Project Plugin

Flutter Plugin Development Skill

This skill guides the creation of native plugins following this project's architecture.

When to Use

Trigger this skill when:

• Creating a native plugin with platform-specific code
• Adding new platform support to an existing plugin
• User asks to "create a plugin", "add native functionality", or "implement platform-specific feature"

Plugin Types

This project supports two plugin architectures:

Default to native_plugin unless the user specifically requests federation or needs to publish platform implementations as separate packages.

Mason Templates

Simple Plugin (Recommended)

mason make native_plugin \
  --name plugin_name \
  --description "Plugin description" \
  --package_prefix app \
  -o app_plugin

# Platform support options (all default to true):
# --support_android
# --support_ios
# --support_linux
# --support_macos
# --support_windows
# --support_web (default: false)

Structure:

app_plugin/
└── plugin_name/                    # Single package
    ├── lib/                        # Dart API
    ├── android/                    # Android (Kotlin)
    ├── ios/                        # iOS (Swift)
    ├── linux/                      # Linux (C++)
    ├── macos/                      # macOS (Swift)
    ├── windows/                    # Windows (C++)
    └── pubspec.yaml

Federated Plugin (When User Specifies)

Use native_federation_plugin when:

• Publishing to pub.dev with separate platform packages
• Different teams maintain different platforms
• Need to allow third-party platform implementations

mason make native_federation_plugin \
  --name plugin_name \
  --description "Plugin description" \
  --package_prefix app \
  -o app_plugin

Structure:

app_plugin/
└── plugin_name/                            # Parent directory
    ├── plugin_name/                        # Main package (API)
    ├── plugin_name_platform_interface/     # Abstract interface
    ├── plugin_name_android/                # Android implementation
    ├── plugin_name_ios/                    # iOS implementation
    ├── plugin_name_linux/                  # Linux implementation
    ├── plugin_name_macos/                  # macOS implementation
    └── plugin_name_windows/                # Windows implementation

Workspace Registration

Simple Plugin

workspace:
  - app_plugin/plugin_name

Federated Plugin

workspace:
  - app_plugin/plugin_name/plugin_name
  - app_plugin/plugin_name/plugin_name_platform_interface
  - app_plugin/plugin_name/plugin_name_android
  - app_plugin/plugin_name/plugin_name_ios
  - app_plugin/plugin_name/plugin_name_linux
  - app_plugin/plugin_name/plugin_name_macos
  - app_plugin/plugin_name/plugin_name_windows

Plugin Implementation

Dart API (lib/src/plugin_name.dart)

class PluginName {
  static final PluginName _instance = PluginName._();
  static PluginName get instance => _instance;

  static const MethodChannel _channel = MethodChannel('app_plugin_name');

  Future<PluginData> getData() async {
    final result = await _channel.invokeMethod<Map>('getData');
    return PluginData.fromMap(result ?? {});
  }
}

Native Implementation (Example: Kotlin/Android)

class PluginNamePlugin: FlutterPlugin, MethodCallHandler {
    private lateinit var channel: MethodChannel

    override fun onAttachedToEngine(binding: FlutterPlugin.FlutterPluginBinding) {
        channel = MethodChannel(binding.binaryMessenger, "app_plugin_name")
        channel.setMethodCallHandler(this)
    }

    override fun onMethodCall(call: MethodCall, result: Result) {
        when (call.method) {
            "getData" -> result.success(mapOf("platform" to "android"))
            else -> result.notImplemented()
        }
    }
}

Testing

# Test plugin
cd app_plugin/plugin_name && flutter test

# For federated plugins
cd app_plugin/plugin_name/plugin_name && flutter test

Reference Implementation

app_client_info in app_plugin/client_info/ demonstrates the federated pattern.

Usage in App

import 'package:app_plugin_name/app_plugin_name.dart';

final plugin = PluginName.instance;
final data = await plugin.getData();