Flutter: a journey of productivity and happiness

Flutter is an open-source user interface toolkit developed by Google that allows you to create beautiful applications in record time without sacrificing code quality nor developer productivity.

With such an ambitious premise, I was very skeptical back at the beginning of 2018 when I tried Flutter for the first time that Flutter could check all the boxes; after all, there were already plenty of cross-platform solutions for mobile that promised all the gold in the world but ended up not quite meeting the expectations. However, this time, Flutter brought a big simile to my face immediately! Flutter is fun to learn, easy to test, highly performant, completely open-source, and has an incredibly community that is warm, welcoming, supportive, and incredibly active!

In this talk, I’d like to share with you my experience working with Flutter for more than two years: from big projects with hundreds of developers contributing daily to the codebase to small and fast-paced startups that need to validate their product as soon as possible.

Transcript

1. Flutter - A journey of productivity and happiness -
2. Once upon a time...
3. In 2016
4. What were we doing?
5. What were we doing? → Company iOS first (more resources, earlier releases)
6. What were we doing? → Company iOS first (more resources, earlier releases) → Client Java (and Kotlin later...)
7. What were we doing? → Company iOS first (more resources, earlier releases) → Client Java (and Kotlin later...) → Patterns MVVM (custom), Dagger 2...
8. What were we doing? → Company iOS first (more resources, earlier releases) → Client Java (and Kotlin later...) → Patterns MVVM (custom), Dagger 2... → Testing only unit tests
9. What were we doing? → Company iOS first (more resources, earlier releases) → Client Java (and Kotlin later...) → Patterns MVVM (custom), Dagger 2... → Testing only unit tests → Backend no access/influence over APIs
10. How it was supposed to be...
12. How it really was...
16. → No collaboration between teams
17. → No collaboration between teams → Completely different release schedules
18. → No collaboration between teams → Completely different release schedules → No Android internal dogfood
19. → No collaboration between teams → Completely different release schedules → No Android internal dogfood → 100% oriented APIs towards iOS
20. → No collaboration between teams → Completely different release schedules → No Android internal dogfood → 100% oriented APIs towards iOS → Zero confidence in success
21. We needed a change
22. A big change
23. A new opportunity was presented to us: A redesign was coming that would allow us to challenge business processes and technology choices
24. Doing the same thing would only lead to failure...
25. We had a very ambitious goal
26. We want to be able to regularly release our products across all brands, all platforms and all regions simultaneously, with the same feature capabilities.
27. What can we do better?
28. What can we do better? → Robust and predictable APIs
29. What can we do better? → Robust and predictable APIs → Never say no to designers
30. What can we do better? → Robust and predictable APIs → Never say no to designers → Be full stack and open to collaboration
31. What can we do better? → Robust and predictable APIs → Never say no to designers → Be full stack and open to collaboration → Better understanding of business goals
32. What can we do better? → Robust and predictable APIs → Never say no to designers → Be full stack and open to collaboration → Better understanding of business goals → Shorter feature cycle times
33. What can we do better? → Robust and predictable APIs → Never say no to designers → Be full stack and open to collaboration → Better understanding of business goals → Shorter feature cycle times → Improve our developer experience
34. Our mantra Create a platform that is developer friendly, scalable and performant, which provides safe experimentation and continuos deployment.
35. After a 6 month long research...
36. ...our conclusion was clear
38. What is Flutter? Flutter is Google's UI toolkit for building beautiful, natively compiled applications for mobile, web and desktop from a single codebase.
39. void main() => runApp(MyApp()); class MyApp extends StatelessWidget { @override Widget build(BuildContext context) { return MaterialApp(home: MyHomePage()); } } class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget { @override _MyHomePageState createState() => _MyHomePageState(); } class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> { int _counter = 0; void _incrementCounter() { setState(() { _counter++; }); } @override Widget build(BuildContext context) { return Scaffold( appBar: AppBar(title: Text('Counter')), body: Center( child: Column( mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center, children: <Widget>[ Text('You have pushed the button this many times:'), Text('$_counter'), ], ), ), floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton( onPressed: _incrementCounter, child: Icon(Icons.add), ), ); } }
40. void main() => runApp(MyApp()); class MyApp extends StatelessWidget { @override Widget build(BuildContext context) { return MaterialApp(home: MyHomePage()); } } class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget { @override _MyHomePageState createState() => _MyHomePageState(); } class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> { int _counter = 0; void _incrementCounter() { setState(() { _counter++; }); } @override Widget build(BuildContext context) { return Scaffold( appBar: AppBar(title: Text('Counter')), body: Center( child: Column( mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center, children: <Widget>[ Text('You have pushed the button this many times:'), Text('$_counter'), ], ), ), floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton( onPressed: _incrementCounter, child: Icon(Icons.add), ), ); } }
41. void main() => runApp(MyApp()); class MyApp extends StatelessWidget { @override Widget build(BuildContext context) { return MaterialApp(home: MyHomePage()); } } class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget { @override _MyHomePageState createState() => _MyHomePageState(); } class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> { int _counter = 0; void _incrementCounter() { setState(() { _counter++; }); } @override Widget build(BuildContext context) { return Scaffold( appBar: AppBar(title: Text('Counter')), body: Center( child: Column( mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center, children: <Widget>[ Text('You have pushed the button this many times:'), Text('$_counter'), ], ), ), floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton( onPressed: _incrementCounter, child: Icon(Icons.add), ), ); } }
