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Live Cells

A simple yet powerful reactive programming library

Reactive Programming

  • A reactive programming library for Dart and Flutter
  • Define cells for your data
  • Declare observers on cells
  • Observers are called automatically when cell values change
// Define a cell
final count = MutableCell(0);

// Define an observer
ValueCell.watch(() {
print('${count()}');
});

// Increment cell value
// Automatically calls observer
count.value++;

Benefits over ValueNotifier

final a = MutableCell(0);
final b = MutableCell(1);

final sum = a + b;
  • Cells can be defined as an expression of other cells
  • No need to add and remove listeners
  • Simpler resource management
  • Disposed automatically

Two-way data flow

final n = MutableCell(0);
final strN = n.mutableString();

n.value = 5;
print(strN.value); // '5'

strN.value = '10';
print(n.value); // 10
  • Data can flow in both directions
  • Most other libraries (if not all) are limited to unidirectional data flow

Simple and Unobtrusive

  • You only need to learn one basic building block — the cell
  • Cells are designed to be indistinguishable from the values they hold
    // A list cell
    ValueCell<List> list;

    // A cell for the index
    ValueCell<int> index

    // A cell which access a list item
    final e = list[index];
  • No need to implement complicated notifier or state classes.

Bind Data to Widgets

  • Integrated with a widget library
  • Allows widget properties to be bound directly to cells
  • Reduces the need for controller objects and event handlers
  • Only rebuild the widgets that have actually changed
final content = MutableCell('');
...
Column(
children: [
// Cell content bound to TextField content
CellTextField(
content: content
),
CellWidget.builder((_) =>
Text('You wrote: ${content()}')
)
]
)