progressive_ui

A Flutter package for priority-based responsive layouts, focused on making adaptive layouts that react predictably to available space.

Instead of resizing or wrapping widgets, progressive_ui shows and hides groups of widgets in a defined order, based on what fully fits.

AdaptiveRow demo

Table of Contents

Motivation

Flutter provides powerful layout primitives, but handling progressive disclosure of UI elements (toolbars, actions, filters) often leads to:

  • complex breakpoint logic
  • manual Visibility or if trees
  • layouts that partially render important UI

progressive_ui aims to solve this by offering deterministic, size-aware layouts that behave the same way regardless of platform or screen size.

Core Idea

Children are assigned a non-negative order.

  • Widgets with the same order form a group
  • Groups are evaluated from lowest to highest order
  • A group is rendered only if all its widgets fit
  • If a group does not fit, it and all higher orders are skipped

This guarantees:

  • no partial UI
  • no skipped priorities
  • no visual instability

Installation

dependencies:
  progressive_ui: ^<latest-version>

Usage

AdaptiveRow(
  spacing: 8,
  children: const [
    AdaptiveChild(
      order: 0,
      child: Text('Required'),
    ),
    AdaptiveChild(
      order: 1,
      child: Icon(Icons.download),
    ),
    AdaptiveChild(
      order: 2,
      child: Text('Optional'),
    ),
  ],
)

As available space decreases, widgets disappear group by group, never individually.

Grouping Behavior

Multiple widgets may share the same order.

AdaptiveRow(
  children: const [
    AdaptiveChild(order: 0, child: Text('A')),
    AdaptiveChild(order: 0, child: Text('B')),
    AdaptiveChild(order: 1, child: Icon(Icons.settings)),
    AdaptiveChild(order: 1, child: Icon(Icons.share)),
  ],
)

If order 1 does not fit, both icons are hidden together.

This makes the layout ideal for:

  • toolbars
  • admin interfaces
  • dense data UIs
  • desktop and web applications

Example

An example application is available in the example/ directory. It demonstrates:

  • resizing behavior
  • order-based visibility (0, 1, 2, 3)
  • multiple widgets per order group
  • strict priority enforcement

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. If you plan to add new widgets, behaviors, or API changes:

  • open an issue first
  • include tests
  • keep APIs minimal and predictable

Libraries

progressive_ui