Last updated: Oct-31-2023
This page provides an in-depth introduction to the Flutter mobile framework library.
Overview
Cloudinary's Flutter SDK provides simple, yet comprehensive image and video transformation, optimization, and delivery capabilities that you can implement using code that integrates seamlessly with your existing Flutter application, enabling you to deliver Cloudinary transformed and optimized images and videos inside your Flutter widgets.
The Flutter SDK allows you to transform and deliver assets that are already in your Cloudinary repository. See Flutter image and video upload for ways to upload assets to Cloudinary.
Cloudinary's Flutter SDK is built on Cloudinary's Dart library and provides Flutter-unique components that can be used seamlessly within your Flutter app.
Architecture
The Flutter mobile framework library must be used in conjunction with the Dart backend library to provide all of Cloudinary's transformation and optimization functionality.
Two GitHub repositories provide all the functionality:
-
cloudinary_flutter contains all the functionality required to deliver Cloudinary images using the dedicated
CldImageWidget
. All the Cloudinary Flutter functionality is installed by adding thecloudinary_flutter
package as a dependency. -
cloudinary_url_gen contains the functionality required to create delivery URLs for your Cloudinary assets based on the configuration and transformation actions that you specify. All the Cloudinary Dart functionality is installed by adding the
cloudinary_url_gen
package as a dependency.
Key features
- Uses Cloudinary's new SDK action based syntax with enhanced code autocomplete.
- Build dynamic URLs for delivering images and videos.
- Actions and transformations are immutable, for easier and safer code reuse.
- The
CldImageWidget
allows you to transform and deliver Cloudinary images, and make other modifications to your assets. It wraps Flutter's authenticatedImage
widget for easy and convenient integration into your apps. - By default, the images you display using the
CldImageWidget
are cached to reduce loading time and improve user experience.
Get started
Install and configure the SDK in your project to get started.
Flutter SDK installation and configuration video tutorial
Watch this video tutorial to see how to install and configure the Flutter SDK:
Add the Flutter SDK dependency
To use this SDK, add Cloudinary as a dependency in your pubspec.yaml file.
Add your Cloudinary configuration
The Cloudinary
class is the main entry point for using the library. Your cloud_name
is required to create an instance of this class and can be found in the Programmable Media Dashboard of the Cloudinary Console.
Here's an example of setting up a Cloudinary
instance in your Flutter application:
Define optional configuration parameters by adding them to your configuration file. For example, set the secure
optional configuration parameter to true
:
Full example
Use the example code at pub.dev to quickly get a simple app working for delivering assets that are already in your Cloudinary repository.
Examples
You can generate asset URLs, and you can add transformations that resize, optimize, add special effects to your assets, and more.
Use the CldImageWidget
, based on Flutter's authenticated Image
widget, for generating image URLs, and use Cloudinary's video
method for generating video URLs.
..addTransformation()
method of the Flutter SDK.For more information about the Flutter SDK syntax, see Syntax overview.
Image
Here's a simple example for creating a Flutter widget that transforms and delivers a Cloudinary image, including a resize transformation, using the Flutter SDK:
Video
Here is a simple example for generating a Cloudinary video URL, including a resize transformation with boomerang and vignette effects, using the Flutter SDK:
- See all possible transformations in the Transformation URL API reference.
- See all the Dart-based transformation actions and qualifiers that you can use in Flutter in the Dart-based cloudinary_url_gen package reference.
- See examples of powerful image and video transformations using Flutter code
and see our image transformations and video transformations docs. - Stay tuned for updates with the Programmable Media Release Notes and the Cloudinary Blog.
- Take a look at our iOS and Android SDKs as alternatives for mobile development with Cloudinary.