samples/add_to_app/prebuilt_module

prebuild_module

Embeds a full screen instance of Flutter as a prebuilt library that can be loaded into an existing iOS or Android app.

Description

These apps are essentially identical to android_fullscreen and ios_fullscreen, respectively, with one key difference. Rather than being set up to compile the flutter_module from source each time the app is built, they import a the module as a prebuilt aar (Android) or framework (iOS). This can be useful for teams that don't want to require every developer working on the app to have the Flutter toolchain installed on their local machines.

Prior to building either project for the first time, the flutter_module needs to be built.

Building for android_using_prebuilt_module

To build flutter_module as an aar, run this command from the flutter_module directory:

flutter build aar

It will produce aar files for debug, profile, and release mode. The Android app is configured to import the appropriate aar based on its own build configuration, so if you build a debug version of the app, it will look for the debug aar, and so on.

If the flutter_module project is updated, the aar files must be rebuilt via one of the commands above in order for those changes to appear in the app.

Building for ios_using_prebuilt_module

To build flutter_module as a set of frameworks, run this command from the flutter_module directory:

flutter build ios-framework --xcframework --output=../ios_using_prebuilt_module/Flutter

This will output frameworks for debug, profile, and release modes into ios_using_prebuilt_module/Flutter. The project file for ios_using_prebuilt_module has been configured to find the frameworks there.

For more information on how to modify an existing iOS app to reference prebuilt Flutter frameworks, see this article in the Flutter GitHub wiki:

https://flutter.dev/docs/development/add-to-app/ios/project-setup

tl;dr

If you're just looking to get up and running quickly, these bash commands will fetch packages and set up dependencies (note that the above commands assume you're building for both iOS and Android, with both toolchains installed):

  #!/bin/bash
  set -e

  cd flutter_module/
  flutter pub get

  # For Android builds:
  flutter build aar
  open -a "Android Studio" ../android_using_prebuilt_module/ # macOS only
  # Or open the ../android_using_prebuilt_module folder in Android Studio for
  # other platforms.

  # For iOS builds:
  flutter build ios-framework --xcframework --output=../ios_using_prebuilt_module/Flutter
  open ../ios_using_prebuilt_module/IOSUsingPrebuiltModule.xcodeproj

Requirements

• Flutter
• Android
  • Android Studio
• iOS
  • Xcode
  • Cocoapods

Questions/issues

See add_to_app/README.md for further help.