Setup for iPhone #
If you have an iPhone and would like to be able to build your Flutter projects for it, then there is a bit of extra setup you need to do.
If you don’t have an iPhone then skip to here.
You need to use macOS to develop apps on iPhone. This is a restriction imposed by Apple.
To build for iPhone you will need Xcode which can be found in App Store. So go ahead and install it!
To make plugins work for iPhone you need to have CocoaPods installed. But before you can install it you will need a couple of other things.
Homebrew #
Install Homebrew if you don’t have it already.
If you are unsure, you can check by entering brew in Terminal.
# To install Homebrew
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
You can use brew to install Ruby which is required by CocoaPods.
brew install ruby
Then add a couple of more environment variables to .zshrc.
export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/ruby/bin:$PATH"
export LDFLAGS="-L/opt/homebrew/opt/ruby/lib"
export CPPFLAGS="-I/opt/homebrew/opt/ruby/include"
CocoaPods #
Finally, install CocoaPods with:
brew install cocoapods
brew link cocoapods
Hopefully you should see a checkmark for cocoapods now when running flutter doctor .
Then to set up Xcode.
sudo sh -c 'xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer && xcodebuild -runFirstLaunch'
xcodebuild -downloadPlatform iOS
sudo xcodebuild -license
Developer mode #
Next, you need to pair your phone. Connect your iPhone to your Mac with a cable.
The command below will create the project in a subfolder of your current working directory. If you want to store your projects in a different folder you should navigate to it before executing the command.
Create a new Flutter project by running:
flutter create ios_test --platforms=ios
You will need to open the project in Xcode. You can either do it by opening op Xcode, then select “File”->“Open Folder” and browse to the location. Or from Terminal using:
open ios_test/ios/Runner.xcworkspace
It unlocks a new “Developer Mode” menu on you iPhone, under “Settings”->“Privacy & Security”. Enable it and restart.
After restart. You should see a dialog like shown. Just select “Turn On”.
Signing #
Go to Xcode->“Settings…”. Then under “Accounts” tab, click the + and select “Apple ID”. Enter your Apple ID credentials.
Close the settings window.
- Click on the Play icon in the top bar.
- click “Runner” in the left panel.
- Under “Signing & Capabilities” tab, click on the “Team” dropdown and select “{Your name} (Personal Team)”.
In “Bundle Identifier” field you must invent a unique name for you app.
Before you can run the app, you need to find the device id.
flutter devices
It should list all devices that Flutter is able to run the project on. Copy the id field for your iPhone. Then do:
cd ios_test
flutter run -d < your phones id >
First time you run a project you will get the following message.
Do as the messages says. It should look like the screenshots below.
Close Xcode and run the project again with:
flutter run -d < your phones id >
If everything went well, you should see the following:
Here are a couple of links that could help if you get stuck.
Next you will install an IDE for Flutter, namely Android Studio. Don’t let the name fool you, as it is great for Flutter development no matter the platform.