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How to build TikTok with Flutter?

In part two of our TikTok Flutter tutorial series we'll work on creating the UI for the main screens.

TikTok Demo

Create Inbox Screen

Create a new file to contain the page/screen.

.
├── ...
├── pubspec.yaml
└── lib/
    ├── navigation/
    │   └── DrawerNav.dart
    ├── pages/
    │   └── TikTokPage.dart
    │   └── InboxPage.dart # Create this file
    └── main.dart

Define a InboxPage screen/widget.

// ./lib/pages/InboxPage.dart
 
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
 
class InboxPage extends StatefulWidget {
  InboxPage({Key? key}) : super(key: key);
 
  @override
  State<InboxPage> createState() => _InboxPageState();
}
 
class _InboxPageState extends State<InboxPage> {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return const Center(
      child: Text('InboxPage'),
    );
  }
}

Import InboxPage into DrawerNav and place it in it's corresponding index of _widgetOptions.

1// ./lib/navigation/DrawerNav.dart
2 
3// Code Omitted
4import 'package:fluttok/pages/InboxPage.dart';
5 
6// Code Omitted
7 
8class _DrawerNav extends State<DrawerNav> {
9  // Code Omitted
10 
11  static List<Widget> get _widgetOptions => <Widget>[
12    const TikTokPage(color: Colors.yellow),
13    const TikTokPage(color: Colors.blue),
14    const TikTokPage(color: Colors.green),
15          InboxPage(),
16    const TikTokPage(color: Colors.pink),
17  ];
18 
19  // Code Omitted
20}
  • Line 2: We import the newly created InboxPage widget.
  • Line 13: We place the widget/screen/page as the 3rd index in our _widgetOptions so that when Inbox is tapped, this widget is selected.

We should now see a white screen when we tap the Inbox tab in the bottom tab navigator.

Inbox Page

Create InboxPage Header/AppBar

Update DrawerNav, adding an appBar parameter with a value of an AppBar widget to the Scaffold we use.

1// ./lib/navigation/DrawerNav.dart
2 
3// Code Omitted
4Scaffold(
5  appBar: AppBar(title: const Text("Inbox")),
6  body: _widgetOptions.elementAt(_selectedIndex),
7  // Code Omitted
8);

The title parameter of AppBar determines the header/app bar text.

Message Title

To display an icon in the top right, add actions as an additional parameter to AppBar. The value of actions is an array because we can have one or more icons/actions

1// ./lib/navigation/DrawerNav.dart
2 
3// Code Omitted
4Scaffold(
5  appBar: AppBar(
6    title: const Text("Inbox"),
7    actions: <Widget>[
8      IconButton(icon: Icon(Icons.message), onPressed: () {}),
9    ],
10  ),
11  // Code Omitted
12)

TikTok Icon

InboxPage now has a header/app bar with an action button in the top right.

Inbox Page

Note: We have a problem where the same AppBar is shown on all screens.

Create Horizontal Scroll of Friends with recent posts

Add faker library useful for generating smart dummy data.

flutter pub add faker

Import faker into InboxPage and create a faker instance used to generate names.

1// ./lib/pages/InboxPage.dart
2 
3import 'package:faker/faker.dart';
4 
5final faker = Faker();

Refactor InboxPage to add a horizontally scrolling list of avatars using a ListView.

1// ./lib/pages/InboxPage.dart
2 
3class _InboxPageState extends State<InboxPage> {
4  @override
5  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
6    return Column(
7      children: [
8        SizedBox(
9          height: 100,
10          child: ListView.builder(
11            itemCount: 10,
12            scrollDirection: Axis.horizontal,
13            itemBuilder: (ctx, i) {
14              return Padding(
15                padding: const EdgeInsets.all(5),
16                child: Column(
17                  children: [
18                    CircleAvatar(
19                      radius: 30,
20                      backgroundImage:
21                          NetworkImage('https://i.pravatar.cc/150?img=$i'),
22                    ),
23                    Text(
24                      faker.person.firstName(),
25                      style:
26                          const TextStyle(color: Colors.black87, fontSize: 10),
27                    ),
28                  ],
29                ),
30              );
31            },
32          ),
33        ),
34      ],
35    );
36  }
37}
  • Line 6: We add everything inside of a Column
  • Line 12: We define the ListView scrollDirection as horizontal.
  • Line 13: We pass the itemBuilder parameter a function which returns a widget for each instance within our scroll. In other words this function is used to create each item in the horizontally scrolling list of friends with recent stories.

Inbox Page

We should be able to see a horizontally scrollable list of avatars now.

Create Vertical Scroll of Message History

Use another ListView to create the vertically scrolling list of messages.

1class _InboxPageState extends State<InboxPage> {
2  @override
3  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
4    return Column(
5      children: [
6        SizedBox(
7          // Code Omitted
8        ),
9        Padding(
10          padding: const EdgeInsets.all(5),
11          child: Row(children: const [Text('Messages')]),
12        ),
13        ListView.separated(
14          physics: const NeverScrollableScrollPhysics(),
15          shrinkWrap: true,
16          itemCount: 10,
17          separatorBuilder: (context, index) {
18            return const Divider();
19          },
20          itemBuilder: (ctx, i) {
21            return ListTile(
22              leading: CircleAvatar(
23                radius: 30,
24                backgroundImage:
25                    NetworkImage('https://i.pravatar.cc/150?img=$i'),
26              ),
27              title: Text(faker.person.name()),
28              subtitle: Text(faker.lorem.sentences(1).join()),
29              trailing: const Icon(Icons.more_vert),
30            );
31          },
32        ),
33      ],
34    );
35  }
36}
  • We add the code to the end of our Col widgets children parameter, an array.
  • Line 9-12: We add a Row after the first ListView for a title Messages.
  • Line 13-32: We add a second ListView. This time instead of creating the UI ourselves using widgets, we use ListTile on line 21.

Inbox Page Warning

  • Note: We see an overflow bottom warning.
  • We cannot scroll vertically.

Fix warning and implement vertical scroll

Wrap Column with a SingleChildScrollView to remove the warning.

1return SingleChildScrollView(
2  child: Column(
3    children: [
4      SizedBox(
5        // Code Omitted
6      ),
7      Padding(
8        // Code Omitted
9      ),
10      ListView.separated(
11        // Code Omitted
12      ),
13    ],
14  ),
15);
  • Line 2: Column should be passed to the child parameter of SingleChildScrollView.

SingleChildScrollView allowed us to complete InboxPage, excellent.

Inbox Page Complete

Need help? Have a better implementation? Comment below