
This change enables Flutter to generate multiple Scenes to be rendered into separate FlutterViews from a single widget tree. Each Scene is described by a separate render tree, which are all associated with the single widget tree. This PR implements the framework-side mechanisms to describe the content to be rendered into multiple views. Separate engine-side changes are necessary to provide these views to the framework and to draw the framework-generated Scene into them. ## Summary of changes The details of this change are described in [flutter.dev/go/multiple-views](https://flutter.dev/go/multiple-views). Below is a high-level summary organized by layers. ### Rendering layer changes * The `RendererBinding` no longer owns a single `renderView`. In fact, it doesn't OWN any `RenderView`s at all anymore. Instead, it offers an API (`addRenderView`/`removeRenderView`) to add and remove `RenderView`s that then will be MANAGED by the binding. The `RenderView` itself is now owned by a higher-level abstraction (e.g. the `RawView` Element of the widgets layer, see below), who is also in charge of adding it to the binding. When added, the binding will interact with the `RenderView` to produce a frame (e.g. by calling `compositeFrame` on it) and to perform hit tests for incoming pointer events. Multiple `RenderView`s can be added to the binding (typically one per `FlutterView`) to produce multiple Scenes. * Instead of owning a single `pipelineOwner`, the `RendererBinding` now owns the root of the `PipelineOwner` tree (exposed as `rootPipelineOwner` on the binding). Each `PipelineOwner` in that tree (except for the root) typically manages its own render tree typically rooted in one of the `RenderView`s mentioned in the previous bullet. During frame production, the binding will instruct each `PipelineOwner` of that tree to flush layout, paint, semantics etc. A higher-level abstraction (e.g. the widgets layer, see below) is in charge of adding `PipelineOwner`s to this tree. * Backwards compatibility: The old `renderView` and `pipelineOwner` properties of the `RendererBinding` are retained, but marked as deprecated. Care has been taken to keep their original behavior for the deprecation period, i.e. if you just call `runApp`, the render tree bootstrapped by this call is rooted in the deprecated `RendererBinding.renderView` and managed by the deprecated `RendererBinding.pipelineOwner`. ### Widgets layer changes * The `WidgetsBinding` no longer attaches the widget tree to an existing render tree. Instead, it bootstraps a stand-alone widget tree that is not backed by a render tree. For this, `RenderObjectToWidgetAdapter` has been replaced by `RootWidget`. * Multiple render trees can be bootstrapped and attached to the widget tree with the help of the `View` widget, which internally is backed by a `RawView` widget. Configured with a `FlutterView` to render into, the `RawView` creates a new `PipelineOwner` and a new `RenderView` for the new render tree. It adds the new `RenderView` to the `RendererBinding` and its `PipelineOwner` to the pipeline owner tree. * The `View` widget can only appear in certain well-defined locations in the widget tree since it bootstraps a new render tree and does not insert a `RenderObject` into an ancestor. However, almost all Elements expect that their children insert `RenderObject`s, otherwise they will not function properly. To produce a good error message when the `View` widget is used in an illegal location, the `debugMustInsertRenderObjectIntoSlot` method has been added to Element, where a child can ask whether a given slot must insert a RenderObject into its ancestor or not. In practice, the `View` widget can be used as a child of the `RootWidget`, inside the `view` slot of the `ViewAnchor` (see below) and inside a `ViewCollection` (see below). In those locations, the `View` widget may be wrapped in other non-RenderObjectWidgets (e.g. InheritedWidgets). * The new `ViewAnchor` can be used to create a side-view inside a parent `View`. The `child` of the `ViewAnchor` widget renders into the parent `View` as usual, but the `view` slot can take on another `View` widget, which has access to all inherited widgets above the `ViewAnchor`. Metaphorically speaking, the view is anchored to the location of the `ViewAnchor` in the widget tree. * The new `ViewCollection` widget allows for multiple sibling views as it takes a list of `View`s as children. It can be used in all the places that accept a `View` widget. ## Google3 As of July 5, 2023 this change passed a TAP global presubmit (TGP) in google3: tap/OCL:544707016:BASE:545809771:1688597935864:e43dd651 ## Note to reviewers This change is big (sorry). I suggest focusing the initial review on the changes inside of `packages/flutter` first. The majority of the changes describe above are implemented in (listed in suggested review order): * `rendering/binding.dart` * `widgets/binding.dart` * `widgets/view.dart` * `widgets/framework.dart` All other changes included in the PR are basically the fallout of what's implemented in those files. Also note that a lot of the lines added in this PR are documentation and tests. I am also very happy to walk reviewers through the code in person or via video call, if that is helpful. I appreciate any feedback. ## Feedback to address before submitting ("TODO")
Flutter is Google's SDK for crafting beautiful, fast user experiences for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase. Flutter works with existing code, is used by developers and organizations around the world, and is free and open source.
Documentation
For announcements about new releases, follow the flutter-announce@googlegroups.com mailing list. Our documentation also tracks breaking changes across releases.
Terms of service
The Flutter tool may occasionally download resources from Google servers. By downloading or using the Flutter SDK, you agree to the Google Terms of Service: https://policies.google.com/terms
For example, when installed from GitHub (as opposed to from a prepackaged
archive), the Flutter tool will download the Dart SDK from Google servers
immediately when first run, as it is used to execute the flutter
tool itself.
This will also occur when Flutter is upgraded (e.g. by running the flutter upgrade
command).
About Flutter
We think Flutter will help you create beautiful, fast apps, with a productive, extensible and open development model, whether you're targeting iOS or Android, web, Windows, macOS, Linux or embedding it as the UI toolkit for a platform of your choice.
Beautiful user experiences
We want to enable designers to deliver their full creative vision without being forced to water it down due to limitations of the underlying framework. Flutter's layered architecture gives you control over every pixel on the screen and its powerful compositing capabilities let you overlay and animate graphics, video, text, and controls without limitation. Flutter includes a full set of widgets that deliver pixel-perfect experiences whether you're building for iOS (Cupertino) or other platforms (Material), along with support for customizing or creating entirely new visual components.
Fast results
Flutter is fast. It's powered by the same hardware-accelerated 2D graphics library that underpins Chrome and Android: Skia. We architected Flutter to support glitch-free, jank-free graphics at the native speed of your device. Flutter code is powered by the world-class Dart platform, which enables compilation to 32-bit and 64-bit ARM machine code for iOS and Android, as well as JavaScript for the web and Intel x64 for desktop devices.
Productive development
Flutter offers stateful hot reload, allowing you to make changes to your code and see the results instantly without restarting your app or losing its state.
Extensible and open model
Flutter works with any development tool (or none at all), and also includes editor plug-ins for both Visual Studio Code and IntelliJ / Android Studio. Flutter provides tens of thousands of packages to speed your development, regardless of your target platform. And accessing other native code is easy, with support for both FFI (on Android, on iOS, on macOS, and on Windows) as well as platform-specific APIs.
Flutter is a fully open-source project, and we welcome contributions. Information on how to get started can be found in our contributor guide.