rx_bloc_generator 0.0.1

Code generator for rx_bloc that makes your BloC zero-boilerplate.

Code generator for rx_bloc that makes your BloC zero-boilerplate.

How this package can help you.

Often to make your code-base consistent you need to stick to some conventions, which sometimes leads to boilerplate.

In computer programming, boilerplate is the term used to describe sections of code that have to be included in many places with little or no alteration. It is more often used when referring to languages that are considered verbose, i.e. the programmer must write a lot of code to do minimal jobs.

Apparently, rx_bloc is not an exception. As creating new BloC you might need to write some repetitive code to keep BloC's API consistent. This package benefits of possibility to create custom annotations as generates all needed boilerplate code instead of you. Doing so the BloC itself becomes zero-boilerplate as the rest is handled by the generator.

Available annotations

• @RxBloc()
• @RxBlocIgnoreState()
• @RxBlocEvent() TODO

@RxBloc()

In order to get a clue how actually this annotation would help you let's assume you need to show to the user news feed as have the following BloC:

abstract class NewsBlocEvents {
  /// Fetch news
  void fetch();
}

abstract class NewsBlocStates {
  /// Presentable news
  Stream<List<News>> get news;
}

class NewsBloc extends RxBlocBase {
  NewsRepository _newsRepository;

  /// Inject all necessary repositories, which the BloC depends on.
  NewsBloc(this._newsRepository);

  /// Map event/s to the news state
  Stream<List<News>> mapToNewsState() => $fetchEvent 
      .switchMap((_) => _newsRepository.fetch().asResultStream()) // fetch news
      .whereSuccess() // get only success state
      .mapToNews(); // perform some business logic on NewsModel

  ///region inputs - fetch (boilerplate)
  @protected
  final $fetchEvent = PublishSubject<void>();

  @override
  void fetch() => $fetchEvent.add(null);
  ///endregion inputs - fetch (boilerplate)
  
 ///region states - news (boilerplate)
  Stream<List<News>> _newsState;

  @override
  Stream<List<News>> get news => _newsState ??= mapToNewsState();
  ///endregion states - news (boilerplate)
  
  ///region - dispose boilerplate
  @override
  void dispose() {
    $fetchEvent.close();
    super.dispose();
  }
  ///endregion - dispose boilerplate
}

At first look, it might be scary to write so much code just to fetch some news, and that's why this package was created. You need just to add @RxBoc() to NewsBloc and all mentioned above boilerplate regions will be generated in news_bloc.g.dart with the class name $NewsBloc (the sign $ is an indication that it's generated), so your BloC might look like this:

abstract class NewsBlocEvents {
  /// Fetch news
  void fetch();
}

abstract class NewsBlocStates {
  /// Presentable news
  Stream<List<News>> get news;
}

@RxBloc()
class NewsBloc extends $NewsBloc {
  NewsRepository _newsRepository;

  /// Inject all necessary repositories, which the BloC depends on.
  NewsBloc(this._newsRepository);

  /// Map event/s to the news state
  @override
  Stream<List<News>> mapToNewsState() => $fetchEvent 
      .switchMap((_) => _newsRepository.fetch().asResultStream()) // fetch news
      .whereSuccess() // get only success state
      .mapToNews(); // perform some business logic on NewsModel
}

Once you annotate your BloC with @RxBloc() the generator will look for events and states classes inside the file where the BloC resides. By convention they should be named as below but in case you want to name them differently you can specify their names by @RxBloc({this.eventsClassName = "NewsInputs", this.statesClassName = "NewsOutputs"})

• ${blocName}States
• ${blocName}NewsEvents

@RxBlocIgnoreState()

There might be some situations where you would need to define custom state, where all generated boilerplate it would be redundant. For that case just annotate the property of the states class with @RxBlocIgnoreState() and the generator won't generate any boilerplate code for it. A good example of this is errors or loading states as shown here.

FAQ

How I can make the generator working for me ?

• First, add rx_bloc_generator and build_runner to the dev_dependencies in your project.
• Then create your BloC following the mentioned above Conventions
• From the root of your project just execute:
  • flutter packages pub run build_runner build if want to run the generator once.
  • flutter packages pub run build_runner watch if want to the generator to listen for your changes and to generate boilerplate code on the fly.

Where I can see more comprehensive examples?

Just open the example directory of the package or look at the example directory of flutter_rx_bloc.

Problems with the generation?

Make sure you always save your files before running the generator, if that doesn't work you can always try to clean and rebuild.

flutter packages pub run build_runner clean