Flutter - Stateful Widget Doesn't Save Counter State When Switching Tabs - dart

Question

I am learning flutter and I am working with tabBars and I am having an issue with saving the state. I have put a small working example of my issue below. Basically, there is a button and a stateful counter. When I click the button, I see the text field update correctly. But, when I switch to a different tab and come back, the text field is back to zero.
I have found if i move the following line outside of _CounterState so its defined at the top level of the file, then, it works correctly. When I switch tabs, the counter stays at the correct count when I switch back
int _counter = 0;
I don't feel like this is the appropriate way to do this and all of the examples I have seen have the variable inside of the class. Can anyone give me any insights? Why would it reset if it is inside the class? Am I supposed to keep it outside the class? Below is the simplified full example.
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
void main() {
runApp(new TabBarDemo());
}
class TabBarDemo extends StatelessWidget {
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return new MaterialApp(
home: new DefaultTabController(
length: 3,
child: new Scaffold(
appBar: new AppBar(
bottom: new TabBar(
tabs: [
new Tab(icon: new Icon(Icons.directions_car)),
new Tab(icon: new Icon(Icons.directions_transit)),
new Tab(icon: new Icon(Icons.directions_bike)),
],
),
title: new Text('Tabs Demo'),
),
body: new TabBarView(
children: [
new Counter(),
new Icon(Icons.directions_transit),
new Icon(Icons.directions_bike),
],
),
),
),
);
}
}
class Counter extends StatefulWidget {
#override
_CounterState createState() => new _CounterState();
}
class _CounterState extends State<Counter> {
int _counter = 0;
void _increment() {
setState(() {
_counter++;
});
}
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return new Row(
children: <Widget>[
new RaisedButton(
onPressed: _increment,
child: new Text('Increment'),
),
new Text('Count: $_counter'),
],
);
}
}
Below is the example with the counter moved outside of the class
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
void main() {
runApp(new TabBarDemo());
}
class TabBarDemo extends StatelessWidget {
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return new MaterialApp(
home: new DefaultTabController(
length: 3,
child: new Scaffold(
appBar: new AppBar(
bottom: new TabBar(
tabs: [
new Tab(icon: new Icon(Icons.directions_car)),
new Tab(icon: new Icon(Icons.directions_transit)),
new Tab(icon: new Icon(Icons.directions_bike)),
],
),
title: new Text('Tabs Demo'),
),
body: new TabBarView(
children: [
new Counter(),
new Icon(Icons.directions_transit),
new Icon(Icons.directions_bike),
],
),
),
),
);
}
}
class Counter extends StatefulWidget {
#override
_CounterState createState() => new _CounterState();
}
int _counter = 0; //<-- MOVED OUTSIDE THE _CounterState CLASS
class _CounterState extends State<Counter> {
void _increment() {
setState(() {
_counter++;
});
}
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return new Row(
children: <Widget>[
new RaisedButton(
onPressed: _increment,
child: new Text('Increment'),
),
new Text('Count: $_counter'),
],
);
}
}

Answer 1

As _CounterState widget is built everytime you go to the given TabView you'll need to put _counter variable in the state configuration class (Counter).
class Counter extends StatefulWidget {
int _counter = 0;
#override
_CounterState createState() => new _CounterState();
}
class _CounterState extends State<Counter> {
void _increment() {
setState(() {
widget._counter++;
});
}
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return new Row(
children: <Widget>[
new RaisedButton(
onPressed: _increment,
child: new Text('Increment'),
),
new Text('Count: ${widget._counter}'),
],
);
}
}

Answer 2

As I used one solution AutomaticKeepAliveClientMixin
You need to use this mixin with your state class of StateFullWidget.
you need to pass true to wantKeepAlive getter method.
class SampleWidget extends StatefulWidget {
#override
_SampleWidgetState createState() => _SampleWidgetState();
}
class _SampleWidgetState extends State<SampleWidget> with AutomaticKeepAliveClientMixin{
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
super.build(context);
return Container();
}
#override
// TODO: implement wantKeepAlive
bool get wantKeepAlive => true;
}
This will save your state and stop your widget to recreate again. I have used it with Tabbar and PageView and it's working fine.

Answer 3

put the variable in that statefulwidget and then call it every time as "widget.variable_name"