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description bug_report

Hosting native iOS views in your Flutter app with Platform Views

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Platform views allow you to embed native views in a Flutter app, so you can apply transforms, clips, and opacity to the native view from Dart.

This allows you, for example, to use the native Google Maps from the Android and iOS SDKs directly inside your Flutter app.

iOS only uses Hybrid composition, which means that the native UIView is appended to the view hierarchy.

To create a platform view on iOS, use the following instructions:

On the Dart side

#

On the Dart side, create a Widget and add the build implementation, as shown in the following steps.

In the Dart widget file, make changes similar to those shown in native_view_example.dart:

  1. Add the following imports:

    dart
    import 'package:flutter/foundation.dart';
import 'package:flutter/services.dart';

  2. Implement a build() method:

    dart
    Widget build(BuildContext context) {
  // This is used in the platform side to register the view.
  const String viewType = '<platform-view-type>';
  // Pass parameters to the platform side.
  final Map<String, dynamic> creationParams = <String, dynamic>{};

  return UiKitView(
    viewType: viewType,
    layoutDirection: TextDirection.ltr,
    creationParams: creationParams,
    creationParamsCodec: const StandardMessageCodec(),
  );
}

For more information, see the API docs for: UIKitView.

On the platform side

#

On the platform side, use either Swift or Objective-C:

Implement the factory and the platform view. The FLNativeViewFactory creates the platform view, and the platform view provides a reference to the UIView. For example, FLNativeView.swift:

swift
import Flutter
import UIKit

class FLNativeViewFactory: NSObject, FlutterPlatformViewFactory {
    private var messenger: FlutterBinaryMessenger

    init(messenger: FlutterBinaryMessenger) {
        self.messenger = messenger
        super.init()
    }

    func create(
        withFrame frame: CGRect,
        viewIdentifier viewId: Int64,
        arguments args: Any?
    ) -> FlutterPlatformView {
        return FLNativeView(
            frame: frame,
            viewIdentifier: viewId,
            arguments: args,
            binaryMessenger: messenger)
    }

    /// Implementing this method is only necessary when the `arguments` in `createWithFrame` is not `nil`.
    public func createArgsCodec() -> FlutterMessageCodec & NSObjectProtocol {
          return FlutterStandardMessageCodec.sharedInstance()
    }
}

class FLNativeView: NSObject, FlutterPlatformView {
    private var _view: UIView

    init(
        frame: CGRect,
        viewIdentifier viewId: Int64,
        arguments args: Any?,
        binaryMessenger messenger: FlutterBinaryMessenger?
    ) {
        _view = UIView()
        super.init()
        // iOS views can be created here
        createNativeView(view: _view)
    }

    func view() -> UIView {
        return _view
    }

    func createNativeView(view _view: UIView){
        _view.backgroundColor = UIColor.blue
        let nativeLabel = UILabel()
        nativeLabel.text = "Native text from iOS"
        nativeLabel.textColor = UIColor.white
        nativeLabel.textAlignment = .center
        nativeLabel.frame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 180, height: 48.0)
        _view.addSubview(nativeLabel)
    }
}

Finally, register the platform view. This can be done in an app or a plugin.

For app registration, modify the App's AppDelegate.swift:

swift
import Flutter
import UIKit

@UIApplicationMain
@objc class AppDelegate: FlutterAppDelegate {
    override func application(
        _ application: UIApplication,
        didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey : Any]?
    ) -> Bool {
        GeneratedPluginRegistrant.register(with: self)

        weak var registrar = self.registrar(forPlugin: "plugin-name")

        let factory = FLNativeViewFactory(messenger: registrar!.messenger())
        self.registrar(forPlugin: "<plugin-name>")!.register(
            factory,
            withId: "<platform-view-type>")
        return super.application(application, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: launchOptions)
    }
}

For plugin registration, modify the plugin's main file (for example, FLPlugin.swift):

swift
import Flutter
import UIKit

class FLPlugin: NSObject, FlutterPlugin {
    public static func register(with registrar: FlutterPluginRegistrar) {
        let factory = FLNativeViewFactory(messenger: registrar.messenger())
        registrar.register(factory, withId: "<platform-view-type>")
    }
}

In Objective-C, add the headers for the factory and the platform view. For example, as shown in FLNativeView.h:

objc
#import <Flutter/Flutter.h>

@interface FLNativeViewFactory : NSObject <FlutterPlatformViewFactory>
- (instancetype)initWithMessenger:(NSObject<FlutterBinaryMessenger>*)messenger;
@end

