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Fetch data from the internet

Fetching data from the internet is necessary for most apps. Luckily, Dart and Flutter provide tools for this type of work!

Directions

  1. Add the http package
  2. Make a network request using the http package
  3. Convert the response into a custom Dart object
  4. 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.

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<http.Response> 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.

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 new 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<Post>. To do so, we’ll need to:

  1. Convert the response body into a json Map with the dart:convert package
  2. Convert the json Map into a Post using the fromJson factory.
Future<Post> fetchPost() async {
  final response = await http.get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1');
  final responseJson = json.decode(response.body); 
  
  return new Post.fromJson(responseJson); 
}

Hooray! Now we’ve got a function that we can call to fetch a Post from the internet!

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:

  1. The Future we want to work with. In our case, we’ll call our fetchPost() function.
  2. A builder function that tells Flutter what to render, depending on the state of the Future: loading, success, or error.
new FutureBuilder<Post>(
  future: fetchPost(),
  builder: (context, snapshot) {
    if (snapshot.hasData) {
      return new Text(snapshot.data.title);
    } else if (snapshot.hasError) {
      return new Text("${snapshot.error}");
    }

    // By default, show a loading spinner
    return new CircularProgressIndicator();
  },
);

Complete Example

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');
  final responseJson = json.decode(response.body);

  return new Post.fromJson(responseJson);
}

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 new Post(
      userId: json['userId'],
      id: json['id'],
      title: json['title'],
      body: json['body'],
    );
  }
}

void main() => runApp(new MyApp());

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return new MaterialApp(
      title: 'Fetch Data Example',
      theme: new ThemeData(
        primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
      ),
      home: new Scaffold(
        appBar: new AppBar(
          title: new Text('Fetch Data Example'),
        ),
        body: new Center(
          child: new FutureBuilder<Post>(
            future: fetchPost(),
            builder: (context, snapshot) {
              if (snapshot.hasData) {
                return new Text(snapshot.data.title);
              } else if (snapshot.hasError) {
                return new Text("${snapshot.error}");
              }

              // By default, show a loading spinner
              return new CircularProgressIndicator();
            },
          ),
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}