Don’t do these mistakes while learning Flutter
Hello reader, this article is intended for those who have started learning Flutter and aiming to build the next great app using Flutter.
My name is Hardik Kumar and I’m here to tell you the mistakes I did while building my first big app using Flutter so that you could avoid making those mistakes and save your precious time and utilize it in upgrading your app.
Last year in April 2020, two of my friends called me and said that they are building a small project and they want to create an app for that. It was supposed to be a small app(as I see it now) but it took me around 3 months to complete it properly and publish it on Playstore.
I would like you to have a look at this app once before I start telling you why it took me so long to build this app.
What did this app require? Just a simple and understandable UI and a database to fetch some data and show it into the app. Now, let’s see what mistakes I did that took me so long.
Mistake No. 1: Not planning properly
When I started making this app, I didn’t consider devoting my time thinking of a UI, I just jumped into coding. I used to code some UI, used to show it to my friends, and if I didn’t like it, I used to change the whole code and start coding for a new UI. I changed the UI of the app around 2–3 times, without even planning how it should actually look like.
That’s why I would highly recommend you to look for some UIs on Dribble, Pinterest, Behance, etc., and build your own app UI on Figma or Framer.
Trust me, this would save you a lot of time then you can imagine. This is because now you have an aim, or a particular UI to build, so you don’t have to use the try & error method.
Mistake No. 2: Not reading documentation
I know I know, this sounds very boring or this must be a cliche, but wait.. let me give you an example to illustrate this point.
When I started making the UI, I wanted to make a Row clickable. What do you think I would have done?
I simply would’ve searched “How to make a row clickable in flutter” and I must have got an answer on Stack Overflow that would answer this question, simple right?
Well, that’s what I did. But that’s not the best approach to this kind of problem.
Instead, I would suggest you go to Flutter’s Widget Catalog and find the widget you want to know about and understand the different ways to use any widget.
By doing this, you’ll not only understand how to actually use any widget in flutter but also you’ll be able to use it anytime rather than finding how to use that widget every time on the internet.
Mistake No. 3: Not knowing Flutterfire
FlutterFire (The official Firebase plugins for Flutter) is the best website to understand how to use Flutter with Firebase.
I wanted to use Phone Number Authentication in my app, but I didn't know how to do that at that time. Again I searched it on Google and wasted a hell lot of time watching many YouTube videos and finding someone’s code on Stack Overflow. But I finally found some code and copied it to implement Phone Number Authentication into my app.
I wish I would've known FlutterFire at that time.
So, if you’re planning to use Firebase, just read the documentation of FlutterFire and nothing else.
Huh, so these are the mistakes I did when I started, and now can add these points to your NOT TODO list. And don’t forget to give this article more and more claps👏🏼.
Till then, Peace!
Find me on Linkedin, Github & Stack Overflow: