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Launch HN: FlutterFlow (YC W21) – Build Apps Visually

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Re: Launch HN: FlutterFlow (YC W21) – Build Apps Visually

#31

Post by vanillax »

abelsm wrote: post #22
farmin wrote: post #18

I want visual basic style UI builder for flutter but still want to code the business logic. Is that what this can do?

There are 3 ways you can use custom code for business logic: - Custom Functions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbNtmue0ZZo - Custom Widgets: https://community.flutterflow.io/c/whats-new-in-flutterflow/... - Custom Actions: https://community.flutterflow.io/c/whats-new-in-flutterflow/... The reason there are 3 different kinds of custom code is so that it can easily integrate with the visual builder ... for instance a…

I tried using the custom widget, they dont work. I kept getting errors using and there's no helpful tool tips or any messaging why it doesnt work. Providing boilder plate/sample custom widget code would be helpful.

Re: Launch HN: FlutterFlow (YC W21) – Build Apps Visually

#32

Post by sprite »

cweagans wrote: post #16
xrd wrote: post #3

This looks super exciting. As an Android developer who has not yet built a Flutter app, I'm intrigued if this can be a stepping stone to ramping up on flutter. I looked over the video. It is nice to see a compressed video, but it was still hard to understand what to pay attention to inside a 20 minute video. It would be great if you added callouts to the important moments so people could easily jump to the important…

Highly recommend the appbrewery flutter bootcamp (it’s a video course). It’s $10 and will get you up and running quickly. I have no affiliation with them other than as a happy customer.

I took the Appbrewery course and it seemed extremely basic and also not updated for latest Flutter versions. I found the free Flutter Apprentice on Ray Wenderlich site much better.

Re: Launch HN: FlutterFlow (YC W21) – Build Apps Visually

#33

Post by cweagans »

jmnicolas wrote: post #24
cweagans wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Highly recommend the appbrewery flutter bootcamp (it’s a video course). It’s $10 and will get you up and running quickly. I have no affiliation with them other than as a happy customer.

I took it last year, the woman has a mesmerizing voice! (and the course is great too :D) If you're an experienced software dev it's a bit basic. I like Flutter a lot, but I'm not a fan of Dart. It's a false friend, it makes you believe it's simple and mostly a copy of your favorite language, but once you start to dig a little deeper it feels like something bolted on, hacky, not designed. I come from the .net world wh…

Huh. I really enjoy Dart and found a lot of it very elegant. What about it did you not like?

Re: Launch HN: FlutterFlow (YC W21) – Build Apps Visually

#34

Post by abelsm »

cweagans wrote: post #33
jmnicolas wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took it last year, the woman has a mesmerizing voice! (and the course is great too :D) If you're an experienced software dev it's a bit basic. I like Flutter a lot, but I'm not a fan of Dart. It's a false friend, it makes you believe it's simple and mostly a copy of your favorite language, but once you start to dig a little deeper it feels like something bolted on, hacky, not designed. I come from the .net world wh…

Huh. I really enjoy Dart and found a lot of it very elegant. What about it did you not like?

yes, we've been writing a lot of Dart over the last couple of years and also enjoy it quite a lot. interested in hearing what issues GP faced.

Re: Launch HN: FlutterFlow (YC W21) – Build Apps Visually

#35

Post by abelsm »

vanillax wrote: post #31
abelsm wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are 3 ways you can use custom code for business logic: - Custom Functions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbNtmue0ZZo - Custom Widgets: https://community.flutterflow.io/c/whats-new-in-flutterflow/... - Custom Actions: https://community.flutterflow.io/c/whats-new-in-flutterflow/... The reason there are 3 different kinds of custom code is so that it can easily integrate with the visual builder ... for instance a…

I tried using the custom widget, they dont work. I kept getting errors using and there's no helpful tool tips or any messaging why it doesnt work. Providing boilder plate/sample custom widget code would be helpful.

There were a lot of issues with custom widgets when we first launched the feature, we've deployed several fixes since then. But there's still more to do on our end to make it clear what errors you're getting. Thanks for the suggestion!

