Flutter, an open-source UI software development kit created by Google, is a powerful tool for
developing applications for various platforms from a single codebase. One of the most
common tasks in Flutter is interacting with REST APIs. This guide will walk you through the
process step by step.
Before you start making API calls, you need to add the http package to your pubspec.yaml file
and then run flutter pub get to fetch the package.
A GET request retrieves data from a server. In Flutter, you can make a GET request by using
the http.get method. If the response status code is 200, it means the request was successful.
You can then decode the JSON data from the response body.
A POST request sends data to a server. In Flutter, you can make a POST request by using the
http.post method and passing in the data as a JSON-encoded string. If the response status
code is 200, it means the request was successful. You can then decode the JSON data from
the response body.
Headers provide additional information about the request or the response. In Flutter, you can
add headers to your requests by passing in a map of header names and values to the http.get
or http.post method.
In addition to GET and POST, there are several other HTTP methods that you might need to
use, such as PUT, DELETE, PATCH, etc. For example, you can make a PUT request by using the
http.put method and passing in the data as a JSON-encoded string. If the response status
code is 200, it means the request was successful. You can then decode the JSON data from
the response body.
Remember, each HTTP method has its own semantics and is designed to perform a specific
action in a RESTful API. Always choose the appropriate method for the action you want to
perform.
That concludes our detailed guide on making REST API calls in Flutter. Happy coding!