When I create a new Flutter project, it asks me to choose between Java/Kotlin for Android and Objective-c/Swift for iOS. But, what does this mean? Is it in case I want to write something for Android or iOS specifically?
Yes that is correct. In Flutter you have the option to call into platform-specific APIs. This is especially useful if you need to access functionality that is not available in Flutter directly (e.g. accessing the keychain on iOS or the keystore on Android).
To do so you can open up a message channel which bridges the Dart world with the platform-specific world. You can use this message channel to send a message from Dart to you platform-specific code. This platform-specific code is either Java/Kotlin for Android or Objective-C/Swift for iOS, depending on your selections during the creation of the project.
More detailed information can be found in the Flutter documentation here: https://flutter.dev/docs/development/platform-integration/platform-channels
Just a heads up, the Flutter team and the Flutter community already wrote a lot of OSS packages and plugins that will take care of the platform-specific stuff and offer you an easy Dart API. You can search for these packages in the Pub: https://pub.dev
Related
How can I access device information without using packages in Flutter? How can I get the information of the device where the app is installed in my Flutter app?
First, you'd be better off using packages. But if you really want/need to do it, you'd have to write platform-specific code code in the native language of the targeted platform (ie. Swift or Objective-C for iOS/Mac, Kotlin or Java for Android, etc), then use so-called platform channels to pass messages between your app and the platform-specific code.
If you'd like to get details about the device, on iOS you'd use UIDevice, on Android you'd typically want Build.
This can only be done through Method Channel
I'm interested in using Flutter primarily for my startup MVP on Web and possibly Android. I see the flutter community has made a lot of widgets but a lot of them are tagged iOS or Android. Since Futter is all about using one codebase is it wrong to assume that these widgets would work on web too? I imagine the setup would be different but similar with a Flutter web app as opposed to a Flutter Android app.
I couldn't find a whole lot about this on the Flutter site. I also know that web is still beta but by the time I'm done with the MVP it'll probably be at stable release or close enough.
Well... It depends. If the widget has some sort of native code the answer is no. In Flutter there are two type of packages: the "normal" package, and the plugin.
The packages are made only of dart code, so there are no bounds to native, and you can use everywhere dart (and Flutter) can run.
The plugins are packages with native code and you can use only on the platform supported by that plugin.
For example the package provider, it's a package, and you can use in every supported platform where dart (and Flutter) can run. But url_launcher, it's a plugin, so you can run only on Android, iOS, and web, but for example on desktop, it will no work.
If the package if you found it's only a widget, you should be able to use on the web.
TLDR: No,a PWA it's a web app, so it can't run Android or iOS specific code.
I read this Android specific article and was wondering if some applications existed for Flutter aswell.
I know it is possible to run native code in Flutter, but I'd prefer a Dart native solution. I've noticed this package on pub.dev but I cannot make it work.
I've followed the posted example but I get a MissingPluginException for every call the plugin executes.
Yes You can do it by using this package .
https://pub.dev/packages/flutter_nearby_connections
I want my app to take OTP automatically, In android, we have the SMS retrieval API for that, so how to implement the same thing for IOS and android using flutter
Currently, there is no official Flutter plugin developed by the Flutter team for this. You have two options for this:
Use plugins created by the developer community. Try sms_retriever.
Write your own platform-specific code (e.g. your Android code in Java), and invoke it from Flutter. Read more about this here.
When an external component such as a Camera or File picker is needed, the Flutter for Android Developers documentation (currently in the works) states that we would have to build a native platform integration.
I currently have a device that has a built-in barcode reader with a manufacturer-provided Android API. So, for that I would need to pursue this native platform integration method - or even for playing videos or using the camera for that matter I would think.
Is there an example repo that demonstrates how a well-integrated app should be? ..a project that integrated ExoPlayer for example?
You can use platform channels to call native APIs that aren't exposed by the Flutter platform.
There is an example in the Writing custom platform-specific code docs:
The full, runnable source-code for this example is available in /examples/platform_channel/ for Android with Java and iOS with Objective-C.
If you want to make your code reusable by others, you can publish it as a package, but this is optional. There is a repo of plugins maintained by the Flutter team that you can use for inspiration.