Flutter only import library in debug mode

Question

I am using Android 11 Wireless Debugging to develop my app. Whenever the device automatically locks itself, it takes a while to re-establish the connection for hot reloading.

To overcome this I am using wakelock, which I only need to use if my app is in debug mode, not in release mode.

In lib/main.dart I have the following code:

import 'package:flutter/foundation.dart' as Foundation;
import 'package:wakelock/wakelock.dart';

...

void main() {
  if (Foundation.kDebugMode) {
    Wakelock.enable();
  }
  runApp(App());
}

As you can see the wakelock package is only used if the app is running in debug mode.

Is there a way to only import wakelock if the app is running in debug mode?

Solution

Tested it as

pubspec.yaml

dev_dependencies:
  wakelock: ^0.2.1+1

---

Usage

import 'package:flutter/foundation.dart';
import 'package:wakelock/wakelock.dart';
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

main() async {
  WidgetsFlutterBinding.ensureInitialized();

  if (kDebugMode) {
    print('activating wakelock in debug');
    Wakelock.enable();
  }

  runApp(App());
}

---

Sidenote:

If all you need is the device to stop locking itself after some time then try increasing the sleep delay under the Display setting on the device itself, or use a setting in developer options called Stay awake while charging which allows the device to stay on forever while charging.

Comments

[Abdur Rohman]

dev dependencies dart can be declared in pubspec.yaml, you can check on this documentation. I am sorry for my bad.

[Adam Griffiths]

@AbdurRohman I have updated my question with more context. Sadly dev dependencies wouldn't work in this case since I am importing the package into lib/main.dart

[Rehmat Singh Gill]

So you need to use wake lock only to prevent the screen from turning off? If yes, then why not change sleep settings of your device?

[K.Amanov]

But the documentation says: "If the dependency is imported from something in your lib or bin directories, it needs to be a regular dependency. If it’s only imported from test, example, etc. it can and should be a dev dependency."

[Doc]

@ZEHINZ OP wanted a solution where the device would not go to sleep while developing the code. There was no intention of actually keep the screen awake in production mode. Thus, dev_dependency works fine.

[K.Amanov]

I moved 3 ligraries to dev depedencies, but in release mode app size didn't changed as supposed. Thank you.