Flutter, render widget after async call

Question

I would like to render a widget that needs an HTTP call to gather some data.

Got the following code (simplified)

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'dart:async';
import 'dart:convert';

void main() {
  runApp(new MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  // This widget is the root of your application.
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return new MaterialApp(
      title: 'Flutter demo',
      theme: new ThemeData(
        primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
      ),
      home: new MyHomePage(title: 'async demo'),
    );
  }
}

class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget {
  MyHomePage({Key key, this.title}) : super(key: key);

  final String title;

  @override
  _MyHomePageState createState() => new _MyHomePageState();
}

class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {

  var asyncWidget;

  @override
  initState() {
    super.initState();

    loadData().then((result) {
      print(result);
      setState(() {
       asyncWidget = result;
      });
    });
  }

  loadData() async {
    var widget = new AsyncWidget();
    return widget.build();
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {

    if(asyncWidget == null) {
      return new Scaffold(
        appBar: new AppBar(
          title: new Text("Loading..."),
        ),
      );
    } else {
      return new Scaffold(
        appBar: new AppBar(
          title: new Text(widget.title),
        ),
        body: new Center(
          child: this.asyncWidget,
        ),
      );
    }
  }
}

class MyRenderer {

  MyRenderer();

  Widget render (List data) {

    List<Widget> renderedWidgets = new List<Widget>();

    data.forEach((element) {
      renderedWidgets.add(new ListTile(
        title: new Text("one element"),
        subtitle: new Text(element.toString()),
      ));
    });
    var lv = new ListView(
      children: renderedWidgets,
    );
    return lv;
  }
}

class MyCollector {

  Future gather() async {

    var response = await // do the http request here;

    return response.body;
  }
}

class AsyncWidget {

  MyCollector collector;
  MyRenderer renderer;

  AsyncWidget() {
    this.collector = new MyCollector();
    this.renderer = new MyRenderer();
  }

  Widget build() {

    var data = this.collector.gather();
    data.then((response) {
      var responseObject = JSON.decode(response);
      print(response);
      return this.renderer.render(responseObject);
    });
    data.catchError((error) {
      return new Text("Oups");
    });
  }
}

My code works like this : the widget using async data takes a collector (which make the http call) and a renderer which will render the widgets with the http data. I create an instance of this widget on the initState() and then I make my async call.

I found some documentation saying that we should use the setState() method to update the widget with the new data but this doesn't work for me.

However when I put some logs, i see the HTTP call is done and the setState() method is called, but the widget does not update.

Answer 1

The best way to do this is to use a FutureBuilder.

From the FutureBuilder documentation:

new FutureBuilder<String>(
  future: _calculation, // a Future<String> or null
  builder: (BuildContext context, AsyncSnapshot<String> snapshot) {
    switch (snapshot.connectionState) {
      case ConnectionState.none: return new Text('Press button to start');
      case ConnectionState.waiting: return new Text('Awaiting result...');
      default:
        if (snapshot.hasError)
          return new Text('Error: ${snapshot.error}');
        else
          return new Text('Result: ${snapshot.data}');
    }
  },
)

The other thing is that you're building your widget outside of the State.build method and saving the widget itself, which is an anti-pattern. You should be actually building the widgets each time in the build method.

You could get this to work without FutureBuilder, but you should save the result of the http call (processed appropriately) and then use the data within your build function.

See this, but note that using a FutureBuilder is a better way to do this and I'm just providing this for you to learn.

import 'dart:async';
import 'dart:convert';

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(new MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  // This widget is the root of your application.
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return new MaterialApp(
      title: 'Flutter demo',
      theme: new ThemeData(
        primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
      ),
      home: new MyHomePage(title: 'async demo'),
    );
  }
}

class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget {
  MyHomePage({Key key, this.title}) : super(key: key);

  final String title;

  @override
  _MyHomePageState createState() => new _MyHomePageState();
}

class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
  List data;

  @override
  initState() {
    super.initState();

    new Future<String>.delayed(new Duration(seconds: 5), () => '["123", "456", "789"]').then((String value) {
      setState(() {
        data = json.decode(value);
      });
    });
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    if (data == null) {
      return new Scaffold(
        appBar: new AppBar(
          title: new Text("Loading..."),
        ),
      );
    } else {
      return new Scaffold(
        appBar: new AppBar(
          title: new Text(widget.title),
        ),
        body: new Center(
          child: new ListView(
            children: data
                .map((data) => new ListTile(
                      title: new Text("one element"),
                      subtitle: new Text(data),
                    ))
                .toList(),
          ),
        ),
      );
    }
  }
}