How to debounce Textfield onChange in Dart?

I'm trying to develop a TextField that update the data on a Firestore database when they change. It seems to work but I need to prevent the onChange event to fire multiple times.

In JS I would use lodash _debounce() but in Dart I don't know how to do it. I've read of some debounce libraries but I can't figure out how they work.

That's my code, it's only a test so something may be strange:

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


class ClientePage extends StatefulWidget {

  String idCliente;


  ClientePage(this.idCliente);

  @override
  _ClientePageState createState() => new _ClientePageState();

  
}

class _ClientePageState extends State<ClientePage> {

  TextEditingController nomeTextController = new TextEditingController();


  void initState() {
    super.initState();

    // Start listening to changes 
    nomeTextController.addListener(((){
        _updateNomeCliente(); // <- Prevent this function from run multiple times
    }));
  }


  _updateNomeCliente = (){

    print("Aggiorno nome cliente");
    Firestore.instance.collection('clienti').document(widget.idCliente).setData( {
      "nome" : nomeTextController.text
    }, merge: true);

  }



  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {

    return new StreamBuilder<DocumentSnapshot>(
      stream: Firestore.instance.collection('clienti').document(widget.idCliente).snapshots(),
      builder: (BuildContext context, AsyncSnapshot<DocumentSnapshot> snapshot) {
        if (!snapshot.hasData) return new Text('Loading...');

        nomeTextController.text = snapshot.data['nome'];


        return new DefaultTabController(
          length: 3,
          child: new Scaffold(
            body: new TabBarView(
              children: <Widget>[
                new Column(
                  children: <Widget>[
                    new Padding(
                      padding: new EdgeInsets.symmetric(
                        vertical : 20.00
                      ),
                      child: new Container(
                        child: new Row(
                          mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.spaceEvenly,
                          children: <Widget>[
                            new Text(snapshot.data['cognome']),
                            new Text(snapshot.data['ragionesociale']),
                          ],
                        ),
                      ),
                    ),
                    new Expanded(
                      child: new Container(
                        decoration: new BoxDecoration(
                          borderRadius: BorderRadius.only(
                            topLeft: Radius.circular(20.00),
                            topRight: Radius.circular(20.00)
                          ),
                          color: Colors.brown,
                        ),
                        child: new ListView(
                          children: <Widget>[
                            new ListTile(
                              title: new TextField(
                                style: new TextStyle(
                                  color: Colors.white70
                                ),
                                controller: nomeTextController,
                                decoration: new InputDecoration(labelText: "Nome")
                              ),
                            )
                          ]
                        )
                      ),
                    )
                  ],
                ),
                new Text("La seconda pagina"),
                new Text("La terza pagina"),
              ]
            ),
            appBar: new AppBar(
              title: Text(snapshot.data['nome'] + ' oh ' + snapshot.data['cognome']),
              bottom: new TabBar(          
                tabs: <Widget>[
                  new Tab(text: "Informazioni"),  // 1st Tab
                  new Tab(text: "Schede cliente"), // 2nd Tab
                  new Tab(text: "Altro"), // 3rd Tab
                ],
              ),
            ),
          )
        );
        
      },
    );

    print("Il widget id è");
    print(widget.idCliente);
    
  }
}

Implementation

Import dependencies:

import 'dart:async';

In your widget state declare a timer:

Timer? _debounce;

Add a listener method:

_onSearchChanged(String query) {
	if (_debounce?.isActive ?? false) _debounce.cancel();
	_debounce = Timer(const Duration(milliseconds: 500), () {
		// do something with query
	});
	}

Don't forget to clean up:

@override
void dispose() {
    _debounce?.cancel();
	super.dispose();
}

Usage

In your build tree hook the onChanged event:

child: TextField(
        onChanged: _onSearchChanged,
		// ...
	)

You can make Debouncer class using Timer

import 'package:flutter/foundation.dart';
import 'dart:async';

class Debouncer {
  final int milliseconds;
  Timer? _timer;

  Debouncer({required this.milliseconds});

  run(VoidCallback action) {
    _timer?.cancel();
    _timer = Timer(Duration(milliseconds: milliseconds), action);
  }
}

Declare it

final _debouncer = Debouncer(milliseconds: 500);

and trigger it

onTextChange(String text) {
  _debouncer.run(() => print(text));
}

Using BehaviorSubject from rxdart lib is a good solution. It ignores changes that happen within X seconds of the previous.

final searchOnChange = new BehaviorSubject<String>();
...
TextField(onChanged: _search)
...

void _search(String queryString) {
  searchOnChange.add(queryString);
}   

void initState() {    
  searchOnChange.debounceTime(Duration(seconds: 1)).listen((queryString) { 
  >> request data from your API
  });
}

Here is my solution

 subject = new PublishSubject<String>();
      subject.stream
          .debounceTime(Duration(milliseconds: 300))
          .where((value) => value.isNotEmpty && value.toString().length > 1)
          .distinct()
          .listen(_search);

Have a look at EasyDebounce.

