Desktop Plugins

See the Flutter desktop page for an overview of the current state of plugin development on desktop.

This directory contains three types of plugins:

example_plugin, which like example/ will eventually be replaced by flutter create -t plugin support for desktop.
flutter_plugins, which contain desktop implementations of plugins from the flutter/plugins repository that are expected to move to an official location once the plugin APIs are sufficiently stable.
Plugins that prototype functionality that will likely become part of Flutter itself.

Using Plugins

Since the plugins in this repository are not intended to live here long term, and the flutter tool doesn't have plugin support on all platforms yet, these plugins are not published on pub.dev like normal Flutter plugins. Instead, you should include them directly from this repository.

An overview of the approach for each platform is below. See the testbed application for an example of including optional plugins, including the changes to each platform's runner in the corresponding platform directory.

Dart

Add local package references for the plugins you want to use to your pubspec.yaml. For example:

dependencies:
  ...
  example_plugin:
    path: relative/path/to/plugins/example_plugin

(On macOS, you can use a git reference instead of referencing a local copy.)

Then import it in your dart code as you would any other package:

import 'package:example_plugin/example_plugin.dart';

This step does not apply to flutter_plugins plugins, as the Dart code for those plugins comes from the official plugin.

macOS

The flutter tool now supports macOS plugins. Once the plugin is added to your pubspec.yaml, flutter run will automatically manage the platform side using CocoaPods (as with iOS plugins).

Linux

Dependencies

The Linux plugins in this project require the following libraries:

GTK 3
pkg-config

Installation example for debian-based systems:

$ sudo apt-get install libgtk-3-dev pkg-config

Adding to your Application

The flutter tool will generate a plugin registrant for you, so you won't need to change any C++ code.

Adding it to the build system is still entirely manual, and currently quite complicated. Run:

$ diff u example/linux/Makefile testbed/linux/Makefile

to see what kinds of changes are necessary to the Makefile, and adapt based on the plugins you are using. There may be change to simplify this process in the short-to-medium term while a full solution is decided on.

Note: The eventual implementation of plugin management for Linux will likely be entirely different from this approach.

Building Manually

This is relevant only if you are using the plugins without doing the above, for example in manual add-to-app experimentation.

Run make -C linux in the directory of the plugin you want to build.

Windows

Adding to your Application

The flutter tool will generate a plugin registrant for you, so you won't need to change any C++ code.

Adding it to the build system is currently a manual process. To add a plugin:

Go to File > Add > Existing Project...
Add the .vcxproj for the plugin
Go to Project > Project Dependencies...
- Make Runner depend on the plugin project
- Make the plugin project depend on Flutter Build
Edit FlutterPlugins.props to list the plugin library as a dependency. See [testbed's copy] for an example.

Note: The eventual implementation of plugin management for Windows will likely be entirely different from this approach.

Building Manually

This is relevant only if you are using the plugins without doing the above, for example in manual add-to-app experimentation.

The plugin projects are designed to be built from within the solution of the application using them. Add the .vcxproj files for the plugins you want to build to your application's .sln. (Opening a plugin project directly and trying to build it will not work with the current structure.)

The plugin builds in this project put the library at the top level of the Plugins directory in the application's build output, along with their public headers.

Writing Your Own Plugins

You can create local packages following the model of the Windows and Linux plugins here to use in your own projects; in particular, example_plugin is intended to serve as a starting point for new plugins. For macOS, you should instead pass --macos when making a plugin with flutter create to include macOS support.

Keep in mind the notes about API stability on the Flutter desktop page linked above. On platforms where the plugin API is still unstable, or where flutter tool support doesn't exist yet, you should expect to need to substantially change plugins written now as the APIs evolve.