polinews

a news app specifically for politics.

• what is rss?
• what is a webview?
• what is git & github?

why rss

rss is a simple way of accessing information published by news outlets like the new yorkt times, nzz and many other. accessing an rss feed is simple and not overly complicated. it is easy to store the news in a data structure and therefor parsing the information to a listview.builder in flutter.

why webview

since the news outlets only provide titles and quick teasers in the rss feeds, accessing the article is done through a web browser. to provide a more seamless expierence, we use a webview to present the article in-app.

getting started

what software you need

1. git or github desktop for sharing code and keeping track of features
   • gitkraken for a visual representation of commits
2. code editor (ide)
   • visual studio code
   • android studio or jetbrains intellij (community edition – free)
3. flutter by google
   • cookbook by google for flutter tutorials

widgets and features

1. futurebuilder
   • the futurebuilder shows content as soon as a function returns it (simplified)
   • tutorial by the google developer youtube channel
   • tutorial for listviews by the flutter youtube channel
2. customscrollview
   • the customscrollview provides more options to customize the ui
   • tutorial for sliverappbars by the google developer youtube channel
3. listtile
   • the listtile is a widget that provides a section for a title, subtitle and icons
   • tutorial by the flutter youtube channel

plugins

1. webfeed
   • the webfeed plugin allows flutter to parse (to process) information from a rss feed
2. webview
   • the webview shows a website inside an app
   • tutorial by the flutter youtube channel

ui concept