Implement Flutter themes using Provider

Target Audience: Beginner

Recipe: Toggle Flutter themes from one type to another using Provider dependency injection and state management package.

Focus Widget: Provider plugin

Goal: Implementing themes using Provider plugin. Implement a simple UI with an image, text and a button to switch themes. Page's default theme is light. Clicking on "Switch Theme" button will apply dark theme to page, and vice versa.

Light Theme:

Dark Theme:

Checkout the companion video here

What is Provider

Provider is a plugin/package that provides dependency injection and state management solution for a Flutter App. It's built with robust and scalable Flutter widgets.

Step #1. pubspec.yaml

Add package dependency in pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  flutter:
    sdk: flutter

  #Dependency for Provider plugin
  provider: ^3.1.0 #ChangeNotifier, Consumer, Providers

Step #2. Implement theme ChangeNotifier

I'll be using two themes: Light and Dark. Let's use enum to declare these two themes:

enum MyThemes { light, dark }

Now, I need a ChangeNotifier that'll notify my app about the change occurred in theme preference.

class ThemesNotifier with ChangeNotifier {}

Next comes defining ThemeData for light and dark themes:

static final List<ThemeData> themeData = [
  ThemeData(
      brightness: Brightness.light,
      primaryColor: Colors.blue,
      accentColor: Colors.lightBlueAccent),
  ThemeData(
      brightness: Brightness.dark,
      primaryColor: Colors.orange,
      accentColor: Colors.yellowAccent)
];

Let's initialize default MyThemes and ThemeData:

MyThemes _currentTheme = MyThemes.light;
ThemeData _currentThemeData = themeData[0];

Lastly, setters and getters to update and access MyThemes and ThemeData:

void switchTheme() => currentTheme == MyThemes.light
    ? currentTheme = MyThemes.dark
    : currentTheme = MyThemes.light;

set currentTheme(MyThemes theme) {
  if (theme != null) {
    _currentTheme = theme;
    _currentThemeData =
        currentTheme == MyThemes.light ? themeData[0] : themeData[1];

    //Notifies the theme change to app    
    notifyListeners();
  }
}

get currentTheme => _currentTheme;
get currentThemeData => _currentThemeData;

Step #3. Notifying theme change to App

Sample App 'Themes Demo''s build(...) method uses theme attribute to assign ThemeData to app like below. Provider.of<ThemesNotifier>(context).currentThemeData is notified about a theme change happened in ThemesNotifier's switchTheme() method.

@override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
  return MaterialApp(
      theme: Provider.of<ThemesNotifier>(context).currentThemeData,
      home: Scaffold(
        appBar: AppBar(
          title: Text("Themes Demo"),
        ),
        body: body(),
      ));
}

Theme change is requested from Switch Theme button :

RaisedButton(
  child: Text("Switch Theme"),
  onPressed: () {
    Provider.of<ThemesNotifier>(context).switchTheme();
  },
),

That's all !

Running on Flutter Web

Note: Flutter Web project setup has been changed since Flutter 1.9 release.

Please follow the direction on setting up Flutter Web project here.

Source code repo: Recipe source code is available here

References:

1. Provider Package
2. Flutter web
3. Open Issue about Flutter-Web merging Flutter

Happy cooking with Flutter

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