To get the most out of this book

You will be introduced to the requirements as we move through the chapters. To get started, you need to have access to a browser so you can access the DartPad website and play with Dart code.

To professionally develop and publish iOS apps, you need a developer license (paid annually), a Mac, and at least one device to test the applications. All this is not strictly necessary for the purpose of learning Flutter, but it might be useful to you.

The entire installation process and the requirements of the Flutter environment are available on the official website (https://flutter.dev/docs/get-started/install), but do not worry: you can start with the bare minimum and install any extras only when necessary.

Download the example code files

You can download the example code files for this book from your account at www.packt.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files emailed directly to you.

You can download the code files by following these steps:

1. Log in or register at www.packt.com.
2. Select the Support tab.
3. Click on Code Downloads.
4. Enter the name of the book in the Search box and follow the onscreen instructions.

Once the file is downloaded, please make sure that you unzip or extract the folder using the latest version of:

• WinRAR/7-Zip for Windows
• Zipeg/iZip/UnRarX for Mac
• 7-Zip/PeaZip for Linux

The code bundle for the book is also hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Flutter-for-Beginners. In case there's an update to the code, it will be updated on the existing GitHub repository.

We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://static.packt-cdn.com/downloads/9781788996082_ColorImages.pdf.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "It evaluates and returns the value of expression2: expression1 ?? expression2."

A block of code is set as follows:

main() {
 var yeahDartIsGreat = "Obviously!";
 var dartIsGreat = yeahDartIsGreat ?? "I don't know";
 print(dartIsGreat); // prints Obviously!
}

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

main() {
  var someInt = 1;
  print(reflect(someInt).type.reflectedType.toString()); // prints: int
}

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

dart code.dart

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Also, the floating action button at the bottom end should redirect you to the Request a favor screen."

Warnings or important notes appear like this.

Tips and tricks appear like this.