How to Set Up a Flutter Development Environment on Windows? This Article Walks You Through It

Preface

Doing development on Windows, one word: a pain. But sometimes when you're out you can only bring a laptop. Linux isn't very compatible on some laptops, driver support isn't perfect, and power management isn't good enough, so in a pinch you have to make do with Windows for now—just like now, when I need to set up a Flutter development environment on Windows. Such a pain.

Getting to the Point

Install the Android SDK First

First, you need a way to download the Android SDK—either a VPN, or a China mirror. I won't go into the details.

1. Install Android Studio

2. The first time you run it, you'll be prompted to install the SDK

3. Or follow these steps

File | Settings | Appearance Behavior | System Settings | Android SDK

4. Add environment variables

• Environment variables on Windows are a hassle, unlike Linux where one profile file does it all. The specific steps are to open the Control Panel, as shown

• Select System and Security

• Select System

• Advanced system settings

• Environment Variables

• Double-click this Path

• Select New Then just paste in the SDK installation directory.

5. Set the ANDROID_HOME environment variable

While setting the Path variable, you also need to add the SDK installation directory to ANDROID_HOME. Specifically, create a new environment variable named ANDROID_HOME, with the value being the SDK directory.

Download the Flutter SDK

• Flutter official website: https://flutter.dev/
• Official installation guide: https://flutter.dev/docs/get-started/install

1. First, add two environment variables to set up Flutter's China mirrors:

PUB_HOSTED_URL=https://pub.flutter-io.cn FLUTTER_STORAGE_BASE_URL=https://storage.flutter-io.cn The method for setting variables was covered earlier, but this is different from the Path environment variable—you need to add new variables. The steps are as follows:

• Click New in the Environment Variables dialog

• Fill in the name and variable value respectively (That's a hands-on walkthrough for you—clear enough, right?)

2. Next, there are three ways to install Flutter

• Use Git to clone the Flutter source. For using Git on Windows, please refer to a previous blog post of mine or search on your own
• Use Chocolatey to install Flutter. I'll cover how to use Chocolatey in a later blog post
• Download the official installer package, link: https://flutter.dev/docs/get-started/install/windows

3. After downloading the Flutter source, you likewise need to add this path to the Path environment variable. I won't repeat the steps—they've all been covered above. Just append the Flutter path to the Path environment variable.

4. Run flutter doctor

Open Powershell and enter the command:

flutter doctor

Then Flutter will automatically download various dependencies and so on, then compile the Flutter SDK. If the result looks something like the following, you're all set:

Install Plugins

Whether you use VSCode or Android Studio, you need to install the Flutter plugin either way. Android Studio requires a restart after installing it.

Configure Gradle

Update 2023: This is no longer needed, but you still need to configure Gradle China mirrors

Another real pain point is configuring the Gradle path environment variable.

• Create a GRADLE_HOME environment variable
• Fill in the Gradle directory. You'll have to find it yourself—it's different on different computers
• Add GRADLE_HOME to the Path variable: Add a variable in Path with the value %GRADLE_HOME%\bin.
• To avoid any more weird issues, also add a CLASS_PATH environment variable, with the value: %GRADLE_HOME%\lib

Configure Gradle China Mirrors

Refer to this GitHub project: https://china-speed.github.io/

gradle bin

The official CDN domain downloads.gradle-dn.com used to have a presence in China, but it has been discontinued and can no longer be used.

sed -i 's/services.gradle.org\/distributions\//mirrors.cloud.tencent.com\/gradle\//g' ./gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties

# 腾讯云
distributionUrl=https\://mirrors.cloud.tencent.com/gradle/gradle-6.6.1-bin.zip

# 默认国外
distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-6.6.1-bin.zip

Gradle maven

Google Maven used to have a presence in China, but it has been discontinued and needs acceleration for mainland China.

mkdir ~/.gradle
cat > ~/.gradle/init.gradle << \EOF
def repoConfig = {
    all { ArtifactRepository repo ->
        if (repo instanceof MavenArtifactRepository) {
            def url = repo.url.toString()
            if (url.contains('repo1.maven.org/maven2')
                || url.contains('jcenter.bintray.com')
                || url.contains('maven.google.com')
                || url.contains('plugins.gradle.org/m2')
                || url.contains('repo.spring.io/libs-milestone')
                || url.contains('repo.spring.io/plugins-release')
                || url.contains('repo.grails.org/grails/core')
                || url.contains('repository.apache.org/snapshots')
            ) {
                println "gradle init: [buildscript.repositories] (${repo.name}: ${repo.url}) removed"
                remove repo
            }
        }
    }

    // 腾讯云 maven 镜像聚合了：central、jcenter、google、gradle-plugin
    maven { url 'https://mirrors.cloud.tencent.com/nexus/repository/maven-public/' }
    // 阿里云 https://help.aliyun.com/document_detail/102512.html
    maven { url 'https://maven.aliyun.com/repository/central' }
    maven { url 'https://maven.aliyun.com/repository/jcenter' }
    maven { url 'https://maven.aliyun.com/repository/google' }
    maven { url 'https://maven.aliyun.com/repository/gradle-plugin' }
    maven { url 'https://maven.aliyun.com/repository/spring' }
    maven { url 'https://maven.aliyun.com/repository/spring-plugin' }
    maven { url 'https://maven.aliyun.com/repository/grails-core' }
    maven { url 'https://maven.aliyun.com/repository/apache-snapshots' }
}

allprojects {
    buildscript {
        repositories repoConfig
    }

    repositories repoConfig
}
EOF

ok...

Finally done configuring. After struggling through it myself, I can finally understand why some beginners say they spent a whole week setting up their Flutter environment~ Windows really isn't developer-friendly—there are so many extra hoops to jump through, especially for beginners who end up taking a lot of detours. When all is said and done, Linux or Mac is still better (flees)

Feel Free to Reach Out

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• Zhihu: https://www.zhihu.com/people/dealiaxy
• Blog: https://blog.deali.cn
• Jianshu: https://www.jianshu.com/u/965b95853b9f