From Hard Code to Low Code: My Journey with FlutterFlow

---

At BluShift, we’re constantly learning, adapting, and exploring new ways to build better. That’s why we love sharing the stories behind the tech and the people creating it. In this edition of Shifted Perspectives, we’re handing over to Michael Bezuidenhout, one of our developers and Product Team Lead at BluShift. Mike’s a full-stack developer who made the leap from traditional code to low-code, and in this piece, he shares what that journey looked like, what he’s learned, and why FlutterFlow has become one of his go-to tools for balancing speed, scale, and customisation.

Since 2020, Mike has been working as a full-stack developer, beginning his career with a strong foundation in Java and JavaScript. Over the years, he expanded his skill set by self-teaching React and later picking up Dart to build Flutter apps, skills acquired through the natural progression of job changes and exposure to various technical demands. It wasn’t until joining BluShift that he encountered the world of low-code development. Thrown into a new environment where FlutterFlow was the primary development tool, he quickly had to adapt and discovered it was not only intuitive but surprisingly powerful.

---

Transitioning from a fully hard-coded development environment to a low-code tool like FlutterFlow has been a journey filled with both challenges and incredible rewards. Coming from a traditional coding background with Flutter, where everything is built from the ground up with code, I initially found it challenging to adapt my problem-solving approach. It was like stepping into a whole new world, one where I had to learn not only how the tool worked but also how to creatively work within its limitations to achieve the same outcomes I was used to building with code.

One of the most eye-opening realisations has been how much faster development can be with FlutterFlow. According to the official FlutterFlow documentation and industry case studies, low-code platforms like FlutterFlow can reduce development time significantly compared to traditional coding methods. This boosts speed to market and accelerates the iteration cycle. Instead of spending hours setting up complex layouts or integrating back-end services manually, FlutterFlow's visual builder and built-in integrations can handle much of this work with just a few clicks.

But make no mistake, low-code does not mean "no code." A common misconception is that low-code tools limit your ability to implement custom functionality or complex logic. This couldn't be further from the truth with FlutterFlow. The platform supports custom functions, custom widgets, and custom actions through both JavaScript and Dart.

I’ve had plenty of opportunities to dive into custom code to build complex widgets and solve unique challenges, blending the best of both worlds, visual development and traditional coding. One standout example was when I needed to create a highly interactive calendar component with functionality beyond what FlutterFlow’s native widgets could offer. The built-in options didn’t quite meet the specific requirements, such as multi-day selection, colour-coded tags for different event categories, and tight integration with various calendars and Firestore for real-time updates and synchronisation.

To solve this, I took a hybrid approach. First, I leveraged FlutterFlow’s support for importing external packages by integrating a third-party calendar library directly into my project, following the FlutterFlow documentation on custom packages and widgets. This gave a solid base of functionality to work with. From there, I extended the widget with my own custom Dart code to add app-specific features and logic that the imported library didn’t support out of the box.

FlutterFlow’s flexibility allowed me to design the UI visually while embedding this powerful, hard-coded logic under the hood. Without the ability to extend and customise FlutterFlow in this way, these solutions would have been far more difficult or even impossible to implement.

For those who are hesitant about low-code because they fear losing control over their application's logic and design, I can confidently say that FlutterFlow strikes a great balance. It offers the convenience of rapid development while still allowing developers to inject code wherever needed, maintaining the power and flexibility that hardcore coders love.

Overall, my transition to FlutterFlow has been a valuable experience. It’s allowed me to speed up development without sacrificing complexity or creativity. If you're a developer who is looking to enhance your workflow and boost productivity, I highly recommend exploring what low-code tools like FlutterFlow have to offer.