The Flutter Basic Widgets Developer's Handbook: Essential Tips, Tricks, and Techniques for Building Flutter Apps

 

Flutter is a mobile app development framework that provides a large collection of customizable widgets that developers can use to build the visual elements of their apps. The number of widgets available in Flutter is constantly growing as the Flutter team and community continue to add new features and components. Some of the main categories of widgets available in Flutter include: 

• Basic widgets: These are the most basic and essential widgets for building an app, including buttons, text, and images. 

• Layout widgets: These widgets help you arrange and position other widgets within the user interface of your app. 

• Container widgets: These widgets provide a way to contain and group other widgets, and apply common visual styles to them. 

• Scrolling widgets: These widgets allow users to scroll through large amounts of content, such as lists or grids. 

• Interactive widgets: These widgets allow users to interact with your app, such as through gesture recognition or input fields. 

Overall, there are hundreds of different widgets available in Flutter, and developers can use these widgets to build a wide range of user interfaces and app features. 

 

Flutter provides a large number of basic widgets that developers can use to build the user interface of their apps.

These basic widgets include: 

• Text: A widget for displaying text. 

• Icon: A widget for displaying an icon. 

• Button: A widget for creating buttons. 

• Image: A widget for displaying an image. 

• Checkbox: A widget for creating a checkbox. 

• Radio: A widget for creating a radio button. 

• Slider: A widget for creating a slider. 

• Switch: A widget for creating a switch. 

• TextField: A widget for creating an input field for text. 

• DropdownButton: A widget for creating a dropdown menu. 

• Card: A widget that displays a card with a title, content, and (optionally) an image. 

• Chip: A widget that represents a complex piece of information, such as an entity (person, place, or thing) or text, in a compact form. 

• Divider: A widget that displays a horizontal line to separate one section of content from another. 

• ProgressIndicator: A widget that displays a progress bar or circular loading indicator. 

• FlatButton: A button with a flat appearance that does not lift when pressed. 

• RaisedButton: A button with a raised appearance that lifts when pressed. 

• FloatingActionButton: A circular button that floats above the content of the app, typically used to perform a primary action. 

• AppBar: A widget that displays a toolbar at the top of the app. 

• BottomNavigationBar: A widget that displays a bottom navigation bar with multiple tabs. 

These are just a few examples of the basic widgets available in Flutter. There are many more widgets available, and developers can also create custom widgets to meet their specific needs. 

 

Flutter provides a large number of layout widgets that developers can use to arrange and position the widgets in their app. These layout widgets include: 

• Container: A widget that can contain and group other widgets, and apply common visual styles to them. 

• Row and Column: Widgets that arrange their children horizontally (in a row) or vertically (in a column). 

• Expanded: A widget that expands a child of a Row, Column, or Flex to fill the available space. 

• Flex: A widget that arranges its children along a main axis and a cross axis, similar to Row and Column, but with more flexible layout options. 

• Stack: A widget that overlays its children, with the most recently added child appearing on top. 

• Flow: A widget that arranges its children in a flow, similar to a Wrap, but with more flexible layout options. 

• Wrap: A widget that arranges its children in a flow, wrapping them to the next line if there is not enough room on the current line.  

• ListView: A widget that displays a scrollable list of widgets. 

• GridView: A widget that displays a scrollable grid of widgets. 

• Flow: A widget that arranges its children in a flow, similar to a Wrap, but with more flexible layout options. 

• CustomSingleChildLayout: A widget that defers the layout of its single child to a delegate. 

• CustomMultiChildLayout: A widget that defers the layout of its children to a delegate. 

• LayoutBuilder: A widget that defers the layout of its children to a delegate. 

• Expanded: A widget that expands a child of a Row, Column, or Flex to fill the available space. 

• Flexible: A widget that sizes itself based on the size of its child. 

• FractionallySizedBox: A widget that sizes itself as a fraction of its parent's size. 

 

These are just a few examples of the layout widgets available in Flutter. There are many more to choose from, and developers can also create custom widgets to meet their specific needs. It is difficult to give a precise number of layout widgets available in Flutter, as the collection is constantly growing and evolving. 

 

Here are some examples of container widgets available in Flutter: 

• Container: A widget that can contain and group other widgets, and apply common visual styles to them. 

