The FlutterMapCachingWithRetryButMaybePermanentlyOfflineIfAppClosedProviderProvider discussion to cache all future discussions...

[ibrierley]

Hopefully the title will break a few clients and discourage anyone from reading :D. This is (maybe) continued from #1094 if anyone has the energy!

Firstly, in future, can anyone call their new packages, FredsFutileCachedTileProviderIWouldn'tBother or WilmasAwesomeCachedProviderUseThisOne, so it easier to get a handle ;). Every time I'm about to write something, I have to double check if I'm thinking about the right package :D.

I'm leaving out file providers for the moment, but happy for it to be brought in! Also, web is slightly different, so maybe in any docs should be clarified if it works...?

Anyway

I've rejigged this a bit from other discussion, so apologies...

I think what's unclear currently is what any Tile Caching solution has over another, or indeed over the humble OS http.get or whatever...It feels like there are several core components of which may be desirable (any more?).

1. Temporary cache, not guaranteed (I feel like FM should include this, even if its via OS). This could be until App is closed or until OS decides to clear, and maybe should be clarified so a user understands the implications.

2. Permanent "cache" (i.e where the OS can't auto clean up, so maybe that's not even cache at that point :D) (fine not to include this, but there should be info on it again).

3. Retries (feels like this is desirable as a core FM component, if not there should be info on it).

4. Placeholders

5. Other pros or cons.

I.e default flutter_map I think uses network_image_provider...does this provide caching (even if via system) and does it retry
Same for plugins like flutter_map_tile_caching, cached_tile_provider and cached_network_image. Any others of note ?

(Maybe also there should be a how to write your own as info, as typically in the past I have just done this anyway when I couldn't use FMs, but I'm out of date on that now).

Would it seem sensible or silly to have a kind of table with the features of each (with a link to the site or plugins relevant docs), would this actually be enough ?

Is there anything the average new user would be surprised at what FM doesn't provide (and should, or any reason not to) ?

There's a lot of slightly nebulous terminology when discussing this sort of thing, eg "smoothness" or "unreliable". It would be good to be somewhat clear as possible here and to users.