Creating a Basic Layout with the Flutter Scaffold Widget — Flutter Basic Tutorial #3

Coding Your Life
5 min readJan 13

--

Flutter is a popular framework for developing mobile applications and the Scaffold widget is one of the most important layout elements in the framework. In this article, we will dive deep into the Scaffold widget and learn about its features and how to use it to create a basic layout for our Flutter app.

The Scaffold widget is a fundamental layout element in Flutter that provides a structure for the visual elements of an app. It is a key part of the Material Design visual design language and is used to create the basic layout for an app, including a top app bar, a bottom navigation bar, and a body content area.

But the Scaffold widget is more than just a simple container. It also provides functionality for displaying a drawer, a floating action button, and a snack bar, among other things. These features are all optional, and you can choose which ones to include in your app based on your needs.

Take my Flutter Course for FREEhttps://bit.ly/31hxS4R

SOURCE CODE — EnLive App :
https://codingyourlife.gumroad.com/l/enlive-flutter-ui-kit-app

SOURCE CODE — Car Rental App : https://codingyourlife.gumroad.com/l/flutter-cental-car-app

SOURCE CODE ​- Aqua Workout App : https://codingyourlife.gumroad.com/l/flutter-aqua-workout-app

Using the Scaffold widget is easy. You simply include it as the root widget in your app, and then use its various parameters to add the desired layout elements and functionality. For example, you can use the drawer parameter to specify a drawer that should be displayed when the user swipes from the left edge of the screen, the bottomNavigationBar parameter to specify a bottom navigation bar, and the floatingActionButton parameter to specify a floating action button.

Here’s an example of how to use the Scaffold widget to create a basic layout with a top app bar, a body content area, and a bottom navigation bar:

Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(
title: Text("My App"),
),
body: Center(
child: Text("Hello World"),
),
bottomNavigationBar: BottomNavigationBar(
items: [
BottomNavigationBarItem(
icon: Icon(Icons.home),
title: Text("Home"),
),
BottomNavigationBarItem(
icon: Icon(Icons.search),
title: Text("Search"),
),
],
),
)

As you can see, using the Scaffold widget is straightforward. You simply include it as the root widget in your app, and then use its various parameters to add the desired layout elements and functionality.

The Scaffold widget has several optional parameters that you can use to customize its behavior.

Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(
title: const Text('My App'),
),
body: const Center(child: Text('Hello World!')),
drawer: Drawer(
child: ListView(
children: [
ListTile(title: const Text('Item 1'), onTap: () {}),
ListTile(title: const Text('Item 2'), onTap: () {}),
],
),
),
bottomNavigationBar: BottomNavigationBar(
items: const [
BottomNavigationBarItem(
icon: Icon(Icons.home),
label: "Home",
),
BottomNavigationBarItem(
icon: Icon(Icons.search),
label: "Search",
),
],
),
floatingActionButton: FloatingActionButton(
onPressed: () {},
child: const Icon(Icons.add),
),
)

For example, you can use the drawer parameter to specify a drawer that should be displayed when the user swipes from the left edge of the screen, the bottomNavigationBar parameter to specify a bottom navigation bar, and the floatingActionButton parameter to specify a floating action button.

In addition to the features mentioned earlier, the Scaffold widget also provides some other useful functionality such as the persistentFooterButtons parameter, which allows you to add persistent buttons at the bottom of the screen. This can be useful for displaying important actions that should always be visible to the user.

Another useful feature of the Scaffold widget is the snackBar parameter, which allows you to display a small message at the bottom of the screen, typically used for displaying notifications or error messages. This feature can be triggered by calling the Scaffold.of(context).showSnackBar() method.

The Scaffold widget also provides a resizeToAvoidBottomInset parameter, which can be used to ensure that the body of the app is resized to avoid the keyboard when it is displayed. This can be useful for preventing the keyboard from covering important input fields.

One more thing to note is that, the Scaffold widget is a Material Design visual design language, it is ideal for creating apps with a modern, clean and polished look. If you are creating an app that does not need to follow Material Design guidelines, you might want to use other layout widgets such as Column, Row, or Expanded.

In conclusion, the Scaffold widget is a powerful and flexible layout element in Flutter that provides a structure for the visual elements of an app and additional functionality such as displaying a drawer, a floating action button, a snack bar, and persistent footer buttons. It’s a great choice for creating apps with a modern, clean, and polished look. We hope this article has helped you understand the Scaffold widget and how to use it in your Flutter projects. Happy coding!

--

--

Coding Your Life

Flutter Engineer & Mobile Developer Expert | SEO & Content Marketing Expert