Flutter plugin that uses .aar modules builds and runs fine in the example app but fails to build in a different app

Question

I've written a Flutter plugin to use an SDK that requires the inclusion of some .aar modules. It builds and runs perfectly in the example app for the plugin, but when I import the plugin in a different app and try to build it, the build immediately fails with a message saying that one of the .aar modules could not be found in the plugin. This makes no sense because the module is definitely there - the platform channels to use the SDK would fail in the example app if the module wasn't there.

Why would the example app build and run without any problems but a different app won't? The only thing I can think of is that I import the plugin from path in my pubspec but it seems unlikely to me that this is the culprit.

Any advice or assistance here would be appreciated. TIA!

Solution

I got it!!!!

The answer is as found here: How to add .aar dependency in library module?

The way this adapts to a Flutter plugin is as follows:

1. Add a libs folder at the root of the android project in the plugin. Add the .aar files there.
2. In the plugin's build.gradle file, update rootProject.allProjects to look as follows:

    repositories {
        google()
        jcenter()
        flatDir {
            dirs 'libs'
            dirs project(':your_plugin_name_here').file('libs')
        }
    }
}

3. Still in the same build.gradle, add your .aar file(s) as dependencies as follows:

implementation(name:'aar_name_here', ext:'aar')

4. In the Flutter app that you want to use the plugin for, open the app-level build.gradle file and add the plugin itself as a dependency, like so:

android {
  ...
  
    dependencies {
        implementation project(':your_flutter_plugin');
    }
}

5. In the settings.gradle file for the app that us using the plugin, change

include ':app'

to

include ':app', ':your_flutter_plugin'

And this should do it!!

Comments

[SEG.Veenstra]

For me this didn't work. Instead of the settings.gradle adjustment I've added implementation(name:'aar_name_here', ext:'aar') to the consuming project's build.gradle.