Understanding Flavors

Flavors control how your app loads configuration (Network, Cache, or Local Assets) and which Environment (Dev, Prod) it connects to.

1. Concepts

• Flavor: Controls the loading strategy.

  • Debug: Loads from Digia Cloud in real-time. Best for active development.

  • Staging: Loads from Digia Cloud but is stable. Best for QA.

  • Release: Loads from local assets first (or network if available). Best for App Store builds.

• Environment: Controls the variables (API endpoints, keys).

  • Local: Use local localhost servers.

  • Development: Use dev/staging servers.

  • Production: Use live production servers.

---

2. Configuration

Debug Flavor (Development)

Use this when you are actively building the app and want to see changes immediately.

Flutter

Flavor.debug(
  environment: Environment.development, // or .local
  branchName: 'feature-x', // Optional: load from specific branch
)

Android (Jetpack Compose)

Staging Flavor (QA/Testing)

Use this for sharing builds with QA or clients.

Flutter

Flavor.staging(
  environment: Environment.production,
)

Android (Jetpack Compose)

Release Flavor (Production)

Use this for the final app store build. It requires downloading assets from Digia Studio and bundling them with your app.

Prerequisite: Download app_config.json and functions.json from Digia Studio (Release tab) and place them in your assets folder.

Flutter

Flavor.release(
  initStrategy: NetworkFirstStrategy(timeoutInMs: 3000),
  appConfigPath: 'assets/app_config.json',
  functionsPath: 'assets/functions.json',
)

Android (Jetpack Compose)

---

3. Initialization Strategies

For Release flavor, you can choose how the app starts:

• NetworkFirstStrategy: Tries to fetch latest config from cloud. Falls back to assets if offline. (Best for most apps).

• CacheFirstStrategy: Uses cached config immediately for fastest startup. Updates in background. (Best for e-commerce/content apps).

• LocalFirstStrategy: Uses bundled assets only. Never connects to Digia Cloud for config. (Best for completely static apps).