Flutter: BlocBuilder vs BlocConsumer vs BlocListener

3 min readJul 6, 2021

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Flutter: Diferencias BlocBuilder, BlocConsumer y BlocListener

versión de BLoC: 6.1.0

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Start with BLoC on a Flutter app can be awful and most of the time confusing, and this is because some concepts are not clear, like this three guys: BlocBuilder, BlocListener and BlocConsumer.

So when we should use each one? … Let’s start with this in mind, we have a restaurant, it process orders, but because we’re using BLoC then we will have something like: OrdersEvent and OrdersState.

OrdersEvent: PlaceAnOrder, PayAnOrder, CancelOrder
OrdersState: OrderRequested, OrderInProgress, OrderCompleted, OrderRefunded

BlocBuilder

This is the easy one. This is used when we want to draw a Widget based on what is the current State. In the following example a new “text” gets drawn every time the state changes.

The builder is called only when the widget is created and when a rebuild exist and it returns true (for this example it only returns true when state = OrderCompleted)

buildWhen (Optional): This is flag (true/false) indicates if the builder method should be called or not, keep in mind that this is called only during a rebuild process (explained at the bottom of the article). If this returns true then builder is called, if returns false it is not called. If buildWhen is not declared then the builder is always executed.
builder (Required): This method is most important, this returns the widget that we want to draw based on the current state. i.e. The state is “OrderCompleted” then it returns “Text(‘Order Completed!’)”

BlocListener

This is just a listener not a builder (like the above), that means that its job is keep listening for new changes in the state and not to return a widget. Each time the state changes to a new state this listener will receive a notification that the state has changed and then you can trigger an action (e.g. Send a notification, consume an endpoint, analytics, etc).

So what gets draw in the screen doesn’t depends of what we receive in the listener, i.e. it doesn’t depend of the actual state (OrdersState), it reacts depending of the state.

The listener is called only one time, and this is when a rebuild process is executed.

listenWhen (Optional): This is flag (true/false) indicates if the listener method should be called or not, keep in mind that this is called only during a rebuild process (explained at the bottom of the article). If this returns true then listener is called, if returns false it is not called. If listenWhen is not declared then the listener is always executed.
listener: This method is most important, it listens for new changes in the state and execute actions based on the received state. For example: API requests, call analytics stuff, etc.

BlocConsumer

This is a mix between “BlocListener” and “BlocBuilder”. This is used when we want to draw something based on the current state and execute some actions depending on the new arriving states.

The methods “buildWhen” and “listenWhen” are optional.

The “build” does the same as in BlocBuilder and “listener” does the same as in “BlocListener”.

¿What is a rebuild and when it is executed?

It is when the BuildOwner indicates that a widget is dirty, so the build method needs to be called again in order to redraw the widget. This happens only when the widget is already built, i.e. the build process was previously called.

¿How it is related with “listenWhen” and “buildWhen”? This is because these methods “listenWhen” and “buildWhen” are called only during a rebuild process. i.e these methods are not called the first time a widget is drawn, it is called only during redraw; so the widget is drawn using the current state, then later a rebuild process is executed and these methods are called “listenWhen” and “buildWhen” in order to know if it should proceed to draw again the widget (build) or call an action (in listen).

Note: Take in mind that the rebuild process comes with a cost, that means that it affects the performance, that’s one of the reasons why there’s methods like these two “listenWhen” and “buildWhen” to avoid a redraw if is not necessary.

Conclusion: The BlocListener is different from BlocBuilder; and the BlocConsumer is merge of both. Also keep in mind to avoid the usage of BlocListener, BlocBuilder and BlocConsumer if we are not going to draw or execute and action based on an state.