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Build Yourself / Contribution Guide

How to build the app on your own system, or how to contribute to the project
This guide is tailored towards the Android Studio IDE. You can also build in VSCode, but some tools may not exist or may work differently.

Pre-Requisites

  • Install Flutter, following the guide for your OS all the way up to the "Test Drive" page

Build Instructions

Initial Steps

  1. 1.
    Clone the repository to your system
  2. 2.
    You will notice under the "Dart Analysis" tab at the bottom of the window that there are some errors related to content commit. Click on each of these errors and comment them out using // at the beginning of those lines.
    • onContentCommitted: onContentCommit, should become //onContentCommitted: onContentCommit,
    • final ValueChanged<CommittedContent>? onContentCommitted should become //final ValueChanged<CommittedContent>? onContentCommitted
    • You will also see one function with content commit, that looks like this: onContentCommit(CommittedContent content) async {...}. Change it to say onContentCommit(dynamic content) async {...}.
  3. 3.
    Add a blank file named .env to the root of the project directory. This is to prevent a build error.

Android

Building yourself will cause you to lose the ability to insert GIFs from your keyboard! The reason for this is that we use an entirely custom Flutter Engine and Flutter SDK, which is quite the hassle to set up, and can only be used on Linux.
  1. 1.
    Find android > app > build.gradle (not to be confused with android > build.gradle), and scroll down to signingConfig signingConfigs.release at line 111. Change this to signingConfig signingConfigs.debug.
  2. 2.
    In a terminal window at the root of the project directory, run flutter build apk --release --flavor prod
    • You may need to accept licenses and perform other tasks since you are building Flutter for the first time. The terminal output will guide you through this process.
  3. 3.
    The output APK file path will be given to you, simply transfer it to your phone and install it!

Web

  1. 1.
    In /lib/repository/models/html add a new file called giphy.dart. Inside this, put only const GIPHY_API_KEY = "";. If you have your own API key for GIPHY, you can place it inside the quotes, otherwise leave it as is.
  2. 2.
    In the terminal window at the root of the project directory, run flutter build web --web-renderer=canvaskit. It will output the build files to build/web to be hosted on your server.

Desktop

Windows Build

  1. 1.
    Install NuGet package manager
  2. 2.
    Go to Visual Studio Installer -> Modify Build Tools -> Individual Components and install the latest Windows 10 SDK
  3. 3.
    Run the following commands:
    <stash content commit changes>
    flutter clean
    git reset
    <unstash content commit changes>
    flutter build windows

Linux Build

Under construction...

Contribution Guide

Hey there! We're glad you want to contribute. We only ask for these three things:
  1. 1.
    Write clean code, and comment it!
  2. 2.
    Follow Flutter & Dart best practices
  3. 3.
    Avoid making large formatting changes to files, unless that is the goal of your PR. It makes it easier for us to review the changes this way.

Get Started

Make sure you've completed Pre-Requisites.
  1. 1.
    Fork the repo, and then clone the fork to your system
  2. 2.
    Open the files in the IDE of your choice
  3. 3.
    Complete step 2 of Initial Steps​
  4. 4.
    Make your changes
  5. 5.
    Run the app using flutter run or the green play button at the top of your IDE
  6. 6.
    Test your changes
  7. 7.
    Commit and PR!
    Make sure you don't commit your changes to comment out onContentCommit.
The client apps have a lot of variables that need to be tested. For example, if you're making a UI change, please make sure it looks good in all the default themes, and all the skins as well.
If you wish to make a backend change, we suggest you consult with the main developers before writing code. This is so we can come up with a plan of attack and make sure we don't degrade existing functionality or create bugs.
Please create all PRs targeting the development branch, not the master branch.
If you're new to Flutter development, look out for the good-first-issue or the Difficulty: Easy label on GitHub. These will be easier issues to help you start learning Flutter, without dealing with an overly-complex bug or feature.
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Intro and Background
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Desktop App Installation
Last modified 15d ago