Fetching data from the internet is necessary for most apps. Luckily, Dart and Flutter provide tools for this type of work!
Directions
Add the http package
Make a network request using the http package
Convert the response into a custom Dart object
Fetch and Display the data with Flutter
1. Add the http package
The http package provides the simplest way to fetch data from the internet.
To install the http package, we need to add it to the dependencies section of our pubspec.yaml. We can find the latest version of the http package on the pub website.
4. Fetch and Display the data
In order to fetch the data and display it on screen, we can use the FutureBuilder widget! The FutureBuilder Widget comes with Flutter and makes it easy to work with async data sources.
We must provide two parameters:
The Future we want to work with. In our case, we’ll call our fetchPost() function.
A builder function that tells Flutter what to render, depending on the state of the Future: loading, success, or error.
dependencies: http: <latest_version>2. Make a network request In this example, we’ll fetch a sample post from the JSONPlaceholder REST API using the http.get method.
Future<http.response> fetchPost() { return http.get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1'); }The http.get method returns a Future that contains a Response. Future is a core Dart class for working with async operations. It is used to represent a potential value or error that will be available at some time in the future. The http.Response class contains the data received from a successful http call.
3. Convert the response into a custom Dart object
While it’s easy to make a network request, working with a raw Future isn’t very convenient. To make our lives easier, we can convert the http.Response into our own Dart object.
Create a Post class
First, we’ll need to create a Post class that contains the data from our network request. It will also include a factory constructor that allows us to create a Post from json.
Converting JSON by hand is only one option. For more information, please see the full article on JSON and serialization.
. To do so, we’ll need to:
Convert the response body into a json Map with the dart:convert package.
If the server returns an “OK” response with a status code of 200, convert the json Map into a Post using the fromJson factory.
If the server returns an unexpected response, throw an error
class Post { final int userId; final int id; final String title; final String body; Post({this.userId, this.id, this.title, this.body}); factory Post.fromJson(Map<string, dynamic=""> json) { return Post( userId: json['userId'], id: json['id'], title: json['title'], body: json['body'], ); } }Convert the http.Response to a Post Now, we’ll update the fetchPost function to return a Future
Future<post> fetchPost() async { final response = await http.get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1'); if (response.statusCode == 200) { // If server returns an OK response, parse the JSON return Post.fromJson(json.decode(response.body)); } else { // If that response was not OK, throw an error. throw Exception('Failed to load post'); } }Hooray! Now we’ve got a function that we can call to fetch a Post from the internet!
FutureBuilder<post>( future: fetchPost(), builder: (context, snapshot) { if (snapshot.hasData) { return Text(snapshot.data.title); } else if (snapshot.hasError) { return Text("${snapshot.error}"); } // By default, show a loading spinner return CircularProgressIndicator(); }, );Testing For information on how to test this functionality, please see the following recipes: Introduction to unit testing Mock dependencies using Mockito Complete example
import 'dart:async';Source: https://flutter.io/cookbook/networking/fetch-data/import 'dart:async'; import 'dart:convert'; import 'package:flutter/material.dart'; import 'package:http/http.dart' as http; Future<Post> fetchPost() async { final response = await http.get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1'); if (response.statusCode == 200) { // If the call to the server was successful, parse the JSON return Post.fromJson(json.decode(response.body)); } else { // If that call was not successful, throw an error. throw Exception('Failed to load post'); } } class Post { final int userId; final int id; final String title; final String body; Post({this.userId, this.id, this.title, this.body}); factory Post.fromJson(Map<String, dynamic> json) { return Post( userId: json['userId'], id: json['id'], title: json['title'], body: json['body'], ); } } void main() => runApp(MyApp()); class MyApp extends StatelessWidget { @override Widget build(BuildContext context) { return MaterialApp( title: 'Fetch Data Example', theme: ThemeData( primarySwatch: Colors.blue, ), home: Scaffold( appBar: AppBar( title: Text('Fetch Data Example'), ), body: Center( child: FutureBuilder<Post>( future: fetchPost(), builder: (context, snapshot) { if (snapshot.hasData) { return Text(snapshot.data.title); } else if (snapshot.hasError) { return Text("${snapshot.error}"); } // By default, show a loading spinner return CircularProgressIndicator(); }, ), ), ), ); } }