How to implement navigation drawer in flutter

Table of Contents

We have come up with this new article that is useful for understanding the Navigation drawer and its page routing throughout the application.

The navigation drawer concept actually comes from the android native applications. In android, we use fragments and drawer files for managing navigation but it is bit different in flutter to create drawer and page routes, this article will help you create the same in a flutter application.

The navigation drawer is useful when you want to perform different page actions and events on different pages with the use of switching pages in the main drawer page.

Create a project structure like this

The navigation drawer is one type of listview which is used for switch pages in the application as a user will select an option.

You can create drawer in a different way like

Add only the body section with a list of actions.
Divide drawer into two sections: Header and body
Divide drawer into three sections: header, body, and footer.

AppDrawer

In flutter, we code inside <project-package>/lib/

Create navigationDrawer.dart file inside lib/navigationDrawer folder

class navigationDrawer extends StatelessWidget {
 @override
 Widget build(BuildContext context) {
   return Drawer(
     child: ListView(
       padding: EdgeInsets.zero,
       children: <Widget>[
         createDrawerHeader(),
         createDrawerBodyItem(
           icon: Icons.home,text: 'Home'),
         createDrawerBodyItem(
           icon: Icons.account_circle,text: 'Profile'),

         createDrawerBodyItem(
           icon: Icons.event_note,text: 'Events'),
         Divider(),
         createDrawerBodyItem(
           icon: Icons.notifications_active,text: 'Notifications'),
         createDrawerBodyItem(
           icon: Icons.contact_phone,text: 'Contact Info'),
         ListTile(
           title: Text('App version 1.0.0'),
           onTap: () {},
         ),
       ],
     ),
   );
 }
}

Create Navigation drawer’s widgets like _createDrawerHeader(), _creeateDrawerBodyItem() inside lib/widgets folder

createDrawerHeader.dart

Widget createDrawerHeader() {
 return DrawerHeader(
     margin: EdgeInsets.zero,
     padding: EdgeInsets.zero,
     decoration: BoxDecoration(
         image: DecorationImage(
             fit: BoxFit.fill,
             image:  AssetImage('images/bg_header.jpeg'))),
     child: Stack(children: <Widget>[
       Positioned(
           bottom: 12.0,
           left: 16.0,
           child: Text("Welcome to Flutter",
               style: TextStyle(
                   color: Colors.white,
                   fontSize: 20.0,
                   fontWeight: FontWeight.w500))),
     ]));
}

Add drawer Items

Create drawer body items in lib/widget folder with the name createDrawerBodyItem.dart

Widget createDrawerBodyItem(
   {IconData icon, String text, GestureTapCallback onTap}) {
 return ListTile(
   title: Row(
     children: <Widget>[
       Icon(icon),
       Padding(
         padding: EdgeInsets.only(left: 8.0),
         child: Text(text),
       )
     ],
   ),
   onTap: onTap,
 );
}

After creating a Navigation drawer for App, Now create routes for the open page as per the selecting option from the drawer.

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For creating routes create pageRoute.dart in lib/routes folder.

class pageRoutes {
 static const String home = homePage.routeName;
 static const String contact = contactPage.routeName;
 static const String event = eventPage.routeName;
 static const String profile = profilePage.routeName;
 static const String notification = notificationPage.routeName;
}

Adding Fragment Pages

Create fragment pages in lib/Fragments folder.

homePage.dart

class homePage extends StatelessWidget {
 static const String routeName = '/homePage';

 @override
 Widget build(BuildContext context) {
   return new Scaffold(
       appBar: AppBar(
         title: Text("Home"),
       ),
       drawer: navigationDrawer(),
              body: Center(child: Text("This is home page")));
 }
}

contactPage.dart

class contactPage extends StatelessWidget {
 static const String routeName = '/contactPage';

 @override
 Widget build(BuildContext context) {
   return new Scaffold(
       appBar: AppBar(
         title: Text("Contacts"),
       ),
       drawer: navigationDrawer(),
       body: Center(child: Text("This is contacts page")));
 }
}

eventPage.dart

class eventPage extends StatelessWidget {
 static const String routeName = '/eventPage';

 @override
 Widget build(BuildContext context) {
   return new Scaffold(
       appBar: AppBar(
         title: Text("Events"),
       ),
       drawer: navigationDrawer(),
       body: Center(child: Text("Hey! this is events list page")));
 }
}

notificationPage.dart

class notificationPage extends StatelessWidget {
 static const String routeName = '/notificationPage';

 @override
 Widget build(BuildContext context) {
   return new Scaffold(
       appBar: AppBar(
         title: Text("Notifications"),
       ),
       drawer: navigationDrawer(),
       body: Center(child: Text("This is notification page")));
 }
}

profilePage.dart

class profilePage extends StatelessWidget {
 static const String routeName = '/profilePage';

 @override
 Widget build(BuildContext context) {
   return new Scaffold(
       appBar: AppBar(
         title: Text("My Profile"),
       ),
       drawer: navigationDrawer(),
       body: Center(child: Text("This is profile page")));
 }
}

At the end

After creating a drawer header, drawer body item as well as drawer footer now its time to add set onTap() event in drawer items, so that the user can switch files as per his choice of option from drawer body item.

Edit some parts of the code in navigationDrawer.dart File

class navigationDrawer extends StatelessWidget {
 @override
 Widget build(BuildContext context) {
   return Drawer(
     child: ListView(
       padding: EdgeInsets.zero,
       children: <Widget>[
         createDrawerHeader(),
         createDrawerBodyItem(
           icon: Icons.home,
           text: 'Home',
           onTap: () =>
               Navigator.pushReplacementNamed(context, pageRoutes.home),
         ),
         createDrawerBodyItem(
           icon: Icons.account_circle,
           text: 'Profile',
           onTap: () =>
               Navigator.pushReplacementNamed(context, pageRoutes.profile),
         ),

         createDrawerBodyItem(
           icon: Icons.event_note,
           text: 'Events',
           onTap: () =>
               Navigator.pushReplacementNamed(context, pageRoutes.event),
         ),
         Divider(),
         createDrawerBodyItem(
           icon: Icons.notifications_active,
           text: 'Notifications',
           onTap: () =>
               Navigator.pushReplacementNamed(context, pageRoutes.notification),
         ),
         createDrawerBodyItem(
           icon: Icons.contact_phone,
           text: 'Contact Info',
           onTap: () =>
               Navigator.pushReplacementNamed(context, pageRoutes.contact),
         ),
         ListTile(
           title: Text('App version 1.0.0'),
           onTap: () {},
         ),
       ],
     ),
   );
 }
}

Made changes in main.dart file as well as set Default fragment and page routes in file when application starts.

void main() => runApp(new MyApp());

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
 // This widget is the root of your application.
 @override
 Widget build(BuildContext context) {
   return new MaterialApp(
     title: 'NavigationDrawer Demo',
     theme: new ThemeData(
       primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
     ),
     home: homePage(),
     routes:  {
       pageRoutes.home: (context) => homePage(),
       pageRoutes.contact: (context) => contactPage(),
       pageRoutes.event: (context) => eventPage(),
       pageRoutes.profile: (context) => profilePage(),
       pageRoutes.notification: (context) => notificationPage(),
     },
   );
 }
}

Result

Run the application and you will see the result like this

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