When to use Provider.of<X> vs. Consumer<X> in Flutter
It doesn't matter. But to explain things rapidly:
Provider.of
is the only way to obtain and listen to an object.
Consumer
, Selector
, and all the *ProxyProvider calls Provider.of
to work.
Provider.of
vs Consumer
is a matter of personal preference. But there's a few arguments for both
Provider.of
- can be called in all the widgets lifecycle, including click handlers and
didChangeDependencies
- doesn't increase the indentation
Consumer
- allows more granular widgets rebuilds
- solves most BuildContext misuse
For your questions:
- Is this the correct way to distinguish
Provider.of<X>
andConsumer<X>
. Former doesn't update UI, latter does?
Provider.of<X>
depends on value of listen
to trigger a new State.build
to widgets and State.didChangeDependencies
for StatefulWidget
.
Consumer<X>
always update UI, as it uses Provider.of<T>(context)
, where listen
is true
. See full source here.
- If
listen
isn't set tofalse
will the widget be rebuilt by default or not rebuilt? What iflisten
is set totrue
?
Default value is true
, means will trigger a new State.build
to widgets and State.didChangeDependencies
for StatefulWidget
. See full source here.
static T of<T>(BuildContext context, {bool listen = true})
.
- Why have
Provider.of
with the option to rebuild the UI at all when we haveConsumer
?
Pretty much covered by Rémi Rousselet's answer.
There should not be any performance concern by using it, moreover, we should use consumers if we want to change some specific widget only on screen. This is the best approach I can say in terms of coding practice.
return Container(
// ...
child: Consumer<PersonModel>(
builder: (context, person, child) {
return Text('Name: ${person.name}');
},
),
);
Like in the above example, we only required to update the value of Single Text Widget so add consumer there instead of Provider which is accessible to others widget as well.
Note: Consumer or Provider update the only reference of your instance which widgets are using, if some widgets are not using then it will not re-drawn.