• Card: A widget that displays a card with a title, content, and (optionally) an image. 

• ClipRRect: A widget that clips its child using a rounded rectangle. 

• DecoratedBox: A widget that paints a decoration before painting its child. 

• InkWell: A widget that responds to touch events, and displays a splash effect when tapped. 

• Opacity: A widget that makes its child partially transparent. 

• Padding: A widget that adds padding to its child. 

• Positioned: A widget that sizes and positions its child within itself and another parent widget. 

• SizedBox: A widget that sizes itself based on a specific size. 

• Transform: A widget that transforms its child using a matrix. 

• BoxDecoration: A widget that provides background and border decoration to its child. 

• ConstrainedBox: A widget that enforces constraints on its child. 

• FittedBox: A widget that scales and positions its child within itself. 

• FractionallySizedBox: A widget that sizes itself as a fraction of its parent's size. 

• OverflowBox: A widget that allows its child to overflow itself. 

• RotatedBox: A widget that rotates its child. 

• SizedOverflowBox: A widget that sizes itself based on the size of its child, but allows the child to overflow. 

• UnconstrainedBox: A widget that allows its child to draw without constraints. 

• LimitedBox: A widget that limits its size. 

• AspectRatio: A widget that sizes itself based on a specific aspect ratio. 

 

 

Here are some examples of scrolling widgets available in Flutter: 

• ListView: A widget that displays a scrollable list of widgets. 

• GridView: A widget that displays a scrollable grid of widgets. 

• CustomScrollView: A widget that displays a scrollable list of widgets, with custom scrolling behavior. 

• Scrollable: A widget that manages the scrolling behavior of its children. 

• SingleChildScrollView: A widget that displays a single child with scrollable behavior. 

• PageView: A widget that displays a scrollable list of pages. 

• NestedScrollView: A widget that displays a scrollable list of widgets within another scrollable list. 

• RefreshIndicator: A widget that displays a pull-to-refresh loading indicator. 

• Scrollbar: A widget that displays a scrollbar for a Scrollable widget. 

• ListWheelScrollView: A widget that displays a scrollable list of widgets with a spinning animation. 

 

 

Here are some examples of interactive widgets available in Flutter: 

• Button: A widget for creating buttons that can be pressed or tapped by the user. 

• Checkbox: A widget for creating a checkbox that can be toggled by the user. 

• Radio: A widget for creating a radio button that can be selected by the user. 

• Slider: A widget for creating a slider that can be dragged by the user. 

• Switch: A widget for creating a switch that can be toggled by the user. 

• TextField: A widget for creating an input field for text that can be entered by the user. 

• DropdownButton: A widget for creating a dropdown menu that can be selected by the user. 

• Form: A widget that manages the form state and validation of its children. 

• FormField: A widget that represents a form field. 

• GestureDetector: A widget that recognizes gestures made by the user. 

• InkWell: A widget that responds to touch events, and displays a splash effect when tapped. 

• RawKeyboardListener: A widget that registers as a listener to raw keyboard events. 

• RawKeyboardManager: A widget that registers as a manager of raw keyboard events. 

• InputDecorator: A widget that decorates the input field of a TextField. 

• CupertinoTextField: A widget that displays an input field with a style that follows the iOS design guidelines. 

• CupertinoSlider: A widget that displays a slider with a style that follows the iOS design guidelines. 

• CupertinoSwitch: A widget that displays a switch with a style that follows the iOS design guidelines. 

• Draggable: A widget that can be dragged by the user. 

• LongPressDraggable: A widget that can be dragged by the user after a long press gesture. 

• DraggableScrollableSheet: A widget that displays a scrollable sheet that can be dragged by the user. 

• IgnorePointer: A widget that prevents its children from receiving pointer events. 

• AbsorbPointer: A widget that absorbs the pointer events of its children. 

• Dismissible: A widget that can be dismissed by swiping it in a specific direction. 

• Expandable: A widget that expands or collapses when tapped. 

• InheritedWidget: A widget that allows its descendants to access a state or data inherited from its ancestor. 

• ValueListenableBuilder: A widget that rebuilds its child whenever a ValueListenable notifies its listeners.