getting-started.md

Getting started

How it works ?

Due to Dart limitation on Flutter and Web browser, Chopper does not use reflection but code generation with the help of the build and source_gen packages from the Dart Team.

Installation

First you need to add chopper and chopper_generator to your project dependencies.

# pubspec.yaml

dependencies:
  chopper: ^2.0.0

dev_dependencies:
  build_runner: ^1.0.0
  chopper_generator: ^2.0.0

And run pub get

Define your API

ChopperApi

To define a client, use the ChopperApi annotation on a class and extends the ChopperService client.

// YOUR_FILE.dart

import "dart:async";
import 'package:chopper/chopper.dart';

// this is necessary for the generated code to find your class
part "YOUR_FILE.chopper.dart";

@ChopperApi(baseUrl: "/todos")
abstract class TodosListService extends ChopperService {

  // helper methods that help you instantiate your service
  static TodosListService create([ChopperClient client]) => 
      _$TodosListService(client);
}

ChopperApi annotation takes one optional parameter, the baseUrl that will prefix all the request define in the class.

Define a request

To define a request, use one of the following annotations Get, Post, Put, Patch, Delete and must return a Future<Response>

Let's say you want to do a GET request on the following endpoint /todos/TODO_ID, add the following method declaration to your class.

@Get(path: '/{id}')
Future<Response> getTodo(@Path() String id);

Using {id} and the Path annotation your are telling chopper to replace {id} in the url by the value of the id parameter.

ChopperClient

After defining your ChopperService you need to attribute a ChopperClient to it. The ChopperClient will manage the server hostname to call and can handle multiple ChopperService. It is also responsible of applying interceptors and converter to your requests.

import "dart:async";
import 'package:chopper/chopper.dart';

import 'YOUR_FILE.dart';

void main() async {
  final chopper = ChopperClient(
      baseUrl: "http://my-server:8000",
      services: [
        // inject the generated service
        TodosListService.create()
      ],
    );

  /// retrieve your service
  final todosService = chopper.getService<TodosListService>();
  /// or create a new one
  final todosService = TodosListService.create(chopper);

  /// then call your function
  final response = await todosService.getTodosList();
  
  if (response.isSuccessful) {
    // successful request
    final body = response.body;
  } else {
    // error from server
    final code = response.statusCode;
    final error = response.error;
  }
}