The purpose of this library is to expose the generation of very simple class methods with excellent performance and little code generation. For this you will only be able to enable what you need of the supported features

Features

Auto generation of:

• Inheritance and generic classes supported
• hashCode and == methods
• pretty toString method
• copyWith method
• *Changes class and change, toChanges methods in data class
• *Builder class to build your class

Install package

To use DataClass, you will need your typical build_runner/code-generator setup. First, install build_runner, data_class, data_class_generator by adding them to your pubspec.yaml file:

# pubspec.yaml
dependencies:
  mek_data_class:

dev_dependencies:
  build_runner:
  mek_data_class_generator:

Run the generator

To run the code generator you can use:

• <dart|flutter> pub run build_runner build

As such, a file that wants to use DataClass will start with:

import 'package:mek_data_class/mek_data_class.dart';

part 'my_file.g.dart';

Usage/Examples

You can see some examples in

• basic
• generics
• inheritance

Basic

Because the boiler plate is generated as a mixin, it is minimally intrusive on the interface of the class. You only have to provide a constructor with named arguments for all fields and extend the generated mixin.

@DataClass()
class Product with _$Product {
  final String title;
  @DataField(equality: DefaultEquality())
  final double price;

  const Product({
    required this.title,
    required this.price,
  });
  
  String get titlePrice => '$title$price';
}

Customization of the equal operator and hashcode through the use of the Equality class is supported. See example.

Inheritance

Taking into consideration the previous example you can write and inherit all methods

@DataClass()
class PrettyProduct extends Product with _$PrettyProduct {
  final String color;

  const Product({
    required String title,
    required double price,
    required this.color,
  }) : super(title: title, price: price);

  String get titlePriceColor => '$titlePrice$color';
}

Generics

You can also declare classes with generic types

@DataClass()
class Value<T> with _$Value<T> {
  final T value;

  const Product({
    required this.value,
  });
}

Pretty string

Use the ClassToString package to perform the toString method

final product = Product(...);
/// Product(
///   title=Overlord,
///   price=12,
/// )
print(product);

CopyWith

The classic copyWith, need explanations? No, but try to prefer using *Changes which supports nullability

final product = Product(...);
print(product.copyWith(title: 'Raisekamika'));

Enable in build.yaml with copyable: true

*Changes

Unlike a builder you cannot set values to null but the field is not defined as such and cannot be instantiated

final updatedProduct = product.change((changes) => changes..title = 'Raisekamika');

final changes = product.toChanges();
changes.title = 'Raisekamika';
final updatedProduct = changes.build();

Enable in build.yaml with changeable: true

*Changes.update

Update the *Changes class by passing a function

final updatedChanges = changes.update((c) => c..title = 'Albedo'); // title=Albedo

*Changes.replace

Update the properties of the *Changes class with the properties of the DataClass

final updatedChanges = productChanges.replace(product); // title=Raisekamika

*Changes.build

Build the DataClass from *Changes class

Product product = productChanges.build();

*Builder

Build your class using a builder. It is not safe to construct a class using a builder but it allows you to complete the construction whenever you want.

@DataClass(buildable: true)
class Product with _$Product {
  final int id;
  const Product({required this.id});
  factory Product.build(void Function(ProductBuilder b) updates) => 
          (ProductBuilder().update(updates)).build();
}

final builder = ProductBuilder();
builder.id = 12;
final product = builder.build();

DataClassFields

Generate a class that contains the names of the fields of the Data Class. @DataClass(createFieldsClass) Example:

@DataClass(createFieldsClass: true)
class Product with _$Product {
  final int id;
  const Product({required this.id});
}
// GENERATED CODE
class ProductFields {
  final String _path;
  const ProductFields([this._path = '']);
  String get id => '${_path}id';
}

Global Configs

See the docs of the DataClass class for more information

Key	Default	Description
stringify_if_null	true	if set to false, null values will not be included in the toString
stringify_type	params	if set to fields, fields of a class that are not passed to the constructor will also be included
fields_class_visible	true	if set to false, the fields classes is private

# build.yaml
targets:
  $default:
    builders:
      mek_data_class_generator:
        enabled: true
        options:
          page_width: 80
          comparable: true
          stringify: true
          stringify_type: params | fields
          stringify_if_null: true
          buildable: false
          copyable: false
          changeable: false
          changes_visible: false
          create_fields_class: false
          fields_class_visible: true

Recommended options

comparable: true
stringify: true
changeable: true

Motivations

• Some packages generate a lot of code and mess with the normal, classic class construction in dart. Also you can't easily select classes without any problem, without having to create mixins for the methods
• Some packages require you to mark all your fields with @override

Similar packages freezed, built_value, dataclass_beta, functional_data