Introduction to RxDart: Basics for Beginners

Ya’ll must be acquainted with Dart because of Flutter app development. Dart happens to be a popular programming language that developers use to develop out-of-box applications.

RxDart is an extension of Dart but a reactive version of the programming library that uses Dart’s inherent capabilities and expands on them and its in-built streams.

Employing those extended capabilities and principles of Reactive Extensive (Rx), developers can write and maintain asynchronous code.

Its Rx framework, through a standardized way, composes event-driven programs. RxDart also uses observable sequences along with LINQ-style query operators for program or software development.

RxDart manages state, handles asynchronous data, and responds to user inputs in a clean, understandable, and declarative manner. This article is a mere introduction to RxDart. Let’s get that rolling!

What is Reactive Programming in RxDart?

Reactive programming is a programming paradigm that is all about data flow and propagation of change. In a reactive system, several components coexist, and they individually react to data changes happening in real time.

These responses are conducive to applications where the management of asynchronous data streams is absolutely crucial.

For instance, you can imagine a search that queries the server for results as soon as you begin typing. Therefore, you can use reactive programming in place of manual management of state and API calls in order to observe the user input.

You can also automatically propagate crucial API calls and UI updates as the data undergoes changes.

Dart’s Built-in Streams

Dart comes with a foundational API that takes care of asynchronous data with the help of Streams. These streams are referred to a sequence or order of asynchronous events of two types:

• Single subscription enables one listener to listen at a time
• Broadcast that allows multiple listeners

There is not a shred of doubt regarding the stream’s robustness, but often, they become verbose when complex data transformations and combos are involved.

This is why and when we require the support of RxDart, which externs Dart’s faculties and builds on the operators and patterns that originate from other languages like Swift.

RxDart: Extending Dart’s Streams

Because RxDart builds on top of Dart’s Stream API, it has a lot to offer in terms of tools for creating, combining, transforming, and managing asynchronous data streams. At its core, RxDart makes use of Subjects and Operators that are responsible for flexible and powerful stream manipulation.

Subjects

RxDart involves a Subject that is referred to as a special stream that has a dual purpose because it acts as an:

It means that a subject can listen to other streams and, at the same time, is capable of broadcasting its values to its listeners. The varied kinds of subjects in RxDart are:

• PublishSubject: It ejects all items to subscribers from the moment they subscribe onward. It does not replay old items.
• BehaviorSubject: This is quite similar to PublishSubject, but it can replay the most recent or used item to new subscribers.
• ReplaySubject: It carries and stores a history of emitted items and replays them when new subscribers subscribe.
• AsyncSubject: It only gives out the last item once the stream is complete and final.

Operators

Operators are the most significant and concrete units of RxDart. In addition to transforming, filtering, and combining streams, they can also manipulate them in declarative and composable ways. Some frequent operators are:

• map: Transforms each emitted item into another item.
• flatMap: Flattens multiple streams into a one individual stream.
• debounceTime: Ignores emitted items if another item is emitted within a specific time frame. Useful for search inputs.
• switchMap: Switches to a new stream when a new event is emitted, canceling the previous stream.
• combineLatest: Connects and merges the latest values from multiple streams.

These operators can compose complex asynchronous operations without deeply nesting callbacks, which makes code more readable, manageable, and maintainable.

Why Use RxDart in Flutter?

Flutter, a cross-platform framework and a UI toolkit, also builds on event-driven development concepts.

From responding to user inputs to handling asynchronous data, Flutter apps also require efficient stream management. RxDart integrates with Flutter to manage data and UI state reactively and simultaneously.

Some common use cases for RxDart in Flutter are:

1. Form Validation: RxDart validates form fields in real time by observing the changes in input fields and updating the form’s state accordingly.
2. Search Functionality: Implementing a reactive search bar that listens for user input, debounces the search query to avoid unnecessary API calls, and updates the search results dynamically.
3. State Management: RxDart helps to manage the state of an app in a reactive manner. By observing data streams, you can ensure that the UI stays in sync with the underlying data model.
4. Complex Data Flows: When an application requires handling multiple asynchronous tasks, RxDart’s operators provide a clean way to combine and manipulate these tasks.

RxDart and BLoC Pattern

BLoC, or Business Logic Component pattern, is a design form that helps in state management for Flutter, and it integrates well with RxDart, too.

The BLoC pattern can be used to separate the presentation layer from the business logic by unearthing input and output streams. RxDart accentuates this pattern by creating and managing streams of events and states.

Here’s a simple example of how RxDart is used with the BLoC pattern:

class CounterBloc {

final _counterSubject = BehaviorSubject();

// Expose the stream for the counter

Stream get counterStream => _counterSubject.stream;

// Add a value to the stream

void increment() {

_counterSubject.add(_counterSubject.value + 1);

}

// Dispose of the stream

void dispose() {

_counterSubject.close();

}

}

Through this example, we can see how BehaviorSubject stores and manages the counter’s state, and the counterStream provides a way for the UI to listen to changes in the counter.

When the increment method is involved in the process, it adds the new value and equity to the stream, and any widgets subscribed to counterStream will automatically undergo any awaiting and required update.

Advantages of RxDart

1. Declarative: RxDart can assist with the flow of data and allow developers to describe it declaratively. Instead of manually managing state and callbacks, it can aid in transformations on streams.
2. Composability: RxDart’s operators can compose complex asynchronous workflows in a modular way. You can chain operators to process data streams in a readable and maintainable manner.
3. Efficiency: By using operators like debounce, throttle, and distinctUntilChanged, you can optimize network requests and prevent redundant and unnecessary UI updates.
4. Consistency: RxDart offers a consistent API that handles asynchronous events and decreases the cognitive load on developers when they interact with different types of asynchronous data.

Conclusion

RxDart brings its reactive programming faculties and robustness to Dart and Flutter by allowing developers to handle asynchronous data streams in a declarative and composable manner.

You could be building a small app with a search feature or a complex app with multiple asynchronous data flows; RxDart will always carry the necessary tools and capabilities to manage state, events, and side effects elegantly.

By extending Dart’s native Streams, RxDart provides additional functionality via its subjects and operators. Thus, Flutter and Dart could become the most desired and excellent choice for writing cleaner, more maintainable code.

Should you require more assistance in RxDart, you must contact the bright heads at Xavor, who can help put your business and web development on the right track.

Embrace the capabilities of Flutter and RxDart to the full extent and change your app development scenario forever.