Everyone who knows how to write programs has thought about writing a mobile phone App. Of course, I am no exception. I have tried to write Unity games, use Java on Android Studio to write invoice recognition and rewards, and even use my only Ipad to practice writing Swift. After that, I always wanted to learn Flutter on the recommendation of my friends. So, today’s purpose is to record how to download and install Intellij IDEA to develop Flutter apps.
Flutter is an open source App development kit developed by Google. The advantage is that it can complete the development of apps on both Android and iOS platforms with a set of code. I have tried to use Unity to complete such an App before (Unity can also be released on two platforms with one set of code). However, because Unity’s program is rendered frame by frame, it means that even if the screen does not change, the hardware of the device is still running every frame. In terms of performance, it is not suitable for developing tool-type apps, but it is suitable for developing games.
So currently, Flutter may be more suitable for developing tool-based apps on mobile devices. What’s more, Flutter claims that its performance is not much different from native development, which is really quite powerful.
The topic is far off.
In short, today I will record how to configure Intellij IDEA IDE. Firstly, I don’t like Android Studio that much. Secondly, the size of this IDE is relatively lightweight.
The following is roughly divided into several steps. I declare in advance that this is a configuration on Windows and has not been tested on a Linux system yet:
- Download Intellij IDEA
- Install Flutter, Dart Plugins
- Create a Flutter project
- Install Flutter SDK
- Configure virtual machine
- Test Flutter cna compile
For more learning content, you may directly refer to the official Tutorial: https://flutter.dev/docs/reference/tutorials
Install Intellij IDEA tool
This convenient IDE was developed by JetBrains, the same company that developed PyCharm and Android Studio.
First we come to the following URL to download: https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/
Press Download button.
Just select the general version first, and then click to start downloading. After downloading, double-click to execute, you will see the following window.
Choose Next all the way, it will be installed automatically. We can see Intellij IDEA in the start menu.
It looks like this after opening:
I always choose dark themes, and it is obviously easier to write programs in the middle of the night.
When you enter this screen, don’t rush to create a New Project, let’s install the Flutter and other packages first! (Of course, it doesn’t matter if you start first, after all, you can install it after you enter.)
Select Configure => Plugins, and the following screen will pop up:
Here is a record of a pit I encountered: when I first opened this place, there was no way to display the packages that can be downloaded and installed, and then I noticed that it was blocked by the Windows firewall. Remember to pay attention to the lower right corner, there should be an option that can be opened, if not, you can also open the project and then go in.
At worst, you can also choose to open the firewall yourself.
If you saw it well, congratulations! We can go directly to the next step.
Install Flutter
That’s roughly it, search for “Flutter” and download it. Now, even Dart will install it together.
Install Dart
If you have not installed Dart, you can also search for “Dart”, then download and install it. If the IDE has been installed for you, you can now click Restart IDE to restart the IDE.
Create Flutter project
After restarting, let’s create a project dedicated to Flutter.
Select Create New Project。
First select the Flutter option on the left, then go to the right to download the Flutter SDK, and choose your favorite location to store. The downloading action in this step may take a long time, so be patient.
Here you need to enter the name of the Project. The name only accepts lowercase and separate words with underscores. You can enter the company/organization product name below. Press Finish directly after completion.
Configure virtual machine
As soon as I opened the project, I actually had a virtual machine on the top. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the Android Studio I wrote about before. If there is no device, add a new one.
Test Flutter can compile
The current project should have test code, directly use Shift+F10 to start execution. If the compilation is successful, the screen of the simulated phone should pop up.
Press the button at the bottom right to see if the number in the center of the screen will increase! If there is no problem with the test, congratulations! Next we can start practicing Flutter.
References
- https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/9212-flutter
- https://flutter.dev/docs/development/tools/android-studio