dart - Flutter: BottomNavigationBar rebuilds Page on change of tab

Question

I have a problem with my BottomNavigationBar in Flutter. I want to keep my page alive if I change the tabs.

here my implementation

BottomNavigation

class Home extends StatefulWidget {
  @override
  State<StatefulWidget> createState() {
    return _HomeState();
  }
}

class _HomeState extends State<Home> {
  int _currentIndex = 0;
  List<Widget> _children;
  final Key keyOne = PageStorageKey("IndexTabWidget");

  @override
  void initState() {
    _children = [
      IndexTabWidget(key: keyOne),
      PlaceholderWidget(Colors.green),
      NewsListWidget(),
      ShopsTabWidget(),
      PlaceholderWidget(Colors.blue),
    ];
    super.initState();
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(
        title: Text(MyApp.appName),
        textTheme: Theme.of(context).textTheme.apply(
              bodyColor: Colors.black,
              displayColor: Colors.blue,
            ),
      ),
      body: _children[_currentIndex],
      bottomNavigationBar: BottomNavigationBar(
        onTap: onTabTapped,
        key: IHGApp.globalKey,
        fixedColor: Colors.green,
        type: BottomNavigationBarType.fixed,
        currentIndex: _currentIndex,
        items: [
          BottomNavigationBarItem(
            icon: Icon(Icons.home),
            title: Container(height: 0.0),
          ),
          BottomNavigationBarItem(
            icon: Icon(Icons.message),
            title: Container(height: 0.0),
          ),
          BottomNavigationBarItem(
            icon: Icon(Icons.settings),
            title: Container(height: 0.0),
          ),
          BottomNavigationBarItem(
            icon: Icon(Icons.perm_contact_calendar),
            title: Container(height: 0.0),
          ),
          BottomNavigationBarItem(
            icon: Icon(Icons.business),
            title: Container(height: 0.0),
          ),
        ],
      ),
    );
  }

  void onTabTapped(int index) {
    setState(() {
      _currentIndex = index;
    });
  }

  Column buildButtonColumn(IconData icon) {
    Color color = Theme.of(context).primaryColor;

    return Column(
      mainAxisSize: MainAxisSize.min,
      mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
      children: [
        Icon(icon, color: color),
      ],
    );
  }
}

This is my index page (first tab):

class IndexTabWidget extends StatefulWidget {
  IndexTabWidget({Key key}) : super(key: key);

  @override
  State<StatefulWidget> createState() {
    return new IndexTabState();
  }
}

class IndexTabState extends State<IndexTabWidget>
    with AutomaticKeepAliveClientMixin {
  List<News> news = List();
  FirestoreNewsRepo newsFirestore = FirestoreNewsRepo();

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Material(
      color: Colors.white,
      child: new Container(
        child: new SingleChildScrollView(
          child: new ConstrainedBox(
            constraints: new BoxConstraints(),
            child: new Column(
              children: <Widget>[
                HeaderWidget(
                  CachedNetworkImageProvider(
                    'https://static1.fashionbeans.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/50-barbershop-top-savill.jpg',
                  ),
                  "",
                ),
                AboutUsWidget(),
                Padding(
                  padding: const EdgeInsets.all(16.0),
                  child: SectionTitleWidget(title: StringStorage.salonsTitle),
                ),
                StreamBuilder(
                  stream: newsFirestore.observeNews(),
                  builder: (context, snapshot) {
                    if (!snapshot.hasData) {
                      return CircularProgressIndicator();
                    } else {
                      news = snapshot.data;
                      return Column(
                        children: <Widget>[
                          ShopItemWidget(
                            AssetImage('assets/images/picture.png'),
                            news[0].title,
                            news[0],
                          ),
                          ShopItemWidget(
                            AssetImage('assets/images/picture1.png'),
                            news[1].title,
                            news[1],
                          )
                        ],
                      );
                    }
                  },
                ),
                Padding(
                  padding: const EdgeInsets.only(
                      left: 16.0, right: 16.0, bottom: 16.0),
                  child: SectionTitleWidget(title: StringStorage.galleryTitle),
                ),
                GalleryCategoryCarouselWidget(),
              ],
            ),
          ),
        ),
      ),
    );
  }

  @override
  bool get wantKeepAlive => true;
}

So if I switch from my index tab to any other tab and back to the index tab, the index tab will always rebuild. I debugged it and saw that the build function is always being called on the tab switch.

Could you guys help me out with this issue?

Thank you a lot Albo

Answer 1

None of the previous answers worked out for me.

The solution to keep the pages alive when switching the tabs is wrapping your Pages in an IndexedStack.

class Tabbar extends StatefulWidget {
  Tabbar({this.screens});

  static const Tag = "Tabbar";
  final List<Widget> screens;
  @override
  State<StatefulWidget> createState() {
  return _TabbarState();
  }
}

class _TabbarState extends State<Tabbar> {
  int _currentIndex = 0;
  Widget currentScreen;

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    var _l10n = PackedLocalizations.of(context);

    return Scaffold(
  body: IndexedStack(
    index: _currentIndex,
    children: widget.screens,
  ),
  bottomNavigationBar: BottomNavigationBar(
    fixedColor: Colors.black,
    type: BottomNavigationBarType.fixed,
    onTap: onTabTapped,
    currentIndex: _currentIndex,
    items: [
      BottomNavigationBarItem(
        icon: new Icon(Icons.format_list_bulleted),
        title: new Text(_l10n.tripsTitle),
      ),
      BottomNavigationBarItem(
        icon: new Icon(Icons.settings),
        title: new Text(_l10n.settingsTitle),
      )
    ],
  ),
);
  }

  void onTabTapped(int index) {
    setState(() {
      _currentIndex = index;
    });
  }
}