Beacon class Hints

A pulsing dot that draws the eye, and opens a hint when tapped.

The quiet alternative to a tour: leave one next to a feature people keep missing, and let them find it in their own time.

Beacon(
  message: 'Long-press a shift to duplicate it',
  child: const Icon(Icons.calendar_month),
)

With no child the beacon is just the dot, which is what you want when it sits in a Stack over something else. With a child, the dot is positioned at alignment over it.

The pulse stops under MediaQueryData.disableAnimations, and the dot carries a semantic label so it is not an invisible affordance to a screen reader.

Testing

A pulsing beacon always has a frame scheduled, so tester.pumpAndSettle() on a page containing one never returns. Either pass autoStart: false in widget tests, or pump a fixed number of frames:

await tester.pump(const Duration(milliseconds: 300));

Inheritance

Constructors

Beacon({String? message, String? title, HintContentBuilder? contentBuilder, Widget? child, Color? color, double size = 10, AlignmentGeometry alignment = Alignment.topRight, Duration period = const Duration(milliseconds: 1800), bool autoStart = true, int? pulseCount, HintDirection direction = HintDirection.auto, HintThemeData? theme, bool interactive = false, String semanticsLabel = 'More information', VoidCallback? onShow, VoidCallback? onDismiss, Key? key}): Creates a beacon.
const

Properties

alignment → AlignmentGeometry: Where the dot sits over child.
final
autoStart → bool: Whether the pulse runs on its own.
final
child → Widget?: The widget the dot is placed over.
final
color → Color?: The dot's colour. Defaults to the theme's background colour, which is the same colour the bubble it opens will be.
final
contentBuilder → HintContentBuilder?: Rich content for the hint the beacon opens.
final
direction → HintDirection: Which side the hint prefers.
final
hashCode → int: The hash code for this object.
no setterinherited
interactive → bool: Whether the hint's bubble may contain interactive content.
final
key → Key?: Controls how one widget replaces another widget in the tree.
finalinherited
message → String?: Body text of the hint the beacon opens.
final
onDismiss → VoidCallback?: Called when the hint closes.
final
onShow → VoidCallback?: Called when the hint opens.
final
period → Duration: How long one pulse takes.
final
pulseCount → int?: How many times to pulse before settling into a static dot.
final
runtimeType → Type: A representation of the runtime type of the object.
no setterinherited
semanticsLabel → String: Screen-reader label for the dot.
final
size → double: Diameter of the solid dot. The ring grows to twice this.
final
theme → HintThemeData?: Visual overrides for the hint and the dot.
final
title → String?: Title of the hint the beacon opens.
final

Methods

createElement() → StatefulElement: Creates a StatefulElement to manage this widget's location in the tree.
inherited
createState() → State<Beacon>: Creates the mutable state for this widget at a given location in the tree.
override
debugDescribeChildren() → List<DiagnosticsNode>: Returns a list of DiagnosticsNode objects describing this node's children.
inherited
debugFillProperties(DiagnosticPropertiesBuilder properties) → void: Add additional properties associated with the node.
inherited
noSuchMethod(Invocation invocation) → dynamic: Invoked when a nonexistent method or property is accessed.
inherited
toDiagnosticsNode({String? name, DiagnosticsTreeStyle? style}) → DiagnosticsNode: Returns a debug representation of the object that is used by debugging tools and by DiagnosticsNode.toStringDeep.
inherited
toString({DiagnosticLevel minLevel = DiagnosticLevel.info}) → String: A string representation of this object.
inherited
toStringDeep({String prefixLineOne = '', String? prefixOtherLines, DiagnosticLevel minLevel = DiagnosticLevel.debug, int wrapWidth = 65}) → String: Returns a string representation of this node and its descendants.
inherited
toStringShallow({String joiner = ', ', DiagnosticLevel minLevel = DiagnosticLevel.debug}) → String: Returns a one-line detailed description of the object.
inherited
toStringShort() → String: A short, textual description of this widget.
inherited

Operators

operator ==(Object other) → bool: The equality operator.
inherited