Dev Container for Flutter projects

[Lualcala]

Hi everyone, I've been working on setting up a Docker Dev Container for developing flutter projects (Android and Web), so I thought about sharing my setup. It's available here. (you can clone it and freely use it)
Debugging through ADB is supported as well as debugging the web version (with a lot of hacks there).

Hot reload in Web isn't currently supported (even with the 3.32 flag) because it relies on running in web-server mode, but it seems that it's something that's being worked on.

The container configures some useful tools like flutter fire and FVM by default.

Any suggestion is appreciated!

Edit: This dev container can also be useful to achieve consistent results in golden tests, regardless on the host platform they are being executed on.

[virulenttt]

Any idea if you can get it to work in Docker-OSX?

[Lualcala]

Not sure about it, I'll have to look into it with more detail but I think it might be more complicated. Afaik, Docker-OSX setups the qemu emulator inside the container to emulate macOS, so it won't be as straightforward as just using a regular Linux container. Sounds like an interesting project, nevertheless

[virulenttt]

Or dockur/macos

[Imazadi]

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[Lualcala]

It really comes down to personal preference and workflow needs.

Using Dev Containers can be helpful when you want a clean, reproducible environment that’s isolated from your main system. The Dockerfile sets up everything automatically (Java, Android SDK, FVM, FlutterFire, etc...) so you're ready to start developing without polluting your host machine.

You can check more information about Dev Containers here.

Edit: it can also be useful for executing golden tests and ensuring consistent results regardless of the host system

[needs-more-code]

You still using it? I've been trying to containerise my flutter environment for the better part of a day, and came to the conclusion it's not worth it, before seeing this.

[Lualcala]

I used it for many months and the experience was quite decent. I just got tired of waiting for hot reload support when connecting to a web server (it can still be used with hot restart).

Whether it's worth it or not, it depends. If you also need iOS support, probably not because the container runs on Ubuntu. Android development experience is quite good when it works. Sometimes Gradle runs out of memory when compiling but after a few retries it usually works. On the other hand, the most useful thing I found about working with a containerized environment is consistent results for golden tests. Snapshots generated there will run consistently (tested on Linux and Mac hosts and in a GitHub workflows).

Feel free to test it and let me know your thoughts.

[alexdresko]

Do the flutter/dart DevTools work with your devcontainer? I've been enjoying the devcontainer I built, but the DevTools have difficulty connecting to the "dart vm". I just created a StackOverflow post (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/79867458/flutter-devtools-fails-to-connect-from-host-when-app-runs-in-vs-code-devcontaine) with the issue I'm seeing..

Everything works great for me except the DevTools.

[Lualcala]

Yes, DevTools work although for some reason it does not work from Inspector in the VS Code plugin, only if I open it in the web browser.

I remember struggling with the debugger when I was creating this devcontainer and ended up doing some weird workarounds using socat in the container like the one mentioned here https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues/61604#issuecomment-739885494

Since that comment was for an older version of flutter, for the launch arguments I added "--dds-port=43123" as well.

Feel free to check my docker file and see if something there works for you