Difference between Flutter packages and Plugins

Dive into the Flutter development landscape with a closer look at the differences between flutter packages and plugins. This blog explores essential packages like HTTP and Shared Preferences, delves into powerful plugins such as Camera, and highlights code reusability through Dart packages.

Packages

In Dart, packages are instrumental in building Flutter applications, often encompassing functionality tailored specifically for the Flutter framework. Here are a few essential packages commonly employed in Flutter development:

• HTTP – This package provides API calls for making HTTP requests from the Flutter application.
• Shared preferences – A package providing a convenient method for storing and retrieving data in a key-value pair format.
• Intl – This package provides internationalization and localization for Flutter apps.

Plugins

Plugins, akin to packages, are specialized Dart packages that incorporate Dart code along with platform-specific implementations. These plugins can be crafted for various platforms like Android, iOS, web, macOS, Windows, and Linux. An exemplar is the url_launcher plugin package.

Examples of the Plugin:

• Camera: A plugin that provides access to the device’s camera and allows taking pictures and recording videos.
• Firebase messaging: Facilitates the handling of push notifications, be it from Flutter or other applications, using Firebase Cloud Messaging.
• Google_maps_flutter: A plugin that provides a Flutter widget for displaying interactive maps using the Google Maps API.

Code Reusability

Leveraging Dart packages promotes code reusability and optimizes the development process. By utilizing packages like css_colors in the YAML file and incorporating them into the main app, developers can ensure cleaner, more concise code. Here’s an illustrative snippet:

class DemoPage extends StatelessWidget {
   const DemoPage({super.key});

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

Camera Plugin Package

When dealing with functionalities like capturing pictures and saving them to the device’s storage, the camera plugin package becomes indispensable. Configuring this plugin involves a bit more code, especially in native Android configurations, as demonstrated in the AndroidManifest.xml file:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION"/>
</manifest>

Conclusion

To summarize, while a Flutter package comprises solely Dart code, a plugin extends beyond, encompassing both Dart and native code (such as Kotlin or Swift).