One of the most important and useful features in any modern app is push notifications. They allow users to be informed about updates, new content or anything else the app developer wants to communicate. In Flutter, the most common way to implement push notifications is through Firebase. In this chapter, we'll cover how to implement push notifications in Flutter with Firebase, as well as exploring consuming APIs and HTTP requests.
28.7.1 What is Firebase?
Firebase is an application development platform developed by Google. It provides a number of tools and services that facilitate application development, including user authentication, real-time database, cloud storage, and of course, push notifications.
28.7.2 Configuring Firebase
Before we can use Firebase in our Flutter app, we need to configure it. First, you need to create a Firebase project in the Firebase console. Next, you need to add Flutter to your Firebase project. This involves generating a configuration file that must be added to your Flutter project. Specific steps may vary depending on whether you are developing for iOS or Android.
28.7.3 Implementing Push Notifications
With Firebase configured, we can start implementing push notifications. First, we need to add the firebase_messaging dependency to our pubspec.yaml file. Next, we need to initialize Firebase Messaging in our application.
To send a push notification, we need to create a new message in the Firebase console. This message can be sent to all users, to a specific segment of users, or to individual users. The message can contain a title, body text, and optionally, a sound and/or an image.
When a push notification is received, it can be handled in different ways depending on the state of the application. If the app is in the foreground, the notification may appear immediately. If the app is in the background, the notification may be displayed in the system notification tray. And if the app is closed, the notification can be displayed when the user opens the app.
28.7.4 Consumption of APIs and HTTP Requests
In addition to push notifications, many apps also need to consume APIs and make HTTP requests. In Flutter, this can be done using the http package.
To make an HTTP request, we first need to add the http dependency to our pubspec.yaml file. Then we can use the http.get() function to make a GET request, or the http.post() function to make a POST request.
When we make an HTTP request, we normally expect to receive a response. This response could be a simple success status, or it could contain data that we need to use in our application. To handle the response, we can use the http.Response function.
Consuming an API is similar to making an HTTP request, but usually involves sending and/or receiving data in JSON format. To handle JSON data, we can use the dart:convert package, which provides functions to convert between JSON and Dart data types.
In short, push notifications are an essential part of many modern apps, and Firebase makes it relatively easy to implement them in Flutter. Furthermore, consuming APIs and HTTP requests are a fundamental part of most applications, and Flutter provides powerful tools to deal with them.
