Getting started

Installation

1. To install Solid, run the following command

   dart pub global activate solid_generator

2. Then, add the dependencies needed by running this command in your Flutter project

   flutter pub add solid_annotations flutter_solidart

   flutter_solidart is the state management library used by Solid, but you don’t have to learn how to use it, Solid will generate all the boilerplate code for you.

3. I’d also suggest installing the very_good_analysis package to get amazing linting rules for your Flutter project.

   flutter pub add dev:very_good_analysis

   Then in your analysis_options.yaml file, add the following line

   analysis_options.yaml

   include: package:very_good_analysis/very_good_analysis.yaml

   This is an example of an analysis_options.yaml file

   analysis_options.yaml

   include: package:very_good_analysis/analysis_options.yaml
   analyzer:
     errors:
       must_be_immutable: ignore # Ignore immutability rule, because Solid generates immutable classes but you write mutable ones
   linter:
     rules:
       public_member_api_docs: false # Disable documentation requirement for public members

How it works

The code you write is the source of truth, and Solid generates the boilerplate code needed to make the app working.

There is an important difference between writing normal Flutter code and writing Solid code: In Flutter, the lib folder is the source of truth, while in Solid, the source folder is the source of truth.

Note

The source folder contains the code you write, and Solid generates the lib folder based on it.

You never have to edit the lib folder manually, as it is generated by Solid.

I decided not to use the lib folder directly because I don’t want to touch the original files, but I wanted to keep the same naming and structure, without adding complexity to you like part files or similar.

I wanted to use lib as the input folder, but flutter build doesn’t allow building (as far as I know) an app from a different folder than lib.

In addition, Solid is not a common generator because it transpiles your existing code to an optimized version of it.

Usage

Usage: solid [options]

-s, --source          Source directory to read from
                      (defaults to "source")
-o, --output          Output directory to write to
                      (defaults to "lib")
-w, --[no-]watch      Watch for file changes and auto-regenerate
-c, --[no-]clean      Deletes the build cache. The next build will be a full build.
-v, --[no-]verbose    Verbose output
-h, --[no-]help       Show this help message

Examples:
  solid                    # Basic transpilation
  solid --watch            # Watch mode
  solid --clean --verbose  # Clean build with verbose output

The next chapters expect that you have setup Solid in your Flutter project, created the source folder and started the command with solid --watch to auto-generate the lib folder on file changes.