Dart Flutter Generic API Response Class Dynamic Class Data Type

Question

My app currently is working with a custom classes for each API responses as models. But I'm trying to change it, to optimize some little things, so I'm trying to implement a Class wrapper, called ApiResponse for example. But its not working fine the static call and methods, for make fromJson and toJson.

I will show what I'm trying, as example.

MyModel -> class response.
ApiResponse -> main class that contains any model class inside, and must be call child methods as itselfs 'fromjson/tojson'.
Test -> class for test purpose, errors comments on classes.

class MyModel {
  String id;
  String title;
  MyModel({this.id, this.title});

  factory MyModel.fromJson(Map<String, dynamic> json) {
    return MyModel(
      id: json["id"],
      title: json["title"],
    );
  }

  Map<String, dynamic> toJson() => {
        "id": this.id,
        "title": this.title,
      };
}

class ApiResponse<T> {
  bool status;
  String message;
  T data;
  ApiResponse({this.status, this.message, this.data});

  factory ApiResponse.fromJson(Map<String, dynamic> json) {
    return ApiResponse<T>(
        status: json["status"],
        message: json["message"],
        data: (T).fromJson(json["data"])); // The method 'fromJson' isn't defined for the type 'Type'.
                                           // Try correcting the name to the name of an existing method, or defining a method named 'fromJson'.
  }

  Map<String, dynamic> toJson() => {
        "status": this.status,
        "message": this.message,
        "data": this.data.toJson(), // The method 'toJson' isn't defined for the type 'Object'.
                                    // Try correcting the name to the name of an existing method, or defining a method named 'toJson'
      };
}

class Test {
  test() {
    ApiResponse apiResponse = ApiResponse<MyModel>();
    var json = apiResponse.toJson();
    var response = ApiResponse<MyModel>.fromJson(json);
  }
}

Answer 1

You can't call methods on types on Dart because static methods must be resolved at compile time and types do not have a value until runtime.

You can, however, pass a parser callback to your constructor and use an interface(eg. Serializable) that every model may implement. Then, by updating your ApiResponse to ApiResponse<T extends Serializable> it will know that every type T will have a toJson() method.

Here's the full example updated.

class MyModel implements Serializable {
  String id;
  String title;
  MyModel({this.id, this.title});

  factory MyModel.fromJson(Map<String, dynamic> json) {
    return MyModel(
      id: json["id"],
      title: json["title"],
    );
  }

  @override
  Map<String, dynamic> toJson() => {
        "id": this.id,
        "title": this.title,
      };
}

class ApiResponse<T extends Serializable> {
  bool status;
  String message;
  T data;
  ApiResponse({this.status, this.message, this.data});

  factory ApiResponse.fromJson(Map<String, dynamic> json, Function(Map<String, dynamic>) create) {
      return ApiResponse<T>(
      status: json["status"],
      message: json["message"],
      data: create(json["data"]),
    );
  }

  Map<String, dynamic> toJson() => {
        "status": this.status,
        "message": this.message,
        "data": this.data.toJson(),
      };
}

abstract class Serializable {
  Map<String, dynamic> toJson();
}

class Test {
  test() {
    ApiResponse apiResponse = ApiResponse<MyModel>();
    var json = apiResponse.toJson();
    var response = ApiResponse<MyModel>.fromJson(json, (data) => MyModel.fromJson(data));
  }
}