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Publishing Flet app to multiple platforms

Introduction​

Flet CLI provides flet build command that allows packaging Flet app into a standalone executable or install package for distribution.

Platform matrix​

The following matrix shows which OS you should run flet build command on in order to build a package for specific platform:

Run on / flet buildapk/aabipamacoslinuxwindowsweb
macOS✅✅✅✅
Windows✅✅ (WSL)✅✅
Linux✅✅✅

Prerequisites​

Flutter SDK​

Flutter SDK 3.16 or above must be installed and the path to both flutter and dart commands must be added to PATH environment variable.

On macOS we recommend installing Flutter SDK with "Download and install" approach.

On Linux we recommend installing Flutter SDK with Method 2: Manual installation (do not install Flutter with snap).

Pay attention to Flutter's own requirements for every platform, such as XCode and Cocopods on macOS, Visual Studio 2022 on Windows or additional tools and libraries on Linux.

Project structure​

flet build command assumes the following Flet project structure.

/assets/
    icon.png
main.py
requirements.txt
pyproject.toml

main.py is the entry point of your Flet application with ft.app(main) at the end. A different entry point could be specified with --module-name argument.

assets is an optional directory that contains application assets (images, sound, text and other files required by your app) as well as images used for package icons and splash screens.

If only icon.png (or other supported format such as .bmp, .jpg, .webp) is provided it will be used as a source image to generate all icons and splash screens for all platforms. See section below for more information about icons and splashes.

requirements.txt is a standard pip file that contains the list of Python requirements for your Flet app. If this file is not provided only flet dependency will be installed during packaging.

No pip freeze

Do not use pip freeze > requirements.txt command to create requirements.txt for the app that will be running on mobile. As you run pip freeze command on a desktop requirements.txt will have dependencies that are not intended to work on a mobile device, such as watchdog.

Hand-pick requirements.txt to have only direct dependencies required by your app, plus flet.

pyproject.toml can also be used by flet build command to get the list project dependencies. However, if both requirements.txt and pyproject.toml exist then pyproject.toml will be ignored.

The easiest way to start with that structure is to use flet create command:

flet create myapp

where myapp is a target directory.

pyproject.toml

Reading dependencies from pyproject.toml is not yet supported (issue), please use requirements.txt instead.

How it works​

flet build <target_platform> command could be run from the root of Flet app directory:

<flet_app_directory> % flet build <target_platform>

where <target_platform> could be one of the following: apk, aab, ipa, web, macos, windows, linux.

When running from a different directory you can provide the path to a directory with Flet app:

flet build <target_platform> <path_to_python_app>

Build results are copied to <python_app_directory>/build/<target_platform>. You can specify a custom output directory with --output option:

flet build <target_platform> --output <path-to-output-dir>

flet build uses Flutter SDK and the number of Flutter packages to build a distribution package from your Flet app.

When you run flet build <target_platform> command it:

  • Creates a new Flutter project in a temp directory from https://github.com/flet-dev/flet-build-template template. Flutter app will contain a packaged Python app in the assets and use flet and serious_python packages to run Python app and render its UI respectively. The project is ephemeral and deleted upon completion.
  • Copies custom icons and splash images (see below) from assets directory into a Flutter project.
  • Generates icons for all platforms using flutter_launcher_icons package.
  • Generates splash screens for web, iOS and Android targets using flutter_native_splash package.
  • Packages Python app using package command of serious_python package. All python files in the current directory and sub-directories recursively will be compiled to .pyc files. All files, except build directory will be added to a package asset.
  • Runs flutter build <target_platform> command to produce an executable or an install package.
  • Copies build results to build/<target_platform> directory.

Including optional controls​

If your app uses the following controls their packages must be added to a build command:

  • Audio control implemented in flet_audio package.
  • AudioRecorder control implemented in flet_audio_recorder package.
  • Lottie control implemented in flet_lottie package.
  • Rive control implemented in flet_rive package.
  • Video control implemented in flet_video package.
  • WebView control implemented in flet_webview package.

Use --include-packages <package_1> <package_2> ... option to add Flutter packages with optional Flet controls.

For example, to build your Flet app with Video and Audio controls add --include-packages flet_video flet_audio to your flet build command:

flet build apk --include-packages flet_video flet_audio

Icons​

You can customize app icons for all platforms (excluding Linux) with images in assets directory of your Flet app.

If only icon.png (or other supported format such as .bmp, .jpg, .webp) is provided it will be used as a source image to generate all icons.

