What is the difference between BaseInputField and TextField?

Question

I'm reading a flutter source code and there is a widget named BaseInputField inside it. Is BaseInputField a standard Flutter widget? If so when we use BaseInputField instead of TextField and why? What is the difference between the two and what are the benefits?

Answer 1

BaseInputField is not a standard Flutter widget, so it’s likely that it’s a custom widget created for the specific project you’re looking at.

Developers often create custom widgets to encapsulate and reuse code throughout their projects.

On the other hand, TextField is a basic Flutter widget that is used to collect basic text input from a user. You should first get proficient with this fundamental widget.

The BaseInputField could be a custom widget that extends or wraps the TextField or TextFormField to provide additional functionality or to customize the appearance.

Sample Code :

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

class BaseInputField extends StatelessWidget {
  final String hint;
  final TextEditingController controller;
  final TextInputType keyboardType;

  BaseInputField({
    required this.hint,
    required this.controller,
    this.keyboardType = TextInputType.text,
  });

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return TextField(
      controller: controller,
      keyboardType: keyboardType,
      decoration: InputDecoration(
        hintText: hint,
        contentPadding: EdgeInsets.symmetric(vertical: 10.0, horizontal: 20.0),
        border: OutlineInputBorder(
          borderRadius: BorderRadius.all(Radius.circular(32.0)),
        ),
        enabledBorder: OutlineInputBorder(
          borderSide: BorderSide(color: Colors.blueAccent, width: 1.0),
          borderRadius: BorderRadius.all(Radius.circular(32.0)),
        ),
        focusedBorder: OutlineInputBorder(
          borderSide: BorderSide(color: Colors.blueAccent, width: 2.0),
          borderRadius: BorderRadius.all(Radius.circular(32.0)),
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

You can use this BaseInputField in your app like this:

BaseInputField(
  hint: 'Enter your text here',
  controller: myTextController,
)