Unlocking Flutter Hooks: A Smarter Way to Build Apps

Flutter Hooks— A powerful library that brings the concept of React Hooks to Flutter, enabling developers to write clean, reusable, and testable code for managing stateful logic.

RG
Rahul Gupta
January 23, 2025
4 min read

What Are Flutter Hooks?

Flutter Hooks is a library for Flutter that provides a way to use hooks in your Flutter applications inspired by React hooks. It's designed to make stateful widget management more concise and easier to handle, reducing boilerplate code and improving the readability of your code.

Why Use Flutter Hooks?

  • Traditional stateful widget setups often require repetitive code for managing states, whereas hooks simplify coding by providing prebuilt and reusable logic.
  • Custom hooks can summarize complex logic, making it reusable across widgets and projects.

Stateful Widget

1. useEffect: It runs a piece of code when dependencies change or on widget initialization.

dart
useEffect(() {
  print('Widget initialized!');
  return null; // Cleanup if needed
}, [ ]);

2. useMemoized: Optimizes performance by memoizing expensive calculations.

dart
final result = useMemoized(() => expensiveCalculation(), [dependency]);

3. useStream: Gets a stream of data and rebuilds the widget on the data updates.

dart
final streamData = useStream(myStream);

4. useAnimationController: Simplifies creating and controlling animations.

dart
final animationController = useAnimationController(
  duration: const Duration(seconds: 1),
);

Custom Hook

A custom hook allows you to encapsulate logic for reuse.

Here’s an example of a custom hook that tracks the counter value and updates the UI when the button is pressed.

dart
class CounterHook {
  final int value;
  final VoidCallback increment;


  CounterHook({required this.value, required this.increment});
}


CounterHook useCounter() {
  final counter = useState(0); // Using useState to hold the state


  // The increment function updates the counter value
  void incrementCounter() {
    counter.value++;
  }


   return CounterHook(
    value: counter.value,
    increment: incrementCounter,
  );
}

Usage of Custom Hook

dart
class CounterPage extends HookWidget {
  const CounterPage({super.key, required this.title});
  final String title;


  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    final counterState = useCounter();
    final counter = counterState.value;
    final incrementCounter = counterState.increment;


    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(
        backgroundColor: Theme.of(context).colorScheme.inversePrimary,
        title: Text(title),
      ),
      body: Center(
        child: Column(
          mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
          children: <Widget>[
            const Text(
              'You have pushed the button this many times:',
            ),
            Text(
              '$counter',
              style: Theme.of(context).textTheme.headlineMedium,
            ),
          ],
        ),
      ),
      floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton(
        onPressed: incrementCounter,
        tooltip: 'Increment',
        child: const Icon(Icons.add),
      ), 
    );
  }
}

Limitation of Flutter Hooks

Since your app relies on Flutter Hooks, its maintenance will depend on the support and updates provided by the Flutter Hooks community.

Conclusion

Flutter Hooks is a valuable library for simplifying and optimizing state management. Hooks enhance readability and reusability. By cutting down on boilerplate code, developers can build clean code and maintainable apps with Flutter hooks.

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Unlocking Flutter Hooks: A Smarter Way to Build Apps | Clean UI Blog