Welcome to our guide on adding an exciting feature to your Flutter application’s text display: the Inline-Image-In-Text feature! This handy trick allows you to seamlessly integrate images within text blocks, enhancing the visual appeal of your application.

Getting Started

Before we dive into the implementation, let’s note that this feature has been a long-standing request in the Flutter community. According to related Flutter Issues (#2022), this functionality has been missing for over two years, primarily because RichText and its underlying Paragraph framework only support pure text. However, fret not! We have a clever workaround:

• Consider images as special types of TextSpan, adjusting their width and height to mimic text properties such as letterSpacing and fontSize. This helps the original paragraph manage layout operations and allocate space for images.
• Override the paint function to calculate the correct offset using the getOffsetForCaret() API, allowing us to draw images precisely in the allocated space.

For a deeper dive, check out the source code for all the intricate details!

Usage

Implementing this feature is straightforward! First, you need to convert your original text into a TextSpan–ImageSpan list structure. Below is how you can do that effectively:

import 'package:flutter/gestures.dart';
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:real_rich_text/real_rich_text.dart';

void main() => runApp(MyApp());

class MyApp extends StatefulWidget {
  @override
  _MyAppState createState() => _MyAppState();
}

class _MyAppState extends State {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      home: Scaffold(
        appBar: AppBar(
          title: const Text('Plugin example app'),
        ),
        body: Center(
          child: RealRichText([
            TextSpan(
              text: 'A Text Link',
              style: TextStyle(color: Colors.red, fontSize: 14),
              recognizer: TapGestureRecognizer()
                ..onTap = () => debugPrint('Link Clicked.'),
            ),
            ImageSpan(
              AssetImage('packages/real_rich_text/images/emoji_9.png'),
              imageWidth: 24,
              imageHeight: 24,
            ),
            ImageSpan(
              AssetImage('packages/real_rich_text/images/emoji_10.png'),
              imageWidth: 24,
              imageHeight: 24,
              margin: EdgeInsets.symmetric(horizontal: 10),
            ),
            TextSpan(
              text: ',',
              style: TextStyle(color: Colors.yellow, fontSize: 14),
            ),
            TextSpan(
              text: '@Somebody',
              style: TextStyle(
                  color: Colors.black,
                  fontSize: 14,
                  fontWeight: FontWeight.bold),
              recognizer: TapGestureRecognizer()
                ..onTap = () => debugPrint('Link Clicked.'),
            ),
            TextSpan(
              text: ' #RealRichText# ',
              style: TextStyle(color: Colors.blue, fontSize: 14),
              recognizer: TapGestureRecognizer()
                ..onTap = () => debugPrint('Link Clicked.'),
            ),
            TextSpan(
              text: 'showing a bigger image',
              style: TextStyle(color: Colors.black, fontSize: 14),
            ),
            ImageSpan(
              AssetImage('packages/real_rich_text/images/emoji_10.png'),
              imageWidth: 24,
              imageHeight: 24,
              margin: EdgeInsets.symmetric(horizontal: 5),
            ),
            TextSpan(
              text: ' and seems working perfect……',
              style: TextStyle(color: Colors.black, fontSize: 14),
            ),
          ]),
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

This code effectively constructs a MaterialApp containing rich text with integrated image spans. The ImageSpan class is crucial here, as it wraps images for display within our RealRichText widget.

Note

It’s essential to specify the width and height properties for ImageSpan. If your images come without specific dimensions, consider wrapping two RealRichText instances in a StatefulWidget: one for displaying a placeholder image, and the second for the actual image once it’s loaded.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues while implementing this feature, here are some common troubleshooting tips:

• Ensure that the image paths are correct and accessible.
• Verify that you have specified the height and width for all ImageSpan
• Check for any errors in the console that may indicate issues with your TextSpan structures.

For more insights, updates, or to collaborate on AI development projects, stay connected with fxis.ai.

Conclusion

With this clever trick under your belt, you can now create more dynamic and engaging text experiences in your Flutter applications. At fxis.ai, we believe that such advancements are crucial for the future of AI, as they enable more comprehensive and effective solutions. Our team is continually exploring new methodologies to push the envelope in artificial intelligence, ensuring that our clients benefit from the latest technological innovations.