SetUp Experience

[slodge]

Thought I'd have a play with this... I've not developed on mobile for 10 years... Last time I did I mainly worked with Xamarin/C# - so I'm used to MVVM coding, but dart/flutter is new to me.

Have started through instructions...

Hitting a few hurdles so I thoughts I'd discuss them...

[slodge]

Hurdle 1 It feels like there's a missing instruction for the files like "/lib/core/models/category.g.dart" - these files are missing.

I can generate these using e.g. dart run build_runner build - but I don't see that instruction in the Readme - so wondering if there is something wrong in my setup? or in the readme?

[slodge]

Hurdle 2. Problems with duplicate strings...

I'm seeing e.g. these lines duplicated in app_strings.dart - which is causing a compile error for me.

  static const pleaseSelectAllDropdowns = 'Please select all dropdowns';
  static const pleaseSelectCharity = 'Please select a charity';
  static const pleaseAddPhoto = 'Please add at least one photo';

[slodge]

e.g.

MVP/lib/core/config/app_strings.dart

Line 170 in 8d581d0

static const pleaseSelectAllDropdowns = 'Please select all dropdowns';

and

MVP/lib/core/config/app_strings.dart

Line 182 in 8d581d0

static const pleaseSelectAllDropdowns = 'Please select all dropdowns';

[slodge]

Hurdle 3. There's a problem with AdExample in

MVP/lib/features/home/widgets/dashboard.dart

Line 98 in 8d581d0

return const AdExample();

I can fix this by using

 import 'package:cherry_mvp/features/home/widgets/ad_example.dart';

... but am I missing something here? Some build/run config that means this just works?

[slodge]

Looking at history, both hurdles 2 and 3 are in the most recent commit, so maybe this is just unlucky about when I looked at the repo?

Commit: e3d5bda#diff-905e1c6bad998b7c435e3325d7ab56608bbc1339fa96d6ef15daf55d40f0c683

[slodge]

Hurdle 4. If I hack the above to fix them (building the .g; deleting the duplicate strings; adding the import) then I can at least get a splashscreen app up and running in Chrome... but it never gets past the splashscreen.

I wonder if this is because I'm missing some env values. I tried understanding #304 - but it really isn't clear to me - are there any idiotproof instructions for what I'd need to do with e.g. firebase to make this work? (Or should I be thinking Android first?)

[slodge]

Looking at the output there is a message:

"FirebaseOptions cannot be null when creating the default app."

But I can't see the firebase setup instructions in the repo. Assuming this is "new" to me, what do I need to do in https://firebase.google.com/ ?

[slodge]

Hurdle 5... switched to Android dev... hit an error with "flutter.ndkVersion" missing...

Have added something myself to /android/local.properties file with the latest version from https://developer.android.com/ndk/downloads - which seems to have helped jump this hurdle 👍

flutter.ndkVersion=27.3.13750724

[slodge]

Although then I hit errors like:

Dependency 'androidx.activity:activity-compose:1.11.0' requires Android Gradle plugin 8.9.1 or higher.

           This build currently uses Android Gradle plugin 8.7.0.

Tried to fix this by setting Android SDK to 8.9.1 in

MVP/android/settings.gradle.kts

Line 21 in 8d581d0

id("com.android.application") version "8.7.0" apply false

....

Then

> Failed to apply plugin 'com.android.internal.version-check'.
   > Minimum supported Gradle version is 8.11.1. Current version is 8.10.2. If using the gradle wrapper, try editing the distributionUrl in /android/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties to gradle-8.11.1-all.zip

Fixed this by changing /android/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties ...

....

But I guess some of these changes will cause issues for existing contributors...

Anyways... with those changes...

Can't sign in/register (I guess I'm still missing some API keys?) but at least the app is alive!

I've missed all this fun of mobile development... and I haven't even started on iOS xcode setup :)

[slodge]

I take it back... I can register - but only using email - not using Google account.

I assume the Google login is something to do with #320

Made it this far now:

[CherryCIC]

Thanks for this @slodge !

You have raised some interesting and valuable points here. Some of which I am currently looking into resolving, others I think may be more simple to fix....

Hurdle 1 (missing *.g.dart): this repo uses json_serializable + build_runner, so dart run build_runner build --delete-conflicting-outputs is the canonical generation step. category.g.dart is currently not tracked because it was mistakenly ignored; we’ll fix the ignore and either commit that file or document codegen clearly.

@MattGoodwin0 @yusuphjoluwasen can we confirm on this? ^

Hurdle 2 (duplicate strings): confirmed bug; duplicates in app_strings.dart cause a compile error.
We can remove the duplicates.

Hurdle 3 (AdExample import): confirmed bug; AdExample exists in ad_example.dart but is not imported in dashboard.dart. We’ll add the import.

Hurdle 4 (web splash hang): confirmed. Firebase.initializeApp() is called without web options and firebase_options.dart is missing; on web this triggers “FirebaseOptions cannot be null…”. Web isn’t currently supported; we’ll fail fast and document that. If you want web support, the standard path is FlutterFire CLI + Firebase.initializeApp(options: DefaultFirebaseOptions.currentPlatform).

Hurdle 5 (NDK / AGP / Gradle): Android uses androidx.activity:activity-compose:1.11.0, which requires AGP 8.9.1+; that in turn requires Gradle 8.11.1 and JDK 17. We’ll bump AGP + Gradle and document a known-good toolchain. Also, ndkVersion is read from local.properties so contributors without flutter.ndkVersion hit a missing-value error; we should make that optional or align with Flutter’s default.

Google sign‑in failing: expected without Firebase OAuth setup (SHA‑1/SHA‑256, package name, client IDs). Email/password should remain the baseline for contributors; Google sign‑in requires access to the dev Firebase project or their own.
Proposed Changes (small, reviewable). @chh0871 is working with me to fix this.

Fix compile errors: remove duplicate constants in app_strings.dart and add import in dashboard.dart.
Unblock codegen: remove the accidental ignore entry in .gitignore, and either commit category.g.dart or make codegen explicit in CONTRIBUTION.md.

Clarify Firebase/web: fail fast on web in main.dart and document “web unsupported” + FlutterFire steps in CONTRIBUTION.md.
Align Android toolchain: bump AGP/Gradle in settings.gradle.kts and gradle-wrapper.properties; document JDK 17 and the toolchain matrix in CONTRIBUTION.md.

Optional NDK fix: make ndkVersion assignment safe in build.gradle.kts (only set if present) so contributors aren’t blocked by missing flutter.ndkVersion.