Re: Launch HN: FlutterFlow (YC W21) – Build Apps Visually

#36

Post by asgreaves »

vanillax wrote: post #30

I've been trying to use this product for a personal app I'm making. its really good until its not. There needs to be better controls for mock data in listviews, I don't want to hook up to API in the tool, I have my own data, but I need the listview to aleast pretend theres data there. Also the lack of positioned widgets in conjunction with stack views makes it hard to transfer the flutterflow experience to the actual…

Hey! Thanks so much for the feedback.

You're right that there's currently no way to simulate the mock data view without actually adding a Firestore query or API call. That's a useful suggestion.

For the positioned issue, you can set the alignment of items in a Stack (same as the Align widget in Flutter). In our experience this tends to cover the vast majority of cases, however you're right that we don't currently support the Positioned widget! (For absolute positioning in pixels). And in general there are plenty of other widgets we still want to support. We're adding more and more widgets every week so we can deliver as much of the power of Flutter to folks.

Re: Launch HN: FlutterFlow (YC W21) – Build Apps Visually

#37

Post by quadcore »

quadcore wrote: post #23

Congrats on the launch. Ive switched from webflow to flutter for the website Im building (for my startup project). Flutter is awesome (though I still "wonder what the result is gonna be" but way less than with css) and I believe youre betting on a great horse. I dont know if youve noticed but when you browse a flutter website with chrome on a desktop computer, it offers you to install the app natively! Like you said:…

I've taken a look at the generated code very quickly. You're using a lot of paddings in columns for example where I would use a SizedBox with no child in between the elements. Or even better, expandables. It makes for less nested elements, plus padding used like that feels like a translation of css to flutter. I rarely need padding but maybe its just me. Also you may have a good reason for doing so.

Also I think the standard is to prefix class members with a _ - although I dont like that since it hinders readability (maybe you dont like it either and want to instore your own standard)

I would definitely work at having the fewest levels of nested elements as possible as its a main thing that average prog dont like in flutter. Also eliminate the need to hardcode sizes whenever possible (expandables, percentages - using layoutbuilder is the example of top of my head, etc)

Re: Launch HN: FlutterFlow (YC W21) – Build Apps Visually

#38

Post by quadcore »

vanillax wrote: post #30

I've been trying to use this product for a personal app I'm making. its really good until its not. There needs to be better controls for mock data in listviews, I don't want to hook up to API in the tool, I have my own data, but I need the listview to aleast pretend theres data there. Also the lack of positioned widgets in conjunction with stack views makes it hard to transfer the flutterflow experience to the actual…

What happens if I want anchor a view to the bottom of the screen in a stack?

You can use Align for that.

Re: Launch HN: FlutterFlow (YC W21) – Build Apps Visually

#39

Post by abelsm »

quadcore wrote: post #37
quadcore wrote: post #23

Congrats on the launch. Ive switched from webflow to flutter for the website Im building (for my startup project). Flutter is awesome (though I still "wonder what the result is gonna be" but way less than with css) and I believe youre betting on a great horse. I dont know if youve noticed but when you browse a flutter website with chrome on a desktop computer, it offers you to install the app natively! Like you said:…

I've taken a look at the generated code very quickly. You're using a lot of paddings in columns for example where I would use a SizedBox with no child in between the elements. Or even better, expandables. It makes for less nested elements, plus padding used like that feels like a translation of css to flutter. I rarely need padding but maybe its just me. Also you may have a good reason for doing so. Also I think the…

Thanks for the suggestions! Yes, there's definitely room for improvement with the generated code ... I think the padding -> SizedBox conversion at least in some cases (only when main-axis padding is added) can be automated. We can experiment with code improvement features such as that and see how it works.

Expanded + Percentages for widths are possible already

Re: Launch HN: FlutterFlow (YC W21) – Build Apps Visually

#40

Post by swyx »

congrats Alex and Abel! was wowed when I first checked you guys out coming out of YC, and have been absolutely nothing but impressed by your product momentum and marketing capability throughout 2021. Really excited for you and going to try building along to see whats new!
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