multi_window 0.2.0 copy "multi_window: ^0.2.0" to clipboard
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A package for adding multi window support to Flutter on Desktop.

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multi_window

A package for adding multi window support to Flutter on Desktop.

WARNING: This is an experimental package and is under heavy development. No guarantees can be giving that the API will stay the same.

Features #

Feature MacOS Linux Windows
Creating new windows ✔️ ✔️
Closing existing windows ✔️ ✔️
Receive window events¹ ✔️ ✔️
Communicate between windows ✔️ ✔️

Notes:

  1. For more info about implemented events see the Events table.

Getting Started #

Required Flutter Setup #

In your lib/main.dart change your main method to the following:

void main(List<String> args) {
  MultiWindow.init(args);

  ... // Rest of your code
}

Linux Setup #

No setup is required for Linux.

MacOS Setup #

Inside your application folder, go to macos\runner\MainFlutterWindow.swift and add this line after the one saying import FlutterMacOS:

import FlutterMacOS
import multi_window_macos // Add this line.

Then add the following line as the first line inside the awakeFromNib() function:

override func awakeFromNib() {
    MultiWindowMacosPlugin.registerGeneratedPlugins = RegisterGeneratedPlugins // Add this line.

And below that line change the FlutterViewController to MultiWindowViewController:

let flutterViewController = MultiWindowViewController()

Your code should now look something like this:

... // Your other imports
import multi_window_macos

class MainFlutterWindow: NSWindow {
    override func awakeFromNib() {
        MultiWindowMacosPlugin.registerGeneratedPlugins = RegisterGeneratedPlugins

        let flutterViewController = MultiWindowViewController.init()

        ... // Rest of your code

Usage #

Creating a new window #

To create a new window you can call the MultiWindow.create method:

final myWindow = await MultiWindow.create(
  'your_unique_key',
  size: Size(100, 100), // Optional size.
  title: 'Your Title', // Optional title.
  alignment: Alignment.center, // Optional alginment.
);

If a window with the given key already exists it will return a reference to that window.

NOTE: The first window that is created on startup will use the key main.

Accessing your current window #

The instance of the current window (the window that your dart code is being executed on) is exposed for convencience sake:

final myWindow = MultiWindow.current; // Returns the current instance this code is running on.

CLosing a window #

A window can be programmatically closed by calling it's close method:

final myWindow = await MultiWindow.create('myWindow');

// Close the window instance.
await myWindow.close();

When the window succesfully closes the windowClose event will be raised.

Get the count of the current existing windows #

Retrieving the total amount of windows can be done using the MultiWindow.count method:

final totalWindows = await MultiWindow.count();

Setting and getting a window title #

If you want to set or get the title of your window you can use the setTitle and getTitle methods respectively on your instance:

await myWindow.setTitle('My fancy title');
final currentTitle = await myWindow.getTitle(); // Returns 'My fancy title'.

Listening and emitting events #

Listening to events

A MultiWindow instance also exposes an event stream for listening to events on a window instance:

final myWindow = await MultiWindow.create('myWindow');
myWindow.events.listen((event) {
  print('From: ${event.from}, of type ${event.type} with data ${event.data}');
});

An event exists out the following:

  • The to is the key of the window that will receive this event, if you are listening on a window it will be that window's key.
  • The sender is the key of the window that send the event, this can also be the window that you are listening on.
  • The type is an enum that allows you to differentiate between system and user events.
  • The data contains dynamic data that was emitted.

Emitting events

You can emit a user event by calling the .emit method on a MultiWindow instance:

await myWindow.emit('Hello world!');