Flutter App Development: Complete Getting Started Guide

Why Flutter Changed Mobile Development

Before Flutter, building for iOS and Android meant two separate codebases in Swift/Kotlin. Flutter changed that—one codebase, two platforms, with native performance. Google, Alibaba, and BMW use it in production.

Setting Up Flutter

# Install Flutter SDK from flutter.dev
# Add to PATH, then verify
flutter doctor

# Create new project
flutter create my_app
cd my_app
flutter run

Understanding Widgets

Everything in Flutter is a widget. Widgets compose to build UIs.

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
    @override
    Widget build(BuildContext context) {
        return MaterialApp(
            title: 'My App',
            home: Scaffold(
                appBar: AppBar(
                    title: Text('Hello Flutter'),
                ),
                body: Center(
                    child: Column(
                        mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
                        children: [
                            Text('Welcome!', style: TextStyle(fontSize: 24)),
                            SizedBox(height: 16),
                            ElevatedButton(
                                onPressed: () {},
                                child: Text('Click Me'),
                            ),
                        ],
                    ),
                ),
            ),
        );
    }
}

Stateful Widgets (Interactive UI)

class Counter extends StatefulWidget {
    @override
    _CounterState createState() => _CounterState();
}

class _CounterState extends State<Counter> {
    int _count = 0;
    
    void _increment() {
        setState(() {
            _count++;
        });
    }
    
    @override
    Widget build(BuildContext context) {
        return Column(
            children: [
                Text('Count: $_count', style: TextStyle(fontSize: 32)),
                ElevatedButton(
                    onPressed: _increment,
                    child: Text('+'),
                ),
            ],
        );
    }
}

Common Widgets

Deploy to Stores

# Android
flutter build apk --release
flutter build appbundle  # For Play Store

# iOS (requires Mac + Xcode)
flutter build ios --release