flconf CLI tool

This dart CLI tool makes it easy to run your flutter apps from different configuration sets. It can be used to differentiate development and production environments, or to build multiple apps with different native configurations (bundle ids, names, application ids) from single codebase.

How it works?

flconf reads the configuration from the config files, and passes the variables to the flutter commands using --dart-define.

Get started

Install flconf:

dart pub global activate flconf

Initialize flconf:

flconf init <configname1> <configname2>

Generate boilerplate code (IMPORTANT: this needs to be run every time you update the configurations):

flconf generate

Run the app using a configuration:

flconf run <configname>

Naming the config variables and files

When naming config variables, please use uppercase characters and underscores for spaces. For example: ANDROID_APP_ID would be a good variable name.

When naming configurations, please use underscores for spaces. For example dev or dev_conf would both be good configuration names.

Example

The following command will create dev.json and prod.json inside flconf folder at the root of the project:

flconf init dev prod

You can then run from one of these configs:

flconf run dev

How to read the configurations inside flutter, ios and android?

Dart

When running flconf generate, a boilerplate file will be generated at lib/generated/flconf.dart. This file contains a class that has variables for each variable defined in config files.

Android

When running flconf generate, all the necessary boilerplate files will be created for you. Now you can access the variables in app/build.gradle like so: flconfVariables.FLCONF_<VARIABLE_NAME>. For example:

    defaultConfig {
        applicationId flconfVariables.FLCONF_ANDROID_APP_ID
        applicationIdSuffix flconfVariables.FLCONF_ANDROID_APP_ID_SUFFIX
        minSdkVersion 23
        compileSdkVersion 31
        targetSdkVersion 31
        versionCode flutterVersionCode.toInteger()
        versionName flutterVersionName
    }

In other android files (for example AndroidManifest.xml files), you can access the variables like so: "@string/FLCONF_<VARIABLE_NAME>". For example:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="@string/FLCONF_ANDROID_APP_ID">
</manifest>

IOS

When running flconf generate, most of the necessary boilerplate files will be generated for you. However, you need to add a pre-action shell script in Xcode to be able to read the configurations inside IOS config. To add the script, follow these steps:

1. Press Cmd + < in Xcode
2. Go to Build > Pre-actions
3. Add new Run Script Action
4. Paste the following script:

# Type a script or drag a script file from your workspace to insert its path.

function entry_decode() { echo "${*}" | base64 --decode; }

IFS=',' read -r -a define_items <<< "$DART_DEFINES"


for index in "${!define_items[@]}"
do
    define_items[$index]=$(entry_decode "${define_items[$index]}");
done

printf "%s\n" "${define_items[@]}"|grep '^FLCONF_' > ${SRCROOT}/Flutter/Flconf.xcconfig

5. You are all set!

After following these steps, you can read the configuration anywhere like so: ${FLCONF_<VARIABLE_NAME>}. For example in Info.plist:

		<key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
		<string>$(FLCONF_IOS_BUNDLE_ID)</string>