Single Package for All Platforms

[cliftonlabrum]

First of all, this is a fantastic package. Thank you very much for creating and maintaining it!

I'm sorry if this is already explained somewhere and I missed it, but why not have a single sqflite package that relies on sqlite3_flutter_libs and works on all the platforms: macOS, iOS, Android, and Windows?

I know you have to use sqflite_common_ffi for Windows and set up a database factory, but that's always felt a little confusing to me, and involves extra steps (especially when deploying to Windows in production).

Why not have an all-in-one solution for all platforms? I'm genuinely curious. 😊

[alextekartik]

why not have a single sqflite package that relies on sqlite3_flutter_libs and works on all the platforms: macOS, iOS, Android, and Windows?

Always including sqlite3_flutter_libs gives a larger binary size (about 2.5Mb on Android) even if you are not using it. It might not matter for you but some people don't need it and are fine with the platform bundled binary using sqflite

Why not have an all-in-one solution for all platforms? I'm genuinely curious

Let me copy what I just wrote in: #948

Cross platform support is a bit weird, sorry about that. The sqflite package,
implemented as a "classic" flutter plugin supports only Android, iOS and MacOS.

Desktop support (Linux, Windows) is provided by the sqflite_common_ffi package.
It is a dart package so it also works on the dart VM (command line) so it is not
a flutter plugin. Its implementation uses ffi. This implementation can also
support Android, iOS and MacOS but it is not a flutter plugin.

Experimental web support is provided by the sqflite_common_ffi_web package.

Is there a plan to publish a single federated package?

Not at this time. Some might prefer sqflite_common_ffi over sqflite. The first
giving you access to the latest sqlite3 version and the second giving a smaller binary size.
Some wants encryption support. It is hard to make the proper choice for everyone.

As a side note, I find it weird when creating a linux only flutter application, that
my app has to download the win32 package. Currently there is no way to limit dependencies
to only the platform you are supporting. More dependencies means more chance to have breaking bugs
that you cannot fix.

I would even be more inclined to publish a separate packages for each platform that people have to include
one by one for the platforms they want.

Also I'm a freelance developer, maintaining it in my free-time so I don't always have time and
the energy to support it (since 2017!) in the best way. Documentation is poor, I know. I'm not a native english speaker.
Sometimes issues like this one bring me the opportunity to improve the documentation so I will
likely copy this response to the documentation.

[cliftonlabrum]

Thank you for the thorough reply. That makes sense.

Thanks for all you have done for the Flutter community! Also, your English is excellent. 😊