Flutter: create a shimmer effect loader like the facebook list loader effect

Shimmer effects are loading indicators used when fetching data from a data source that can either be local or remote. It paints a view that may be similar to the actual data to be rendered on the screen when the data is available.

Instead of the usual CircularProgressIndicator or LinearProgressIndicator, shimmer effects present a more aesthetically pleasing view to the user and in some cases helps build up some anticipation of the data before it’s rendered on the screen.

Start by creating a new Flutter project in either of VS Code or Android Studio. Replace the Flutter default counter application in main.dart with your own stateful widget.

Implementing a shimmer effect

Let’s start by creating a new Flutter project.

flutter create shimmer loading

and add the dependencies and dev dependencies run command:

flutter pub add shimmer

Then open main.dart and add the following code like this:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:shimmerloading/home/home.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(const MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  const MyApp({super.key});

  // This widget is the root of your application.
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      title: 'Flutter Demo',
      theme: ThemeData(
        primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
      ),
      home: Home(),
    );
  }
}

Before Create Home stateful widget create home.dart file in home folder, then inside of it with the following code:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:shimmerloading/loader/loader.dart';

class Home extends StatefulWidget {
  const Home({Key? key}) : super(key: key);

  @override
  State<Home> createState() => _HomeState();
}

class _HomeState extends State<Home> {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(
        title: Text("Home"),
        backgroundColor: Colors.pinkAccent,
      ),
      body: Column(
        children: [
          Center(
            child: ElevatedButton(
                onPressed: ()=>{Navigator.push(context,MaterialPageRoute(builder: (context) => Loader()))},
                child: Text("Loder")
            ),
          )
        ],
      ),
    );
  }
}

Before Create Loader stateful widget create Loader.dart file in home folder, then inside of it with the following code:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:shimmer/shimmer.dart';

class Loader extends StatefulWidget {
  const Loader({Key? key}) : super(key: key);

  @override
  State<Loader> createState() => _LoaderState();
}

class _LoaderState extends State<Loader> {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(
        title: Text("Loader"),
        backgroundColor: Colors.pinkAccent,
      ),
      body: Container(
        width: double.infinity,
        padding: const EdgeInsets.symmetric(horizontal: 16.0, vertical: 16.0),
        child: Column(
          mainAxisSize: MainAxisSize.max,
          children: <Widget> [
            Expanded(
              child: Shimmer.fromColors(
                baseColor: Colors.grey[300]!,
                highlightColor: Colors.grey[100]!,
                enabled: true,
                child: ListView.builder(
                  itemBuilder: (_, __) => Padding(
                    padding: const EdgeInsets.only(bottom: 8.0),
                    child: Row(
                      crossAxisAlignment: CrossAxisAlignment.start,
                      children: [
                        Container(
                          width: 48.0,
                          height: 48.0,
                          color: Colors.white,
                        ),
                        const Padding(
                          padding: EdgeInsets.symmetric(horizontal: 8.0),
                        ),
                        Expanded(
                          child: Column(
                            crossAxisAlignment: CrossAxisAlignment.start,
                            children: <Widget>[
                              Container(
                                width: double.infinity,
                                height: 8.0,
                                color: Colors.white,
                              ),
                              const Padding(
                                padding: EdgeInsets.symmetric(vertical: 2.0),
                              ),
                              Container(
                                width: double.infinity,
                                height: 8.0,
                                color: Colors.white,
                              ),
                              const Padding(
                                padding: EdgeInsets.symmetric(vertical: 2.0),
                              ),
                              Container(
                                width: 40.0,
                                height: 8.0,
                                color: Colors.white,
                              ),
                            ],
                          ),
                        )
                      ],
                    ),
                  ),
                  itemCount: 20,
                ),
              ),
            ),
          ],
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

Output: