Let's talk about publishing packages.

This is the first solo episode that I made, I hope you like it. If you do, please let me know and I'll make sure to schedule episodes like these every once in a while.

Why would you want to open source a piece of code? Believe it or not, it can benefit everyone: you, your employer, and the community.

You can use public packages as part of your portfolio, or CV, you might get fast-tracked during an interview process, you can learn a lot and have fun while doing so. It can help you earn street-cred and it could help you find clients easier.

You can even try to convince your employer to open-source some parts of your application. Companies that contribute to the community might be a more interesting option for applicants, so packages might help the company get greater visibility and hire easier. External contributions to the package can eliminate bugs and thus improve the original application of the company.

In this episode, I walk you through the publishing process. I explain how to decide whether  to use stagehand, flutter create, or what files you need if you want to do the "boilerplate" on your own. I talk about the importance of a good README, great documentation, and a solid testing suite when developing packages.

Once you are ready, you can also quickly set up CI/CD and coverage monitor. Then, you can go ahead and let the world know about your awesome package!

Updates

• Checkout the Dart command-line tool docs. Use dart create instead of stagehand. Thank you, Randal Schwartz, for the update!

Resources

• pub.dev
• stagehand
• Package layout conventions
• Developing packages and plugins
• flutter create
• GitHub Actions
• codecov.io
• pub publish

Host: Vince Varga

• Twitter @vincevargadev
• GitHub @vincevargadev
• LinkedIn @vincevargadev

I'm sorry that I didn't position my microphone correctly in the second half of the episode nor did I install my pop filter. It's slightly annoying in an episode about publishing packages and multiplatform plugins on the pub.dev page.