How to get started with Flutter

Hello there🙋🏿‍♀️

I’m excited to share my first walk of being a flutter ninja!..Yay!💃🏿💃🏿

I would love this to be a series and a record of how much I’ve learned in my journey as a flutter developer. And, as the saying goes, “We never stop learning;" so, do well to send me feedback and share resources that helped you to understand concepts too.

What is Flutter?

According to Google, Flutter is a UI(User Interface) toolkit designed by Google to build beautiful, natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single Codebasehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codebase. The framework is built using the Dart programming language, popularly known as “dart Lang." Its first stable version was introduced on December 4, 2018.

What do I need to start creating things with Flutter?

Oh well, lucky you! I had a list of things to put in place before I could start making magic using flutter. This list includes:

Step 1: Install Flutter, but that’s a bit easy.😉 Visit Flutterhttps://docs.flutter.dev/get-started/install to get started. When you do, you will see a page like this:

Select your operating system and voila! You’re one step closer to creating awesome Applications.

Step 2: I had to download Android Studio. To do this, visit Android Studio Site downloadhttps://developer.android.com/studio/?gclid=CjwKCAiAqqTuBRBAEiwA7B66hW1RykaWA2BtVgufFL1nqo89eejkTWPEowtt5hdEN-dNhQS-gCDo3hoC7BAQAvD_BwE, follow the instructions, and install. It takes minutes or hours to install, depending on your internet speed. You do need an internet connection to install Android Studio.

Step 3: When the Android Studio is ready, you want to download a JDK(Java SE Development Kit) herehttps://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase/javase-jdk8-downloads.html. To download, you will be asked to create an oracle account; it’s ok, just create one using your email address, you don’t need to know why. I too didn’t know why until I got curious (except, of course, you’re curious enough 😃).

Step 4: We will be needing an editor; it’s ok to stick with Android Studio, you could look up details on what plugins/ extensions you’ll need herehttps://docs.flutter.dev/get-started/editor?tab=androidstudio. But for the likes of myself, who have phobias of Android studio, I’d propose that you download Intelli J OR Vs Code. For the record, I use the latter.

Step 5: You want to set up an emulator on your android studio. Either visit this linkhttps://developer.android.com/studio/run/managing-avds, to follow instructions and set up your emulator, or you can use your cellphone. I would advise you to, however,download an emulator – you will need good internet for that too.

Step 6: I am positive that everything is set on the background, now let’s make our editor more fun to use. Remember, I make use of VS Code, so I will be dropping some extensions that have made coding Flutter a bit interesting. For starters, we need to install Flutter and Dart pluginshttps://docs.flutter.dev/get-started/editor?tab=vscode. Once those are installed, open up the hamburger menu, click on “Samples & Tutorials”, click on “Codelabs”, and now you’re running your first app!

For my favorite plugins, I’d say that they are “Bracket Pair Colorizer” and “Awesome flutter snippets”. Below is a screenshot of my favorite extensions, and on the right side is the default first flutter app.

And guess what?! We are set to go! I’d love to know how well you did with these and, if you need help, please do well to connect with me on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/iamCynthiaPeter. Thank you for reading. Cheers​!