flutter_best_practices

✅ Best Practices

DO's

• ✅ Use Result for all operations that can fail.
• ✅ Wrap async operations in Commands to handle loading/error states.
• ✅ Keep views simple; delegate logic to ViewModels.
• ✅ Use private fields with public getters in ViewModels to protect state.
• ✅ Call notifyListeners() after state changes in ViewModels.
• ✅ Handle all error cases explicitly (e.g., using switch on Result).
• ✅ Use const constructors for widgets and models where possible.
• ✅ Dispose ViewModels and streams when no longer needed.
• ✅ Use Code Generation for models (freezed) and serialization (json_serializable) to reduce boilerplate and ensure type safety.

DON'Ts

• ❌ Don't put business logic in views.
• ❌ Don't call repositories directly from views; go through the ViewModel.
• ❌ Don't import UI code in ViewModels (no flutter/material.dart unless absolutely necessary for non-UI types, but generally avoid).
• ❌ Don't throw exceptions in repositories; return Result.error instead.
• ❌ Don't forget to handle loading states in the UI.
• ❌ Don't use StatefulWidget if the state can be managed by the ViewModel (unless it's purely ephemeral UI state like animation controllers).
• ❌ Don't create ViewModels inside build method.

💡 Tips for Success

1. Start Simple: Don't over-engineer.
2. Be Consistent: Stick to the patterns (Command, Result, MVVM).
3. Write Tests: Catch violations early.
4. Refactor Incrementally: Don't try to fix everything at once.
5. Focus on Value: Architecture supports the product.

🔄 Migration Guide (Summary)

1. Extract Data Layer: Create repositories, move API calls there.
2. Implement Patterns: Add Command/Result patterns.
3. Refine ViewModels: Move logic from Views to ViewModels.
4. Clean Up Models: Separate Domain vs Data (DTO) models.
5. Add Tests: Verify behavior.