This is the code repository for Flutter for Beginners, Fourth Edition, published by Packt.
Thomas Bailey, Alessandro Biessek
The Fourth edition of Flutter for Beginners is fully updated for the latest Flutter and Dart releases, ready to guide you from taking your first steps in Flutter to publishing your first cross-platform app. Designed for new developers and those transitioning from other technologies, this practical guide shows you how to build, test, and release high-quality mobile apps for iOS, Android, and the web.
With a project-based approach, this book will help you master the fundamentals of Dart and Flutter’s widget-driven architecture while building a complete app from scratch. Each chapter builds on the last with step-by-step explanations that will teach you how to design beautiful interfaces, manage state, handle navigation and user input, and add animations that bring your UI to life.
You’ll explore popular third-party plugins such as Firebase and Google Maps, learn to debug and test your code effectively, and prepare your app for release on multiple platforms.
By the end of this book, you’ll have the hands-on experience and confidence to design, build, and publish your own Flutter apps using the latest best practices.
- Explore Flutter core concepts and use for cross-platform development
- Gain a solid understanding of the fundamentals of Dart
- Work with Flutter widgets and learn about stateful/stateless widgets
- Take on advanced fundamentals such as navigation and state management
- Add animation using animated widgets and advanced animation techniques
- Manage the entire development lifecycle, including testing and debugging
- Release your app to both mobile stores and the web
- What is Flutter and why should I use it?
- An Introduction to Dart
- Flutter versus Other Frameworks
- Dart Classes and Constructs
- Building your user interface through Widgets
- Handling User Input and Gestures
- Let's Get Graphical
- Routing – Navigating between Screens
- Maintaining application state
- Flutter plugins - Get great functionality for free!
- Popular Third-Party Plugins
- Using Widget Manipulations and Animations
- Testing and Debugging
- Releasing Your App to the World
- Appendix - AI Tooling and Vibe Coding
All of the code is organized into sub-folders within either the lib or test top-level folders. For example, Chapter01.
The code will look like the following:
void main() {
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
print('hello ${i + 1}');
}
}
To run the code you will need to specify which chapter you wish to run, and which main method to run within the chapter, because the code is split by chapter and, in some chapters, there are multiple files with main methods within them.
Use the following command with the correct chapter number and main file name:
flutter run -t lib/Chapter01/main.dart
To get started, all you need is to have access to a browser so you can use the DartPad website and play with Dart code. However, to develop a full Flutter app, you will need an **integrated development environment** (**IDE**) such as Android Studio or Visual Studio Code. To professionally develop and publish iOS apps, you will need a developer license (paid annually), a Mac, and at least one physical iOS device to test your applications. Similarly, for Android, you will need a developer license (one-off payment), but you can use any major operating system. All this is not strictly necessary for the purpose of learning Flutter, but if you aim to release an app at some point, then you will need to bear these requirements in mind. The entire installation process and the requirements of the Flutter environment are available on the official Flutter website (https://flutter.dev/docs/get-started/install), but do not worry: you can start with the bare minimum and install any extras only when necessary.
Thomas Bailey has an extensive background in tech, working for high-profile companies as a senior developer, solutions architect, and CTO. His education start-up used Flutter as the sole technology powering its education apps, and the 2025 National Technology Award (NTA) winning Vyne prescription service is built on Flutter. He has enjoyed watching Flutter move from beta to the fully-fledged and highly popular framework we see today. He loves to talk tech over a hot chocolate with anyone who will listen and is constantly exploring the cutting edge of tech and how it will shape our industry in the future.
Alessandro Biessek was born in the beautiful city of Chapecó, in the state of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil, in 1993. He is currently working on mobile application development for Android and iOS in his hometown. He has more than 9 years of experience in development, from desktop development with Delphi to backend with PHP, Node.js, Golang, mobile development with Apache Flex, and Java/Kotlin. Most of his time is devoted to the development of Android apps. Always interested in new technologies, he has been following the Flutter framework for a long time, through its growth and adoption in recent months.