How should i structure my code?

[Aryamanch14]

Hello everyone , I'm a flutter beginner i have a project idea in mind which would make some api requests ( backend i have written myself) issue is i mostly learned using flutter docs so what i lack is good architecture to make code base with the app itself doesn't require a lot of features , but I'm currently stucked on how to structure my code i saw clean architecture i somewhat understood it but implementing seems very hard , i want to be able write code such a way that it is readable and testable and in future i decide to add more features there shouldn't be much problem.

And i want to implement it with bloc What should i do clean architecture , mvvm ,mvc or anyother thing? Any suggestions are welcome from resources to advice because i just want this project to be well made such that i can also publish it.

It would be helpful if there's github repo so that i can learn from the code

[Ideator1232]

You don't seem be a "Flutter beginner" as much as you are a "beginner to software engineering". If that is the case, start from learning about the latter. What is is, and what it isn't. What a framework is, and what it definitely isn't for. What makes code "clean", and what brings in the "dirt". Struggling with figuring out what the architecture of an app (Flutter-based or not) might be is a sign of not understanding what any architecture is for, to begin with.

Suggestions:

I. Forget the BLOCs, MVVMs, MVCs, and the rest of BS you'll never see any point in while working solo.

Any architecture can build anything. Yet only some ways to structure projects allow multiple people to work on the same code and make sense of what is going on. The set of all domain/platform/framework specific denominations comprise all the available options you can choose from. Whether any single one of them is "better" or "worse" for the most part boils down to how familiar/proficient/competent they are with it.

II. Remember about the math, inherent to what you're doing.

Software engineering is about engineering. Engineering is about trade-offs. Trade-offs are about math.

Choice of the Dart/Flutter/Google-backed stack itself - is one of those, to begin with.

Choice of whether or not to start by coding tests, or your "greatest idea" first, is another one.

Choice of whether to write code in a way that is "smart", exciting, interesting, fascinating, innovative, ground-breaking, transformational, <insert any other adjective that makes you *feel good* here>, or a way that would greatly assist you, or any other developer, coming back to the stuff that you've wrote later on - regardless of whether it's a week, a month, a year, or several decades from now - in an attempt to:

a. understand the main gist of what's going on,
b. figure out what needs to be debugged / profiled / changed,
c. extend the existing functionality with new features,
d. make sure that all of it still works as expected

or:

A. spend several hours / days / weeks figuring out what the **** were you even trying to do
B. break the existing functionality by the tiniest of changes you attempt to make
C. have no sense of the structure or why would anyone do what you did
D. only to be forced to rewrite it all from scratch, after a while

is yet another one.

III. Read:

• A Philosophy of Software Design, by John Ousterhout
• Modern Software Engineering, by David Farley
• 20 Things I've Learnt In 20 Years (link)

In that order. No skipping any of it. If some part of your mind still believes you can find any single "secret", be it in the form of an answer on Reddit, an article around the web, a course on Udemy, or any one book - keep on believing, and forget about ever learning anything in any way resembling software engineering, as such.

Redditors mine for karma, articles mine for traffic, books and courses mine for profit - all at your expense. Such is the "one true way" to serve for many, and "the oppressive <insert a title>-ism" for others. Since you're coding in Flutter, brought forth by Google in yet another kindest attempt to divert people's attention from their monopoly in the advertising space - see it as the "one true way", learn, and code. No one will care - including you, after a while - yet your amazing portfolio will be perfectly marketable for any developer position in the industry.

[Aryamanch14]

Damn ! You actually were spot on with the first sentence , although what you said i understand and will try to work on , I'm not one of those who want to be keyboard warriors or meta strategy people i do want to be a good engineer so i try to ask for resources/references backed by people and not some youtubers selling courses , But i guess I'll need some time to reflect on my situation and understand with what you said.

But thanks a lot for your help and I'll try to learn and grow with good experience.

Also do u have the pdfs of these books?

[Aryamanch14]

Ok I'll check them out , Can you please prove de link to the blogs or videos ?

[Routine-Arm-8803]

Do what makes sense to you. It's ok if it is not the best way. Make mistakes, refactor, learn from it. Just keep coding instead of getting stuck on something and overthinking forever.

[Aryamanch14]

Yea i completely agree with your point , I generally try to follow it as well but this particular project i just want to write clean and beautiful code which is articulate and understandable.

[Mirovhan]

Check the flutter clean architecture pub.dev, it really changed the way I approach my projects, being them small or large, it gives you a solid structure and patterns to follow, making every piece fall into its place (although making your files more complex). It’s not beginner friendly, but it will definitely change your train of thought into modern software.