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that implements 32-bit addition and then
exposes it through a Dart plugin named “native_add”.<topic_end>
<topic_start>
Dynamic vs static linking
A native library can be linked into an app either
dynamically or statically. A statically linked library
is embedded into the app’s executable image,
and is loaded when the app starts.Symbols from a statically linked library can be
loaded using DynamicLibrary.executable or
DynamicLibrary.process.A dynamically linked library, by contrast, is distributed
in a separate file or folder within the app,
and loaded on-demand. On Android, a dynamically
linked library is distributed as a set of .so (ELF)
files, one for each architecture.A dynamically linked library can be loaded into
Dart via DynamicLibrary.open.API documentation is available from the Dart dev channel:
Dart API reference documentation.On Android, only dynamic libraries are supported
(because the main executable is the JVM,
which we don’t link to statically).<topic_end>
<topic_start>
Create an FFI plugin
To create an FFI plugin called “native_add”,
do the following:info Note
You can exclude platforms from --platforms that you don’t want
to build to. However, you need to include the platform of
the device you are testing on.This will create a plugin with C/C++ sources in native_add/src.
These sources are built by the native build files in the various
os build folders.The FFI library can only bind against C symbols,
so in C++ these symbols are marked extern "C".You should also add attributes to indicate that the
symbols are referenced from Dart,
to prevent the linker from discarding the symbols
during link-time optimization.
__attribute__((visibility("default"))) __attribute__((used)).On Android, the native_add/android/build.gradle links the code.The native code is invoked from dart in lib/native_add_bindings_generated.dart.The bindings are generated with package:ffigen.<topic_end>
<topic_start>
Other use cases
<topic_end>
<topic_start>
Platform library
To link against a platform library,
use the following instructions:Load the library using DynamicLibrary.open.
For example, to load OpenGL ES (v3):You might need to update the Android manifest
file of the app or plugin if indicated by
the documentation.<topic_end>
<topic_start>First-party library
The process for including native code in source
code or binary form is the same for an app or
plugin.<topic_end>
<topic_start>Open-source third-party
Follow the Add C and C++ code to your project
instructions in the Android docs to
add native code and support for the native
code toolchain (either CMake or ndk-build).<topic_end>
<topic_start>Closed-source third-party library
To create a Flutter plugin that includes Dart
source code, but distribute the C/C++ library
in binary form, use the following instructions:<topic_end>
<topic_start>
Android APK size (shared object compression)
Android guidelines in general recommend
distributing native shared objects uncompressed
because that actually saves on device space.
Shared objects can be directly loaded from the APK
instead of unpacking them on device into a
temporary location and then loading.
APKs are additionally packed in transit—that’s
why you should be looking at download size.Flutter APKs by default don’t follow these guidelines
and compress libflutter.so and libapp.so—this
leads to smaller APK size but larger on device size.Shared objects from third parties can change this default
setting with android:extractNativeLibs="true" in their
AndroidManifest.xml and stop the compression of libflutter.so,
libapp.so, and any user-added shared objects.
To re-enable compression, override the setting in
your_app_name/android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml
in the following way.<topic_end>
<topic_start>
Other Resources
To learn more about C interoperability, check out these videos:
<topic_end>
<topic_start>Hosting native Android views in your Flutter app with Platform Views
Platform views allow you to embed native views in a Flutter app,
so you can apply transforms, clips, and opacity to the native view
from Dart.This allows you, for example, to use the native
Google Maps from the Android SDK
directly inside your Flutter app.info Note
This page discusses how to host your own native Android views
within a Flutter app.
If you’d like to embed native iOS views in your Flutter app,
see Hosting native iOS views.Flutter supports two modes:
Hybrid composition and virtual displays.Which one to use depends on the use case.
Let’s take a look:Hybrid composition
appends the native android.view.View to the view hierarchy.
Therefore, keyboard handling, and accessibility work out of the box.
Prior to Android 10, this mode might significantly
reduce the frame throughput (FPS) of the Flutter UI.
For more context, see Performance.Virtual displays
render the android.view.View instance to a texture,
so it’s not embedded within the Android Activity’s view hierarchy.
Certain platform interactions such as keyboard handling
and accessibility features might not work.To create a platform view on Android,
use the following steps:<topic_end>
<topic_start>