Flutter is a popular, open-source development kit (SDK) for creating mobile apps by Google. To put it simply, using Flutter, you can build a mobile app for two platforms (iOS and Android), through the same language and shared code.
Cross-platform apps are a great help for any business, because separate (native) apps for iOS and Android normally get very expensive to run and maintain.
Cross-platform Features
Cross-platform could be defined as a set of tools that enable you to build an application that could be applicable for both iOS and Android. At first, such concept sounds simply great. Yet in reality, each framework comes with its own capacities and limitations.
Automated Testing
Flutter is typically brought up at times when you need to quickly make a specific, reactive application for several platforms at once, but how can one ensure the quality of such “simultaneous” code?
To address such concerns, Flutter has developed certain means to guarantee the impeccable performance of the visual interface.
Widget Testing
Widget test or a component test checks a single widget. The purpose of the test is to make sure that the widget’s user interface looks and acts as planned. Testing a widget requires a particular test environment that provides the appropriate context for the widget lifecycle.
The tested widget has the capacity to receive user actions and events, and react accordingly by building a tree of child widgets. That makes widget tests more complex in nature than unit tests. However, just like the unit test, the widget testing environment could be treated as a simple simulation, less complex than a full-fledged user interface system.
Widget testing lets you thoroughly go through the behavior of a single visual interface element and complete all the checks in the console, which is perfect for tests that run as a CI/CD stage of the process.
Reducing Testing Time with Unified Code Base
There are many reason for bugs to appear – unspecified Terms of Reference, the lack of rendered states in the design, or backward compatibility of the backup. It could be easier to start such bugs, because you need to create twice as many tasks, and this potentially saves time.
You can look for bugs and review characteristics on the same platform. With a high degree of probability, they are duplicated on both platforms since the execution is the same. The pattern of the new features on both platforms is also the same, so is the code. Testing complex structures inside the application is reduced to testing them on one platform and verifying them on another.
If the operation for both platforms has to be forwarded to the client on the same day, they are published simultaneously and the QA engineer on the project is alone, there may not be enough time to see for native development: the test cycle has be completed on both platforms separately. When testing cross-platform applications, you save time as the regression testing of both platforms completes within a single cycle.
Why Test a Flutter App at All?
To start with, you shall become a part of a great community. The new framework offers great advantage of solving non-standard problems and expands your circle of friends. You will be able to find many interesting bugs that advance the level of your skills when running applications.
At the same time, developers from the Flutter framework community will always be keen on giving you feedback on potential problems, improve your methods and let you contribute to the project if you would want to.
At last, you have a solid chance of growing into a professional specialist. When managing cross-platform applications, it is important to remember the differences between operating systems and specific platforms they use. In order to increase your professionalism, you want to learn the theory, and try figuring out cases that you have not encountered before.
Usefulness of Flutter in Your Development
Testing cross-platform applications is pretty straightforward. Some find it easier and more convenient than working with native ones. However, all the obstacles that can be encountered do not overlap with Flutter convenience and strong points.
