Data Layer Structure

When building Flutter apps that interact with REST APIs, keeping your data layer organized is crucial. You can achieve this by separating your API service, repository, and model classes. Each of these plays a distinct role:

• The API service handles all HTTP requests and responses;
• The repository manages data logic and acts as a bridge between your app and the API service;
• The model classes define the data structures your app works with.

This separation makes your code easier to understand, test, and maintain.

By keeping your API service, repository, and model classes separate as shown above, you make each part of your data layer responsible for only one thing. This clear division means you can update your API logic, data handling, or data models independently without breaking unrelated code. If your API changes, you only need to update the service or model, not your entire app. If you want to add caching or mock data for tests, you can do so in the repository without touching network code.