DartPoet

DartPoet is a library written in kotlin which provides the ability to generate .dart files for the programming language Dart.

The process of generating source files can prove advantageous in various scenarios. It effectively reduces the need for boilerplate code and establishes a consistent standard within the codebase. However, achieving a reduction in boilerplate code requires the support of frameworks designed for code generation.

When exploring projects that facilitate code generation for Dart and comparing them to other languages, there seems to be a limited presence in this domain. Enter DartPoet, a valuable tool that simplifies code generation for Dart using Kotlin. It's important to note that Kotlin and Dart lack interoperability, which adds a layer of complexity to using this library. The challenge arises from the fact that predefined objects and classes from the Kotlin/Java language cannot be directly employed in this context.

Note: DartPoet is not free from errors and may lack certain features of the Dart language. Furthermore, the format of the generated code may at times be inconsistent with the Dart style guide.

Example:

Okay lets define a small example task that we want to generate. We want a class called Greetings which contains a function greet which takes a string parameter. The body of the function should print the content from the parameter.

val greetings = DartFile.builder("greetings")
    .type(
        ClassSpec.builder("Greetings")
            .function(
                FunctionSpec.builder("greet")
                    .parameters(
                        ParameterSpec.builder("text", String::class).build()
                    )
                    .returns(Void::class)
                    .addCode("print(%L);", "text")
                    .build()
            )
            .build()
    )
    .build()
greetings.writeTo(System.out)

And this is the generated code from DartPoet:

class Greetings {

  void greet(String text) {
    print(text);
  }
}

Note: The team from Google is very active to enhance the programming language Dart which is a hard to stand update with the specification from it.

Last modified: 11 March 2024