Flutter Access parent Scaffold from different dart file - dart

Question

I have this:
final GlobalKey<ScaffoldState> _scaffoldkey = new GlobalKey<ScaffoldState>();
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return DefaultTabController(
length: 2,
child: Scaffold(
key: _scaffoldkey,
drawer: Menu(),
appBar: AppBar(
title: Container(
child: Text('Dashboard'),
),
bottom: TabBar(
tabs: <Widget>[
...
],
),
),
body: TabBarView(
children: <Widget>[
...
],
),
),
);
}
}
Now, the drawer: Menu() is imported from another menu.dart file, which looks like this:
class Menu extends StatelessWidget {
final GlobalKey<ScaffoldState> drawerKey = new GlobalKey<ScaffoldState>();
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return new Drawer(
key: drawerKey,
child: new ListView(
children: <Widget>[
new ListTile(
dense: true,
title: new Text('My Text'),
onTap: () {
// On tap this, I want to show a snackbar.
scaffoldKey.currentState.showSnackBar(showSnack('Error. Could not log out'));
},
),
],
),
);
}
}
With the above approach, I get
NoSuchMethodError: The method 'showSnackBar' was called on null.
An easy solution is to tuck the entire menu.dart contents in the drawer: ... directly.
Another way I'm looking at is being able to reference the parent scaffold in order to display the snackbar.
How can one achieve that?
Why can't one even just call the snackbar from anywhere in Flutter and compulsorily it has to be done via the Scaffold? Just why?

Answer 1

You should try to avoid using GlobalKey as much as possible; you're almost always better off using Scaffold.of to get the ScaffoldState. Since your menu is below the scaffold in the widget tree, Scaffold.of(context) will do what you want.
The reason what you're attempting to do doesn't work is that you are creating two seperate GlobalKeys - each of which is its own object. Think of them as global pointers - since you're creating two different ones, they point to different things. And the state should really be failing analysis since you're passing the wrong type into your Drawer's key field...
If you absolutely have to use GlobalKeys for some reason, you would be better off passing the instance created in your outer widget into your Menu class as a member i.e. this.scaffoldKey, but this isn't recommended.
Using Scaffold.of, this is what your code would look like in the onTap function:
onTap: () {
// On tap this, I want to show a snackbar.
Scaffold.of(context).showSnackBar(showSnack('Error. Could not log out'));
},

Answer 2

You can achieve this functionality by using builder widget you don't need to make separate GlobalKey or pass key as a parameter. Just wrap a widget to Builder widget
class CustomDrawer extends StatelessWidget {#override Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return new Drawer(
child: new ListView(
children: <Widget>[
new Builder(builder: (BuildContext innerContext) {
return ListTile(
dense: true,
title: new Text('My Text'),
onTap: () {
Navigator.of(context).pop();
Scaffold.of(innerContext).showSnackBar(SnackBar(
content: Text('Added added into cart'),
duration: Duration(seconds: 2),
action: SnackBarAction(label: 'UNDO', onPressed: () {}),
));
}
);
})
],
),
);}}

Answer 3

From your first question
In other to reference the parent scaffold in the menu widget you can pass the _scaffoldkey to the menu widget as parameter and use ScaffoldMessenger.of() to show snackbar as shown below
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
void main() => runApp(MyApp());
class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
// Root Widget
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return MaterialApp(
// App name
title: 'Flutter SnackBar',
// Theme
theme: ThemeData(
primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
),
home: Test(title: 'SnackBar'),
);
}
}
class Test extends StatefulWidget {
final String? title;
final GlobalKey<ScaffoldState> _scaffoldkey = new GlobalKey<ScaffoldState>();
Test({#required this.title});
#override
_TestState createState() => _TestState();
}
class _TestState extends State<Test> {
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return DefaultTabController(
length: 2,
child: Scaffold(
key: widget._scaffoldkey,
drawer: Menu(parentScaffoldkey:widget._scaffoldkey),
appBar: AppBar(
title: Container(
child: Text('Dashboard'),
),
bottom: TabBar(
tabs: <Widget>[
Tab(text:"Home"),
Tab(text:"About")
],
),
),
body: TabBarView(
children: <Widget>[
Text("Home"),
Text("About")
],
),
),
);
}
}
Menu part as shown
class Menu extends StatelessWidget {
final parentScaffoldkey;
Menu({this.parentScaffoldkey});
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return new Drawer(
child: new ListView(
children: <Widget>[
new ListTile(
dense: true,
title: new Text('My Text'),
onTap: () {
// On tap show a snackbar.
// ScaffoldMessenger will call the nearest Scaffold to show snackbar
ScaffoldMessenger.of(this.parentScaffoldkey.currentContext).showSnackBar(SnackBar(content:Text('Error. Could not log out')));
},
),
],
),
);
}
}
Also,you have to call snackbar via Scaffold because it provides the SnackBar API and manages it