@interface FLNativeView : NSObject <FlutterPlatformView>

- (instancetype)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
               viewIdentifier:(int64_t)viewId
                    arguments:(id _Nullable)args
              binaryMessenger:(NSObject<FlutterBinaryMessenger>*)messenger;

- (UIView*)view;
@end

Implement the factory and the platform view. The FLNativeViewFactory creates the platform view, and the platform view provides a reference to the UIView. For example, FLNativeView.m:

objc
#import "FLNativeView.h"

@implementation FLNativeViewFactory {
  NSObject<FlutterBinaryMessenger>* _messenger;
}

- (instancetype)initWithMessenger:(NSObject<FlutterBinaryMessenger>*)messenger {
  self = [super init];
  if (self) {
    _messenger = messenger;
  }
  return self;
}

- (NSObject<FlutterPlatformView>*)createWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
                                   viewIdentifier:(int64_t)viewId
                                        arguments:(id _Nullable)args {
  return [[FLNativeView alloc] initWithFrame:frame
                              viewIdentifier:viewId
                                   arguments:args
                             binaryMessenger:_messenger];
}

/// Implementing this method is only necessary when the `arguments` in `createWithFrame` is not `nil`.
- (NSObject<FlutterMessageCodec>*)createArgsCodec {
    return [FlutterStandardMessageCodec sharedInstance];
}

@end

@implementation FLNativeView {
   UIView *_view;
}

- (instancetype)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
               viewIdentifier:(int64_t)viewId
                    arguments:(id _Nullable)args
              binaryMessenger:(NSObject<FlutterBinaryMessenger>*)messenger {
  if (self = [super init]) {
    _view = [[UIView alloc] init];
  }
  return self;
}

- (UIView*)view {
  return _view;
}

@end

Finally, register the platform view. This can be done in an app or a plugin.

For app registration, modify the App's AppDelegate.m:

objc
#import "AppDelegate.h"
#import "FLNativeView.h"
#import "GeneratedPluginRegistrant.h"

@implementation AppDelegate

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application
    didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
  [GeneratedPluginRegistrant registerWithRegistry:self];

   NSObject<FlutterPluginRegistrar>* registrar =
      [self registrarForPlugin:@"plugin-name"];

  FLNativeViewFactory* factory =
      [[FLNativeViewFactory alloc] initWithMessenger:registrar.messenger];

  [[self registrarForPlugin:@"<plugin-name>"] registerViewFactory:factory
                                                          withId:@"<platform-view-type>"];
  return [super application:application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:launchOptions];
}

@end

For plugin registration, modify the main plugin file (for example, FLPlugin.m):

objc
#import <Flutter/Flutter.h>
#import "FLNativeView.h"

@interface FLPlugin : NSObject<FlutterPlugin>
@end

@implementation FLPlugin

+ (void)registerWithRegistrar:(NSObject<FlutterPluginRegistrar>*)registrar {
  FLNativeViewFactory* factory =
      [[FLNativeViewFactory alloc] initWithMessenger:registrar.messenger];
  [registrar registerViewFactory:factory withId:@"<platform-view-type>"];
}

@end

For more information, see the API docs for:

Putting it together

#

When implementing the build() method in Dart, you can use defaultTargetPlatform to detect the platform, and decide which widget to use:

dart
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
  // This is used in the platform side to register the view.
  const String viewType = '<platform-view-type>';
  // Pass parameters to the platform side.
  final Map<String, dynamic> creationParams = <String, dynamic>{};

  switch (defaultTargetPlatform) {
    case TargetPlatform.android:
    // return widget on Android.
    case TargetPlatform.iOS:
    // return widget on iOS.
    default:
      throw UnsupportedError('Unsupported platform view');
  }
}

Performance

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Platform views in Flutter come with performance trade-offs.

For example, in a typical Flutter app, the Flutter UI is composed on a dedicated raster thread. This allows Flutter apps to be fast, as the main platform thread is rarely blocked.

When a platform view is rendered with hybrid composition, the Flutter UI is composed from the platform thread. The platform thread competes with other tasks like handling OS or plugin messages.

When an iOS PlatformView is on screen, the screen refresh rate is capped at 80fps to avoid rendering janks.

For complex cases, there are some techniques that can be used to mitigate performance issues.

For example, you could use a placeholder texture while an animation is happening in Dart. In other words, if an animation is slow while a platform view is rendered, then consider taking a screenshot of the native view and rendering it as a texture.

Composition limitations

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There are some limitations when composing iOS Platform Views.