Building a Flutter App with OverlayPortal and Back4app Integration

introduction in this tutorial, we will learn how to use overlayportal in flutter to create dynamic overlays for widgets like tooltips or menus additionally, we’ll integrate back4app to store and manage user data, such as preferences or actions taken when interacting with the overlay by the end of this tutorial, you’ll be able to implement overlayportal in a flutter app display interactive overlays like floating menus or tooltips integrate back4app as the backend to store overlay related data (e g , user preferences or actions) prerequisites flutter environment make sure you have flutter installed follow the installation guide https //flutter dev/docs/get started/install back4app account sign up at back4app https //www back4app com/ to use as your backend basic knowledge of flutter widgets familiarity with common flutter widgets like buttons, containers, and overlays step 1 setting up back4app 1 1 create a back4app project sign in to your back4app account https //www back4app com/ and create a new project named overlaydemoapp create a parse class called overlayactions with the following fields username (string) the name of the user actiontype (string) the action taken on the overlay (e g , "opened", "closed", "clicked") timestamp (datetime) the time when the action occurred 1 2 get your back4app credentials from the back4app dashboard, navigate to your project’s settings and retrieve your application id and client key these credentials will be used to initialize back4app in your flutter app step 2 set up flutter project 2 1 create a new flutter project open your terminal and create a new flutter project flutter create overlay portal app cd overlay portal app 2 2 add dependencies open the pubspec yaml file and add the required dependencies for parse sdk and overlayportal dependencies flutter sdk flutter parse server sdk flutter ^latest version overlay portal ^0 1 0 provider ^5 0 0 run flutter pub get to install the dependencies 2 3 initialize parse sdk in lib/main dart , initialize the parse sdk with your back4app credentials import 'package\ flutter/material dart'; import 'package\ parse server sdk flutter/parse server sdk flutter dart'; void main() async { widgetsflutterbinding ensureinitialized(); const keyapplicationid = 'your back4app app id'; const keyclientkey = 'your back4app client key'; const keyparseserverurl = 'https //parseapi back4app com'; await parse() initialize( keyapplicationid, keyparseserverurl, clientkey keyclientkey, autosendsessionid true, ); runapp(myapp()); } class myapp extends statelesswidget { @override widget build(buildcontext context) { return materialapp( title 'overlay portal demo', theme themedata(primaryswatch colors blue), home overlayscreen(), ); } } replace your back4app app id and your back4app client key with your back4app credentials step 3 implementing the overlayportal in flutter 3 1 create the overlayscreen widget in lib/overlay screen dart , create the main widget where we will implement the overlayportal import 'package\ flutter/material dart'; import 'package\ overlay portal/overlay portal dart'; import 'package\ parse server sdk flutter/parse server sdk flutter dart'; class overlayscreen extends statefulwidget { @override overlayscreenstate createstate() => overlayscreenstate(); } class overlayscreenstate extends state\<overlayscreen> { final overlayportalcontroller controller = overlayportalcontroller(); bool isoverlayvisible = false; future\<void> logaction(string actiontype) async { // log action to back4app final actionobject = parseobject('overlayactions') set('username', 'player1') // example user set('actiontype', actiontype) set('timestamp', datetime now()); await actionobject save(); } void toggleoverlay() { setstate(() { isoverlayvisible = ! isoverlayvisible; if ( isoverlayvisible) { logaction('opened'); } else { logaction('closed'); } }); controller toggle(); } @override widget build(buildcontext context) { return scaffold( appbar appbar( title text('overlay portal example'), ), body center( child column( mainaxisalignment mainaxisalignment center, children \[ elevatedbutton( onpressed toggleoverlay, child text( isoverlayvisible ? 'hide overlay' 'show overlay'), ), overlayportal( controller controller, overlaychildbuilder (context) => positioned( top 150, left 50, child material( elevation 5 0, borderradius borderradius circular(8), child container( padding edgeinsets all(16 0), color colors blueaccent, child column( mainaxissize mainaxissize min, children \[ text( 'this is an overlay!', style textstyle(color colors white), ), sizedbox(height 10), elevatedbutton( onpressed () { logaction('clicked'); scaffoldmessenger of(context) showsnackbar(snackbar( content text('overlay button clicked!'), )); }, child text('click me'), ), ], ), ), ), ), ), ], ), ), ); } } in this implementation overlayportal is toggled on and off with a button press the user’s interaction (opening, closing, or clicking) is logged to back4app using the logaction method the overlay contains a message and a button that triggers an action 3 2 create the ui the ui contains a button that toggles the overlay visibility the overlay itself is positioned using the positioned widget when the overlay is visible, a floating box with a message and button appears on the screen step 4 running the app open the terminal and run the app using click the show overlay button to toggle the overlay when the overlay is visible, click the button inside the overlay all interactions (open, close, and click) will be logged to back4app step 5 viewing logged actions on back4app to verify that the user’s actions are being logged go to your back4app dashboard navigate to the overlayactions class you should see records of the actions (opened, closed, clicked) logged with timestamps step 6 customizing the overlay you can further customize the overlay by changing the position of the overlay with the positioned widget adding more complex widgets, such as forms or menus, within the overlay styling the overlay with different colors, borders, and shadows conclusion in this tutorial, you learned how to implement overlayportal in a flutter app to create interactive overlays that can be toggled on and off additionally, we integrated back4app to log user interactions with the overlay, providing a robust backend to store data and enhance the app's functionality this setup can be used to build feature rich applications where user interactions with overlays (e g , tooltips, menus, popups) are stored in the backend, offering insights into user behavior or facilitating dynamic content loading based on real time data for more information flutter overlay portal documentation https //pub dev/packages/overlay portal back4app documentation https //www back4app com/docs