42. void main() => runApp(MyApp()); class MyApp extends StatelessWidget { @override Widget build(BuildContext context) { return MaterialApp(home: MyHomePage()); } } class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget { @override _MyHomePageState createState() => _MyHomePageState(); } class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> { int _counter = 0; void _incrementCounter() { setState(() { _counter++; }); } @override Widget build(BuildContext context) { return Scaffold( appBar: AppBar(title: Text('Counter')), body: Center( child: Column( mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center, children: <Widget>[ Text('You have pushed the button this many times:'), Text('$_counter'), ], ), ), floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton( onPressed: _incrementCounter, child: Icon(Icons.add), ), ); } }
43. void main() => runApp(MyApp()); class MyApp extends StatelessWidget { @override Widget build(BuildContext context) { return MaterialApp(home: MyHomePage()); } } class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget { @override _MyHomePageState createState() => _MyHomePageState(); } class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> { int _counter = 0; void _incrementCounter() { setState(() { _counter++; }); } @override Widget build(BuildContext context) { return Scaffold( appBar: AppBar(title: Text('Counter')), body: Center( child: Column( mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center, children: <Widget>[ Text('You have pushed the button this many times:'), Text('$_counter'), ], ), ), floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton( onPressed: _incrementCounter, child: Icon(Icons.add), ), ); } }
44. ...but why Flutter? Flutter was chosen not only because we thought it was going to meet the needs, but because it was a risk mitigation strategy. We were considerably more likely to be successful and deliver the product we were asked to deliver by using Flutter. — Larry McKenzie, Tech Lead @ eBay Motors
45. What does Flutter have to offer?
49. When we tried Flutter in 2018
50. When we tried Flutter in 2018 → Fast development: Hot Reload
51. When we tried Flutter in 2018 → Fast development: Hot Reload → Expressive UIs: Highly composable widgets
52. When we tried Flutter in 2018 → Fast development: Hot Reload → Expressive UIs: Highly composable widgets → Native performance: 60fps
53. When we tried Flutter in 2018 → Fast development: Hot Reload → Expressive UIs: Highly composable widgets → Native performance: 60fps → Testing: incredible tooling out of the box
54. When we tried Flutter in 2018 → Fast development: Hot Reload → Expressive UIs: Highly composable widgets → Native performance: 60fps → Testing: incredible tooling out of the box → Works on any UI environment
55. Flutter is like Picasso you can ask it to paint anything, anywhere, and it will deliver outstanding results
56. What about Dart?
57. What about Dart? → Client-optmized language for fast apps on any platform
58. What about Dart? → Client-optmized language for fast apps on any platform → Feels natural and familiar
59. What about Dart? → Client-optmized language for fast apps on any platform → Feels natural and familiar → Future API (async-await)
60. What about Dart? → Client-optmized language for fast apps on any platform → Feels natural and familiar → Future API (async-await) → Isolate-based concurrency
61. Future<void> fetchTemperate() async { final response = await http.get('weather.com'); if (response.statusCode == 200) { print('Temperature: ${response.body}'); } else { throw Exception('Failed fetching temperature'); } }
62. What about the Dart & Flutter community?
63. What about the Dart & Flutter community? → Vibrant and welcoming community
64. What about the Dart & Flutter community? → Vibrant and welcoming community → Started Chicago Flutter
65. What about the Dart & Flutter community? → Vibrant and welcoming community → Started Chicago Flutter → Incredible documentation and tutorials
66. What about the Dart & Flutter community? → Vibrant and welcoming community → Started Chicago Flutter → Incredible documentation and tutorials → Amazing conferences
67. ... and many other benefits
68. ... and many other benefits → UI described as a tree (widget tree)
69. ... and many other benefits → UI described as a tree (widget tree) → Multiple state management solutions
70. ... and many other benefits → UI described as a tree (widget tree) → Multiple state management solutions → 3 levels of testing without 3rd party dependencies
71. In 2020...
73. Very Good Ventures is...
74. Very Good Ventures is... → 100% focused on Flutter
75. Very Good Ventures is... → 100% focused on Flutter → First in Flutter: Hamilton. The Musical
76. Very Good Ventures is... → 100% focused on Flutter → First in Flutter: Hamilton. The Musical → Experts in Flutter: Google, The New York Times, Betterment, Policygenius, Good Money...
77. How do we use Flutter?
78. How do we use Flutter? → 3-tier architecture (data, domain, UI)
79. How do we use Flutter? → 3-tier architecture (data, domain, UI) → flutter_bloc
80. How do we use Flutter? → 3-tier architecture (data, domain, UI) → flutter_bloc → 100% test coverage
81. How do we use Flutter? → 3-tier architecture (data, domain, UI) → flutter_bloc → 100% test coverage → Strong focus on automation
82. I have worked with Ruby on Rails, Angular, iOS (Objective-C & Swift), Android (Java & Kotlin)... and nothing has brought more happiness to me than Flutter
83. Flutter has made me a better person... and a better developer
84. It has been a pleasure!
85. It has been a pleasure! → Very Good Ventures (jorge@verygood.ventures)
86. It has been a pleasure! → Very Good Ventures (jorge@verygood.ventures) → Google Developer Expert (GDE) for Flutter
87. It has been a pleasure! → Very Good Ventures (jorge@verygood.ventures) → Google Developer Expert (GDE) for Flutter → Instructor @ Caster.IO (Testing Fundamentals of Flutter)
88. It has been a pleasure! → Very Good Ventures (jorge@verygood.ventures) → Google Developer Expert (GDE) for Flutter → Instructor @ Caster.IO (Testing Fundamentals of Flutter) → Chicago Flutter Meetup
89. The End Happy Coding! !"