Flutter Developer Weekly

// From Mark

Wow, That Was Quick!

Right on the heels of the recent iOS 14 and Android 11 releases, here we are with Flutter 1.22!

As I mentioned in the last newsletter, one of the great things about developing on Flutter is that you normally don't have to panic quite so much with every release cycle of the underlying OS. Because Flutter insulates you from many of the OS-specific changes, you're much more likely to have a smooth transition than if you're wholly dependent on the underlying platform.

Having said all of that, it's great to see how quickly the Flutter team has reacted to these new iOS and Android releases. We'll cover some of the highlights below.

It just feels great to be a Flutter developer, doesn't it?

News

Announcing Flutter 1.22 with iOS 14 Support

There's a lot to cover with the new Flutter 1.22 stable release, and I'll highlight some of the specifics in other links below in today's newsletter. This article by Chris Sells is a great jumping off point, as it covers the major bits in a fair amount of detail.

Highly recommended for all Flutter developers!

Tutorials

Support for iOS App Clips

Flutter 1.22 has introduced preview support for the new App Clips feature in iOS 14. This article gives you all you need to get started with supporting them.

Tips & Tricks

Updated Network Page in DevTools

If you find yourself inspecting your app's network traffic, the updated Network Page in DevTools should prove a boost to your productivity. For those not familiar, the network view allows you to inspect HTTP, HTTPS, and web socket traffic from your Dart or Flutter application.

Using the New App Size Tool

The Flutter 1.22 tooling now includes a new app size analysis tool, which helps you deep-dive into which specific packages might be causing your app to be a bit overweight. This looks very handy!

Widgets and Packages

Updated CupertinoIcons Package Includes Glyph Changes, ~900 New Icons

If you use the CupertinoIcons package in your Flutter app, you'll definitely want to look at these changes with the new 1.0.0 version of the package:

As noted in this article's introduction:

The existing cupertino_icons 0.1.3 icons are based on iOS 11 aesthetics with sharp angles and thin lines.

As Apple’s iconography updates with new OS versions, the cupertino_icons package is now refreshed as well.

Generally, all old glyphs referenced via the CupertinoIcons API are automatically mapped to very similar looking icons in the new SF Symbols style (rounder, thicker lines).

Some icons that entirely have no equivalents in the new SF Symbols style are left as is.

Some icons that have less variations (such as thickness, alterative looks, etc) are automapped and collapsed to the best matching variation in the new SF Symbols style but should be double checked for whether they still preserve the intended visual effect.

Architecture

Learning Flutter's New Navigation and Routing System

Before you panic, Flutter's "Navigation 2.0" doesn't introduce breaking changes into your existing navigation code. Rather, it introduces a new declarative means of navigation for you to take advantage of. This article by John Ryan gives you a great overview.

Issue 11 October 2nd 2020