  • iOS - icon_ios.png (or any supported image format). Recommended minimum image size is 1024 px. Image should not be transparent (have alpha channel). Defaults to icon.png with alpha-channel automatically removed.
  • Android - icon_android.png (or any supported image format). Recommended minimum image size is 192 px. Defaults to icon.png.
  • Web - icon_web.png (or any supported image format). Recommended minimum image size is 512 px. Defaults to icon.png.
  • Windows - icon_windows.png (or any supported image format). ICO will be produced of 256 px size. Defaults to icon.png. If icon_windows.ico file is provided it will be just copied to windows/runner/resources/app_icon.ico unmodified.
  • macOS - icon_macos.png (or any supported image format). Recommended minimum image size is 1024 px. Defaults to icon.png.

Splash screen​

You can customize splash screens for iOS, Android and web applications with images in assets directory of your Flet app.

If only splash.png or icon.png (or other supported format such as .bmp, .jpg, .webp) is provided it will be used as a source image to generate all splash screen.

  • iOS (light) - splash_ios.png (or any supported image format). Defaults to splash.png and then icon.png.
  • iOS (dark) - splash_dark_ios.png (or any supported image format). Defaults to light iOS splash, then to splash_dark.png, then to splash.png and then icon.png.
  • Android (light) - splash_android.png (or any supported image format). Defaults to splash.png and then icon.png.
  • Android (dark) - splash_dark_android.png (or any supported image format). Defaults to light Android splash, then to splash_dark.png, then to splash.png and then icon.png.
  • Web (light) - splash_web.png (or any supported image format). Defaults to splash.png and then icon.png.
  • Web (dark) - splash_dark_web.png (or any supported image format). Defaults to light web splash, then splash_dark.png, then to splash.png and then icon.png.

--splash-color option specifies background color for a splash screen in light mode. Defaults to #ffffff.

--splash-dark-color option specifies background color for a splash screen in dark mode. Defaults to #333333.

Flet app entry point​

By default, flet build command assumes main.py as the entry point of your Flet application, i.e. the file with ft.app(main) at the end. A different entry point could be specified with --module-name argument.

Versioning​

You can provide a version information for built executable or package with --build-number and --build-version arguments. This is the information that is used to distinguish one build/release from another in App Store and Google Play and is shown to the user in about dialogs.

--build-number - an integer number (defaults to 1), an identifier used as an internal version number. Each build must have a unique identifier to differentiate it from previous builds. It is used to determine whether one build is more recent than another, with higher numbers indicating more recent build.

--build-version - a "x.y.z" string (defaults to 1.0.0) used as the version number shown to users. For each new version of your app, you will provide a version number to differentiate it from previous versions.

Customizing packaging template​

To create a temporary Flutter project flet build uses cookiecutter template stored in https://github.com/flet-dev/flet-build-template repository.

You can customize that template to suit your specific needs and then use it with flet build.

--template option can be used to provide the URL to the repository or path to a directory with your own template. Use gh: prefix for GitHub repos, e.g. gh:{my-org}/{my-repo} or provide a full path to a Git repository, e.g. https://github.com/{my-org}/{my-repo}.git.

For Git repositories you can checkout specific branch/tag/commit with --template-ref option.

--template-dir option specifies a relative path to a cookiecutter template in a repository given by --template option. When --template option is not used, this option specifies path relative to the <user-directory>/.cookiecutters/flet-build-template.

Extra args to flutter build command​

--flutter-build-args option allows passing extra arguments to flutter build command called during the build process. The option can be used multiple times.

For example, if you want to add --no-tree-shake-icons option:

flet build macos --flutter-build-args=--no-tree-shake-icons

To pass an option with a value:

flet build ipa --flutter-build-args=--export-method --flutter-build-args=development

Verbose logging​

--verbose or -vv option allows to see the output of all commands during flet build run. We might ask for a detailed log if you need support.

Logging​

All Flet apps output to stdout and stderr (e.g. all print() statements or sys.stdout.write() calls, Python logging library) is now redirected to out.log file. Writes to that file are unbuffered, so you can retrieve a log in your Python program at any moment with a simple:

with open("out.log", "r") as f:
    log = f.read()

AlertDialog or any other control can be used to display the value of log variable.

When the program is terminated by calling sys.exit() with exit code 100 (magic code) the entire log will be displayed in a scrollable window.

import sys
sys.exit(100)

Calling sys.exit() with any other exit code will terminate (close) the app without displaying a log.