How to dispatch Bloc events outside of Widget?

Issue

I’m new to Bloc architecture and I watched some tutorials lately. I have page which is StatelessWidget and inside I’m using BlocProvider to initialize Bloc inside my UI. It will return different widgets based on state changes.

But even in tutorials they dispatched events only from other Widgets (for example by pressing Button). But in my situation I need to call init API call outside of Widget which is in Bloc Event.

If I’m inside other Widget I can call BlocProvider.of<FirstTabBloc>(context).dispatch(GetUserProfile()); but I cant call it in main() because context is not from Widget.

Code:

class FirstPage extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      body: SingleChildScrollView(
        child: firstTabElement(context),
      ),
      appBar: EmptyAppBar(mainAppColor),
    );
  }

  BlocProvider<FirstTabBloc> firstTabElement(BuildContext context) {
    return BlocProvider(
        builder: (_) => sl<FirstTabBloc>(),
        child: Expanded(
            child: Container(
          height: MediaQuery.of(context).size.height,
          width: MediaQuery.of(context).size.width,
          child: Column(
            children: <Widget>[
              Stack(
                children: [
                  //Main Background
                  Column(children: <Widget>[
                    //Top part
                    Container(
                      constraints: BoxConstraints(
                        minHeight: 120,
                      ),
                      width: MediaQuery.of(context).size.width,
                      height: 300,
                      decoration: new BoxDecoration(
                        gradient: LinearGradient(
                          begin: Alignment.topCenter,
                          end: Alignment.bottomCenter,
                          colors: ticketGradient,
                        ),
                      ),
                    ),
                    // Bottom part - white
                    Container(
                      color: basicWhite,
                    ),
                  ]),
                  //content above background
                  BlocBuilder<FirstTabBloc, FirstTabState>(
                    builder: (context, state) {
                      if (state is Uninitialized) {
                        return WalletWidget(
                          credit: formatPrice(0),
                          currency: '€',
                        );
                      } else if (state is Loading) {
                        return LoadingWidget();
                      } else if (state is Loaded) {
                        Wallet currWallet = state.profile.getWalletByClient(clientId);
                        return WalletWidget(
                          credit: formatPrice(currWallet.value),
                          currency: formatCurrency(currWallet.currency),
                        );
                      } else if (state is Error) {
                        return MessageDisplay(
                          message: state.message,
                        );
                      }
                    },
                  ),
                ],
              ),
            ],
          ),
        )));
  }
}

Solution

You need to use another way to get the bloc.

BlocProvider.of(context) uses Provider under the hood. Provider is a flutter package, that wraps InheritedWidget. InheritedWidget is flutter widget that passes data down the widget tree via context.

So you need another way. For example you could use get_it library. It’s dart implementation of Service Locator.

Simple example with the bloc outside of widget

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:flutter_bloc/flutter_bloc.dart';

final bloc = CounterBloc();

void main() {
  bloc.add(CounterEvent.increment);
  bloc.add(CounterEvent.increment);
  bloc.add(CounterEvent.increment);
  bloc.add(CounterEvent.increment);

  runApp(
    MyApp(),
  );
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      title: 'Flutter Demo',
      theme: ThemeData(
        primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
      ),
      home: Scaffold(
        body: SafeArea(
          child: MyHomePage(),
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

class MyHomePage extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return BlocProvider(
      create: (_) => bloc,
      child: CounterPage(),
    );
  }
}

class CounterPage extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(title: const Text('Counter')),
      body: BlocBuilder<CounterBloc, int>(
        builder: (_, count) {
          return Center(
            child: Text('$count', style: Theme.of(context).textTheme.headline1),
          );
        },
      ),
      floatingActionButton: Column(
        crossAxisAlignment: CrossAxisAlignment.end,
        mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.end,
        children: <Widget>[
          Padding(
            padding: const EdgeInsets.symmetric(vertical: 5.0),
            child: FloatingActionButton(
              child: const Icon(Icons.add),
              onPressed: () =>
                  context.bloc<CounterBloc>().add(CounterEvent.increment),
            ),
          ),
          Padding(
            padding: const EdgeInsets.symmetric(vertical: 5.0),
            child: FloatingActionButton(
              child: const Icon(Icons.remove),
              onPressed: () =>
                  context.bloc<CounterBloc>().add(CounterEvent.decrement),
            ),
          ),
        ],
      ),
    );
  }
}

enum CounterEvent { increment, decrement }

class CounterBloc extends Bloc<CounterEvent, int> {
  CounterBloc() : super(0);

  @override
  Stream<int> mapEventToState(CounterEvent event) async* {
    switch (event) {
      case CounterEvent.decrement:
        yield state - 1;
        break;
      case CounterEvent.increment:
        yield state + 1;
        break;
      default:
        addError(Exception('unsupported event'));
    }
  }
}

Register your bloc in get_it. And after that you can get it and used without the context.

Answered By – Kherel

Answer Checked By – Senaida (FlutterFixes Volunteer)