Equivalent of viewWillAppear() in Flutter

Issue

I'm rebuilding an iOS app using Flutter and the flow is as followed: Everytime the user lands on the homepage, the user data is reloaded from the backend to check if anything has changed.

The way I achieve this in Swift / iOS is by using the viewDidLoad() function.

My Flutter code is like this:

class HomePage extends StatefulWidget {
  @override
  _HomePageState createState() => _HomePageState();
}

class _HomePageState extends State<HomePage> {
  User user = User();

  @override
  void dispose() {
    super.dispose();
  }

  @override
  void initState() {
    super.initState();
    _fetchData(context);
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Container(
        color: RColor.COLOR_main,
        child: Column(
          children: [
            Container(
              height: MediaQuery.of(context).size.height / 7,
              width: MediaQuery.of(context).size.width,
              padding: EdgeInsets.all(20),
              child: Container(
                child: Text("This is the homepage"),
                alignment: Alignment.bottomCenter,
              ),
            ),
          ],
        ));
  }

  Future _fetchData(BuildContext context) async {
    _fetchUserAPI(context);
  }

  Future _fetchUserAPI(BuildContext context) async {
    try {
      SharedPreferences prefs = await SharedPreferences.getInstance();
      var accessToken = prefs.getString("access_token");
      var url = RConstants.API_BASE_URL + "/v1/users/self";
      Response response = await Dio()
          .get(url, options: Options(headers: {"Authorization": accessToken}));
      setState(() {
        user = User.fromJson(response.data);
      });
    } catch (e) {
      print(e.toString());
      Alert(
              context: context,
              title: "Something Went Wrong",
              desc: "Something went wrong while fetching your user data",
              type: AlertType.error)
          .show();
    }
  }
}

void initState() however, doesn't get triggered each time the user lands on the homepage. What is the correct way to achieve this?

Solution

Well, it really depends on what exactly you mean by "Everytime the user lands on the homepage".

If user navigates from the HomePage to some other view via Navigator.push and then goes back via Navigator.pop then the HomePage's state remain the same and of course the initState method does not trigger.

If you want to get notified on the HomePage if the route above it in the navigator gets popped then you need to use this method, override it and then inside it you will be able to call the _fetchData() and update the homepage's state.

One more thing: when you have some async call like _fetchData() it is a wrong pattern to just invoke it inside the initState() or any other framework methods. Because it will be invoked and the build() method of your state will almost always be invoked immediately before the result of async call will come back. The correct way to handle such situations is to use the FutureBuilder widget.

If "Everytime the user lands on the homepage" means something else, like e.g. the app was in the background and gets brought foreground or when there is support for push notifications implemented and users click on the notification and the app is opened - such cases also can be handled but that is a broader topic.

Answered By - Alexander Arendar