Unable to retrieve data from RapidAPI in Flutter app

Other Questions RapidAPI
1

I’m facing an issue with loading data in my Flutter application. While it works fine when I retrieve data from a standard JSON endpoint, like https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/albums, I’m unable to fetch any data when using RapidAPI. I’m unsure if this is due to a server connection issue or an error in my setup.

If anyone has encountered similar challenges with RapidAPI, I would appreciate your insights.

Here’s my code for reference:

import 'dart:convert';
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:http/http.dart' as http;

Future<List<RecipeData>> loadRecipeData() async {
  var endPoint = Uri.https('yummly2.p.rapidapi.com', '/feeds/list',
      {"limit": "18", "start": "0", "tag": "list.recipe.popular"});

  final response = await http.get(endPoint, headers: {
    "x-rapidapi-key": "your_api_key_here",
    "x-rapidapi-host": "yummly2.p.rapidapi.com",
    "useQueryString": "true"
  });

  if (response.statusCode == 200) {
    List jsonResponse = json.decode(response.body);
    return jsonResponse.map((item) => RecipeData.fromJson(item)).toList();
  } else {
    throw Exception('Failed to load recipes');
  }
}

class RecipeData {
  final String title;

  RecipeData({required this.title});

  factory RecipeData.fromJson(Map<String, dynamic> json) {
    return RecipeData(
      title: json['name'],
    );
  }
}
2

Been there with RapidAPI - so frustrating! Check your request headers first. Some APIs get weird about User-Agent or want specific Content-Type even for GET requests. That “useQueryString” header should be boolean, not a string. Try dropping it completely and see what happens. Also caught me off guard - some RapidAPI endpoints use different base URLs than their docs show. Double-check you’re hitting the right host. When I moved from free APIs to RapidAPI, the auth flow tripped me up too. Make sure your subscription’s active and you haven’t maxed out usage limits.

3

The Yummly API doesn’t return what you’re expecting. The feeds/list endpoint gives you an object with a ‘feed’ property - that’s where the actual recipe array lives. It’s not a direct array like jsonplaceholder. You’ll need to update your parsing logic for this nested structure. Also double-check you’re using the right response field for the title - probably ‘display’ or ‘content’, not ‘name’. I ran into the same thing switching from simple REST APIs to RapidAPI. Their response formats are way more complex than standard JSON APIs.

4

make sure your api key is still working, sometimes they just expire or hit limits. try printing the full response body and the status code - that really helps with debugging!