Preface

Messaging friends, booking airplane tickets, ordering a grocery delivery, checking bank accounts, buying metro tickets... this is just a short list of tasks we accomplish today with the help of mobile and web applications. Apps are omnipresent, and someone must develop them. If you are holding this book, there is a high chance that you are one of these developers.

In recent years, Flutter has become a stable and widely used framework for building apps. And not just mobile apps, as it also supports building for web, desktop, and beyond. However, to thrive in the modern world, apps need to be more than just functional – they must be beautiful, fast, and reliable. These qualities are achieved through the approaches used to build the apps. A scalable, flexible, maintainable, and testable architecture is essential to help businesses stand out and to provide users with the high-quality experience they expect. This is where design patterns and best practices come into play.

Design patterns are proven blueprints for solutions to common problems that arise in software design. They provide standard terminology and are specific to particular scenarios, making the development process more efficient and reliable. For instance, patterns such as Singleton, Observer, and Factory Method offer templates for solving issues related to object creation, communication between objects, and more.

Best practices, on the other hand, are guidelines or methodologies that have been shown through experience and research to lead to optimal results. These practices include coding standards, architectural principles, and development processes that ensure high-quality software. They help to maintain code readability, performance, security, and scalability.

This book dives into the details of Flutter’s inner workings, teaches various design patterns to build Flutter apps, and explores the best practices for developing robust applications. Understanding these fundamentals is crucial for making informed decisions about which practices and guidelines to follow and which to adapt or skip.

This knowledge is built on the experience of developing over 50 apps of various scales in industry-leading mobile development agencies and companies. However, it’s important to remember that there is always room for individual opinions and adjustments.

It is a great time to be a Flutter developer, and this book will help you become one who is highly skilled and competitive.