feedback_kit 0.1.0

In-app feedback boards, voting and a public roadmap for Flutter. Auth-agnostic: bring your own identity via a FeedbackIdentityProvider, or let the built-in anonymous device identity handle it. Pairs w [...]

feedback_kit

In-app feedback boards, voting and a public roadmap for Flutter. Users submit feature requests, vote on each other's, and follow what you decided to build. Pairs with the platform Feedback service, and speaks nothing but its public API.

Auth-agnostic by construction. The package never holds a board's signing key and never signs an identity itself. For an authenticated board your backend signs a short-lived token and this package carries it; for an anonymous board AnonymousDeviceIdentity needs no backend at all.

Install

dependencies:
  feedback_kit: ^0.1.0

Anonymous board — no login required

The lowest-friction setup. A random device token is generated once and kept in shared preferences; the service stores only its HMAC, so a database dump cannot be replayed as somebody's device.

final config = FeedbackConfig(
  baseUrl: Uri.parse('https://feedback.example.com'),
  boardPublicKey: 'cms6ie1qh0001ngy27ynms88q', // from the board's settings
  identityProvider: AnonymousDeviceIdentity(),
);

Navigator.of(context).push(MaterialPageRoute(
  builder: (_) => FeedbackBoardScreen(config: config),
));

The board's public key is safe to ship in an app binary. Its signing key is not — that one belongs in a backend, and only for the mode below.

Authenticated board — your users, your identity

Your backend holds the board's signing key and mints a token for the signed-in user. The kit asks your code for that token and sends it as a header; it never sees the key.

identityProvider: CallbackIdentityProvider(
  getToken: () async {
    final res = await myApi.get('/feedback-token');   // your endpoint
    return res.data['token'] as String?;
  },
),

Returning null is a legitimate answer — a signed-out user then gets a readable board with a sign-in hint instead of an error.

What your backend has to do

Sign a compact HMAC token. It is deliberately not a JWT: no algorithm field means no alg: none to get wrong.

payload = base64url(json({ sub, name?, email?, exp }))   // exp: unix seconds, ≤ 24h
token   = payload + "." + base64url(HMAC-SHA256(signingKey, payload))

sub is your own user id — opaque to the service, and what one-vote-per-person is counted against. Node example:

const payload = Buffer.from(JSON.stringify({
  sub: user.id, name: user.displayName, exp: Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + 3600,
})).toString('base64url')

const mac = crypto.createHmac('sha256', FEEDBACK_SIGNING_KEY)
  .update(payload).digest('base64url')

res.json({ token: `${payload}.${mac}` })

Rotating the key in the platform invalidates every issued token immediately, so deploy the new key before rotating.

Screens

Widget	What it is
FeedbackBoardScreen	The entry point: list, sort, vote, submit, link to the roadmap
FeedbackPostScreen	One request with its comment thread and a reply box
FeedbackSubmitScreen	The submission form, with an opt-in for status mail
FeedbackRoadmapScreen	The public roadmap, one tab per column

FeedbackBoardScreen reads the board's configuration first, so which tabs appear and whether anyone may act follows from the board's settings rather than from what the app was compiled with — switching a board to read-only needs no app release.

Hosting it inside your own tab bar:

FeedbackBoardScreen(config: config, showAppBar: false)

Theming

Defaults derive from the ambient ThemeData. The board's own brandColor, when set, wins over accent — a product embedding somebody else's board should look like the board.

FeedbackBoardScreen(
  config: config,
  theme: const FeedbackTheme(accent: Colors.teal, showStatusChips: false),
)

Errors worth handling

FeedbackException.failure is an enum rather than a string, so the UI can branch:

• identityRequired — prompt a sign-in; the board stays readable.
• tokenExpired — handled internally by exactly one refresh-and-retry.
• tokenInvalid — a developer error: wrong board or wrong key.
• rejected — rate limited or over quota.
• notFound, network, unknown.

Using the client without the screens

Every screen is a thin layer over FeedbackClient, which is usable on its own:

final client = FeedbackClient(config);
final page = await client.posts(sort: 'top');
await client.vote(page.items.first.id, on: true);
client.dispose();

A vote may come back naming a different post than the one you voted on — the service redirects a vote on a merged duplicate to the post that now carries the discussion. Trust VoteResult.postId.