Ever since Google launched the first stable edition of Flutter 1.0 in December 2018, it has been admired for creating stunning and functional apps, ensuring smooth performance. The fascinating features and characteristics of Flutter have easily convinced many product owners to experiment with app development using Flutter. Initially, Flutter was focusing only on developing cross-platform mobile apps for iOS and Android. However, desktop and web applications were always there in their strategy. 

Ahead of Flutter for web development was launched, the codename of this project was HummingBird. The same became available as Flutter for the Web preview version on 7th May 2019. And since then, almost every Android app development company has been using it to develop highly engaging, graphic-rich, and interactive apps.

This article will help understand Flutter’s architecture. It will thoroughly guide you with the prerequisites required to develop an application and how you can develop a robust Flutter application. So, let’s start this discussion.

Flutter - Overview

As Google’s brainchild, Flutter leverages comprehensive support in developing highly responsive, intuitive yet incredible web applications. Flutter for the web provides 100 Percent code compatibility for the standard web technologies like JavaScript, CSS, and HTML.

Being an open-source UI software, Flutter offers excellent support in developing stunning applications. Famous brands like The New York Times, eBay, and Alibaba have already reaped enormous benefits from using this comprehensive framework.

With Flutter, everything is written in Google’s in-house programming language, Dart. Flutter mobile app code is reusable, so you can deploy it to web servers with help of an Android apps development company without using the browser plugins.

Flutter Application Development Architecture

Flutter’s architecture for web applications is quite distinct from that of mobile applications. However, the application will look entirely natural on the web. This framework uses various tools to render browser support. The initial layer of Flutter for web architecture has built-in themes and widgets.

Product owners can choose from two rendering engines

• CanvasKit;
• DomCanvas.

In Flutter for web, you will get a Flutter web engine that helps generate Dart code that can be transformed into CSS and HTML using widgets. Further, the JavaScript code, the Dart2 compiler, is deployed on the browsers.

Some of the key takeaways for responsive web development with Flutter

• The API for web and mobile applications is quite similar; only some features will not be available for the web version.
• The default interactions are evolving as the Flutter for the web is growing gradually. Hence, a web page built with Flutter for the web may provide a feel like a mobile app rather than a web application.
• Flutter treats the complete screen as a canvas over which it excels all the HTML elements and takes control over it.

Now that you have a clear frame of how Flutter for web works, let’s start with Flutter for web application development.

Prerequisites to Develop Flutter App

To build an application with Flutter for the web, you need the following:

• Flutter open-source application development kit. You can find all the installation directives here.
• Chrome browser for debugging the web application.
• An IDE that supports the Flutter web application is also required. There are various IDE options available to choose from. You can install Android Studio IntelliJ, IDEA, Visual Studio Code, and install dart plugins and Flutter to enable language support and tools to run, reload, debug, and refactor the web application using an editor.

Instructions to Develop and Run Your Web Application Using Flutter

Let’s build a new web application project with Flutter web support.

Setup

To set up Flutter Webview, you have to install Flutter version 1.5.4 or higher and Dart 2.3 for the smooth development process. Now type and run the following commands to get started.

The Flutter channel beta

Flutter upgrade

Flutter config --enable-web

To acquire the development tools for Futter for the web, use the following command.

Flutter packages pub global activate webdev

After this, you can restart the IDE. Now you can see the webserver and Chrome in the device pulldown.

Develop and Run

Developing a new flutter application with web support is like developing a new flutter project for other platforms.

Once you have configured your IDE for web support, you can develop a web app either from the command-line interface or in IDE.

Command Line

To build a new application that also has web support and mobile support. You have to run the following commands with your project name instead of “myapp”.

Flutter create y-app

cd myapp

Enter the following command from the topmost section of your package to serve your application from the localhost in Chrome:

Flutter run -d chrome

This command will release the app using a development compiler in Chrome.

The launch build will make use of dart2js rather than the development compiler to produce the main JavaScript file, main.dart.js. You can develop a launch build either by using Flutter development web or by using the release mode.

Adding Web Support to an Existing App

In case you have already developed a project and want to extend it by adding the web support using the command: Flutter create

You can get a thorough understanding of the project structure once you start using Flutter for web development. The list of project components will be:

• Dart_tool directory;
• Web directory;
• Lib_directory;
• Other essential files.

Wrapping Up

We hope this guide helped you develop your first demo web application with Flutter for the web. Flutter for the web is a comprehensive yet intuitive tool for every new product owner seeking to provide a standout experience.