Using packages

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2023-12-01

Flutter supports using shared packages contributed by other developers to the Flutter and Dart ecosystems. This allows you to quickly build your app without having to develop everything from scratch.

Existing packages enable many use cases, for example, making network requests (http), custom navigation/route handling (fluro), integration with device APIs (like url_launcher & battery), and using third-party platform SDKs (like Firebase).

If you are looking to develop a new package, please see developing packages.

If you are looking to add assets, images, or fonts, whether stored in files or packages, please see Assets & images.

Using packages

Searching for packages

Packages are published to the Pub site.

The Flutter landing page on the Pub site displays top packages that are compatible with Flutter (those that declare dependencies generally compatible with Flutter), and supports searching among all published packages.

Adding a package dependency to an app

To add a package ‘css_colors’ to an app:

Depend on it
- Open the pubspec.yaml file located inside your app folder, and add css_colors: under dependencies.
Install it
- From the terminal: Run flutter packages get
  OR
- From Android Studio/IntelliJ: Click ‘Packages Get’ in the action ribbon at the top of pubspec.yaml
- From VS Code: Click ‘Get Packages’ located in right side of the action ribbon at the top of pubspec.yaml
Import it
- Add a corresponding import statement in your Dart code.
Stop and restart the app, if necessary
- If the package brings platform-specific code (Java/Kotlin for Android, Swift/Objective-C for iOS), that code must be built into your app. Hot reload and hot restart do this only for the Dart code of the package, so you may have to do a full restart of the app to avoid errors like MissingPluginException when using the package.

The ‘Installing’ tab available on any package page on Pub is a handy reference for these steps.

For a complete example, see CSS Colors example below.

Developing new packages

Should a package not be available for your specific use case, you can develop new custom packages.

Managing package dependencies & versions

Package versions

All packages have a version number, specified in their pubspec.yaml file. The current version of a package is displayed next to its name (for example, see the url_launcher package), as well as a list of all prior versions (url_launcher versions).

When a package is added to pubspec.yaml using the shorthand form plugin1: this is interpreted as plugin1: any, i.e. any version of the package may be used. To ensure your app does not break when a package is updated, we recommend specifying a version range using one of the following formats:

Range constraints: Specify a minimum and maximim version. For example:
```
dependencies:
  url_launcher: '>=0.1.2 <0.2.0'
```
Range constraint with caret syntax is similar to regular range constraints:
```
dependencies:
  collection: '^0.1.2'
```

For additional details, see the Pub versioning guide.

Updating package dependencies

When you run flutter packages get (‘Packages Get’ in IntelliJ) for the first time after adding a package, Flutter saves the concrete package version found in the pubspec.lock lockfile. This ensures that you get the same version again if you, or another developer on your team, run flutter packages get.

If you want to upgrade to a new version of the package, for example to use new features in that package, run flutter packages upgrade (‘Upgrade dependencies’ in IntelliJ). This retrieves the highest available version of the package that is allowed by the version constraint you have specified in pubspec.yaml.

Dependencies on unpublished packages

Packages can be used even when not published on Pub. For private plugins not intended for public publishing, or for packages not yet ready for publishing, additional dependency options are avaialble:

Path dependency: A Flutter app can depend on a plugin via a file system path: dependency. The path can be either relative, or absolute. For example, to depend on a plugin ‘plugin1’ located in a directory next to the app, use this syntax:
```
dependencies:
  plugin1:
    path: ../plugin1/
```
Git dependency: You can also depend on a package stored in a Git repository. If the package is located in the root of the repo, use this syntax:
```
dependencies:
  plugin1:
    git:
      url: git://github.com/flutter/plugin1.git
```
Git dependency on a package in a folder: By default Pub assumes the package is located in the root of the Git repository. If that is not the case, you can specify the location with the path argument. For example:
```
dependencies:
  package1:
    git:
      url: git://github.com/flutter/packages.git
      path: packages/package1
```
Finally, you can use the ref argument to pin the dependency to a specific git commit, branch, or tag. For more details, see Pub Dependencies.

Examples

Example: Using the CSS Colors package

The css_colors package defines color constants for the CSS colors, allowing you to use them wherever the Flutter framework expects the Color type.

To use this package:

Create a new project called ‘cssdemo’

Open pubspec.yaml, and replace:

dependencies:
  flutter:
    sdk: flutter

with:

dependencies:
  flutter:
    sdk: flutter
  css_colors: ^1.0.0

Run flutter packages get in the terminal, or click ‘Packages get’ in IntelliJ
Open lib/main.dart and replace its full contents with:

import 'package:css_colors/css_colors.dart';
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      home: DemoPage(),
    );
  }
}

class DemoPage extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(body: Container(color: CSSColors.orange));
  }
}

Run the app. When you click the ‘Show Flutter homepage’ you should see the phone’s default browser open, and the Flutter homepage appear.

Example: Using the URL Launcher package to launch the browser

The URL Launcher plugin package enables you to open the default browser on the mobile platform to display a given URL. It demonstrates how packages may also contain platform-specific code (we call these packages ‘plugins’). It is supported on both Android and iOS.

To use this plugin:

Create a new project called ‘launchdemo’

Open pubspec.yaml, and replace:

dependencies:
  flutter:
    sdk: flutter

with:

dependencies:
  flutter:
    sdk: flutter
  url_launcher: ^0.4.1

Run flutter packages get in the terminal, or click ‘Packages get’ in IntelliJ
Open lib/main.dart and replace its full contents with:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:url_launcher/url_launcher.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      home: DemoPage(),
    );
  }
}

class DemoPage extends StatelessWidget {
  launchURL() {
    launch('https://flutter.io');
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      body: Center(
        child: RaisedButton(
          onPressed: launchURL,
          child: Text('Show Flutter homepage'),
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

Run the app (or stop and restart it, if you already had it running before adding the plugin). When you click the ‘Show Flutter homepage’ you should see the phone’s default browser open, and the Flutter homepage appear.