This week in Flutter #7
Tags: flutter, dart, news
Published: 2021-06-12 07:47:46

This week I attended the [Flutter Netherlands](<https://flutternl.org/#/>) meetup. At this online event, we discussed the **announcements** from the recent **Google I/O**, and met a **special guest**: [Chris Sells](<https://medium.com/@csells_18027>). We were able to ask him questions and see how good he is in avoid answering some of them 😅.

Key points from the event:

1. The time between filing an issue in the Flutter repository and closing it (either by fixing or because it is not actionable) has been decreased by 80%. This has been possible by using **Firebase testing** and by keeping **continuous integration** up and running. If CI works well and is reliable, the fix can be delivered faster.
2. Chris is proud that Flutter runs at the **speed** that the device allows, like a **native app**, and that the developers express joy with the features available for Flutter, like hot reload and the dev tools. They work a lot on making such features discoverable and easy to use.
3. Flutter is used by more than 30 teams in Google, with more than a million lines of code. **These teams depend on Flutter**. It is impossible to stop it now. Do not expect to find Flutter in the [Google graveyard](<https://killedbygoogle.com>) soon.

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On another note, the WWDC did not introduce many interesting new features, at least from a Flutter developer point of view. I am happy to see `async await` in Swift, but my hope for being able to use the iPad as a full development machine is lost. 😕

<small>- Michele Volpato</small>

## 🧑‍💻 Development

### [Flutter Crash Course](<https://robertbrunhage.com/videos/flutter-crash-course-2021>)

[Robert Brunhage](<https://robertbrunhage.com/>) published a 30 minutes video where he shows how to create a simple net worth tracker app. A very good resource if you are** just starting** with Flutter.

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### Integration testing in Flutter

Recently, the `integration_test` package was promoted in the Flutter SDK. In two different articles, [Shawn Blais](<https://blog.gskinner.com/archives/2021/06/flutter-a-deep-dive-into-integration_test-library.html>) and [Darshan Kawar](<https://medium.com/flutter-community/writing-ui-teststester-using-integration-test-package-for-flutter-web-77b6a7f37897>) tell us why we should use it and how to use it. You should really try, there is something magical in seeing your **UI being used by the automated tests**.

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### [Flutter localization done right](<https://medium.com/flutter-community/flutter-localization-done-right-cddebbc49405>)

[Jimmy Aumard](<http://jaumard.com>) introduces and explains his Flutter package, [intl\_flavors](<https://pub.dev/packages/intl_flavors>). It allows you to **easily integrate different translations** for **different flavors** of your Flutter app. I am not a big fan of flavors, but until Flutter adds support for them, for some cases they are unavoidable. The next time I cannot avoid them, I will use give this package a try.

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### [Simplify your Flutter app with Provider](<https://dev.to/carlmobiledev/simplify-your-flutter-app-with-provider-2dkd>)

[Carl Wills](<https://github.com/carlMobileDev>) wrote an introductory article to state management and [Provider](<https://pub.dev/packages/provider>). There are already plenty of articles out there about Provider, but I always welcome **well-written** articles for beginners, such as this one.

## 🗄 Backend

### [The @platform: a Firebase alternative](<https://mullr.dev/2021/03/27/the-platform-a-firebase-alternative/>)

[Joe Muller](<https://twitter.com/Mullr33>) **experimented with @protocol**. He started from the challenge of implementing **end-to-end encryption** in a social media app built on top of Firebase. The [@protocol](<https://atsign.dev/index.html>) is based on a unique digital identifier, the @sign, which lets you choose what data you want to share, with whom, and for how long. It reminds me (a lot) of the [**Solid web project**](<https://solidproject.org>). I think the technology is in a very early stage, but I really hope it will improve in the future, **data control and ownership** should be given back to the users.