering widgets
Getting started with Dev Tools
Types of widgets
9. Scrollable Widgets
Getting started
Introducing ListView
Setting up the Explore screen
Creating a FutureBuilder
Building Recipes of the Day
Nested ListViews
Creating the ListView for friends' posts
Adding final touches to the Explore screen
Getting to know GridView
Building the Recipes screen
Other scrollable widgets
Challenges

Assignment: Networking Cookbook (fetching data, JSON parsing)

10. Interactive widgets
Getting started
Creating the grocery item model
Creating the Grocery screen
Creating the empty Grocery screen
Switching tabs
Managing tab state
Managing the grocery items
Adding new packages
Creating the screen to add grocery items
Creating a grocery tile
Building GroceryTile
Finishing GroceryTile
Saving the user's work
Creating GroceryListScreen
Adding gestures
Dismissing items with a swipe

Assignment: Persistence Cookbook (SQLite)

Day 4

13. Get to know Firebase for Flutter
Create and set up a Firebase project
Firebase configuration
Add user sign in
Write messages to Cloud Firestore
Read messages
Setup basic security rules

Assigment: Google Maps in Flutter

14. Build and release an Android app
Adding a launcher icon
Enabling Material Components
Signing the app
Shrinking your code with R8
Reviewing the app manifest
Reviewing the build configuration
Building the app for release
Publishing to the Google Play Store
Updating the app’s version number
15. Build and release an iOS app
Preliminaries
Register your app on App Store Connect
Register a bundle ID
Create an application record on App Store Connect
Review Xcode Project settings
Updating the app’s deployment version
Updating the app’s version number
Add an app icon
Create a build archive with Xcode
Release your app on TestFlight
Release your app to the App Store

Flutter Application Development