EasyDebounce.debounce(
  'my-debouncer',                 // <-- An ID for this particular debouncer
   Duration(milliseconds: 500),    // <-- The debounce duration
  () => myMethod()                // <-- The target method
);

As others have suggested, implementing a custom debouncer class is not that difficult. You can also use a Flutter plugin, such as EasyDebounce.

In your case you'd use it like this:

import 'package:easy_debounce/easy_debounce.dart';

...

// Start listening to changes 
nomeTextController.addListener(((){
    EasyDebounce.debounce(
        '_updatenomecliente',        // <-- An ID for this debounce operation
        Duration(milliseconds: 500), // <-- Adjust Duration to fit your needs
        () => _updateNomeCliente()
    ); 
}));

Full disclosure: I'm the author of EasyDebounce.

I like Dart's Callable Classes for my debounce class:

import 'dart:async';

class Debounce {
  Duration delay;
  Timer? _timer;

  Debounce(
    this.delay,
  );

  call(void Function() callback) {
    _timer?.cancel();
    _timer = Timer(delay, callback);
  }

  dispose() {
    _timer?.cancel();
  }
}

Usage is simple - example on dartpad

// 1 - Create a debounce instance
final Debounce _debounce = Debounce(Duration(milliseconds: 400));

// 2 - Use it
_debounce((){ print('First'); });
_debounce((){ print('Second'); });
_debounce((){ print('Third'); });

// ...after 400ms you'll see "Third"

For your specific example, it's important to dispose the timer, in case it makes use of your TextController after it's been disposed:

final TextEditingController _controller = TextEditingController();
final Debounce _debounce = Debounce(Duration(milliseconds: 400));

@override
void dispose() {
  _controller.dispose();
  _debounce.dispose();
  super.dispose();
}

@override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
  return TextField(
    controller: _controller,
    onChanged: (String value) {
      _debounce((){
        print('Value is $value');
      });
    },
  );
}

You can use rxdart package to create an Observable using a stream then debounce it as per your requirements. I think this link would help you get started.

What about a utility function like:

import 'dart:async';

Function debounce(Function func, int milliseconds) {
  Timer timer;
  return () { // or (arg) if you need an argument
    if (timer != null) {
      timer.cancel();
    }

    timer = Timer(Duration(milliseconds: milliseconds), func); // or () => func(arg) 
  };
}

Then:

var debouncedSearch = debounce(onSearchChanged, 250);
_searchQuery.addListener(debouncedSearch);

In the future with variable arguments it could be improved.

Here's my two cents with preemptive debouncing.

import 'dart:async';

/// Used to debounce function call.
/// That means [runnable] function will be called at most once per [delay].
class Debouncer {
  int _lastTime;
  Timer _timer;
  Duration delay;

  Debouncer(this.delay)
      : _lastTime = DateTime.now().millisecondsSinceEpoch;
  
  run(Function runnable) {
    _timer?.cancel();

    final current = DateTime.now().millisecondsSinceEpoch;
    final delta = current - _lastTime;

    // If elapsed time is bigger than [delayInMs] threshold -
    // call function immediately.
    if (delta > delay.inMilliseconds) {
      _lastTime = current;
      runnable();
    } else {
      // Elapsed time is less then [delayInMs] threshold -
      // setup the timer
      _timer = Timer(delay, runnable);
    }
  }
}

This solution works for me using RxDart

final _search = TextEditingController(text: '');
  RxString searchText = ''.obs;

  @override
  void initState() {
    super.initState();
    _search.addListener(() {
      searchText.value = _search.text;
    });
    debounce(searchText, (_) {
      listenToSearch();
    }, time: const Duration(seconds: 1));
  }

  listenToSearch() {
    AlertsFilterModel filter = widget.filter;
    filter.searchText = _search.text;
    widget.sendAlertFilters(filter);
  }