Flutter iOS apps without a Mac feasible?

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David Bain

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Jul 27, 2019, 8:34:40 AM7/27/19
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Is there a feasible approach to developing Flutter apps and targeting iOS without using a Mac?

Reme Le Hane

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Jul 27, 2019, 8:46:54 AM7/27/19
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It's possible to use 3rd party services to build the app for you, but without a mac your not going to be able to test or debug as there is no way to emulate ios outside of macos.

You'd have to pay the service, get the app, upload it to apple test flight, install on phone test and pray it works first time, perfectly.

MrLarryQ

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Jul 31, 2019, 11:36:53 PM7/31/19
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I'm using the service called 'MacInCloud'-- for $20 / mo I get a VM that I'm running VS Code with, and have an emulator to test with.  I get 3 hrs / day 'machine time' and it's worked well for me, you get a decent VM at that price, VS Code and the emulator run at good speed.  I'd check it out, see if you like it.

Eric Knudstrup

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Aug 8, 2019, 2:56:31 AM8/8/19
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They're not that expensive used, or you could buy a Mini.  If you must have "free as in beer", then it is possible to build a virtualized Macintosh, but it's super slow even on a fast PC. 

Maurice McCabe

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Aug 8, 2019, 2:39:16 PM8/8/19
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Travis-CI, Cirrus-CI and some other CI vendors allow running integration tests on iOS simulators via a mac VM. For example see:
Of course, still can't debug. But debugging probably only necessary if developing iOS native plugins (which u probably aren't doing if not already on a mac). After all, one of the major promises of developing on Flutter is you can get many types of apps, developed on linux/windows, to run on android and iOS with the same code.

For example of deploying to iOS (and android) store via a CI vendor (or from command line if on a mac) see:
This uses the fledge command line interface:

Maurice McCabe

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Aug 8, 2019, 2:42:16 PM8/8/19
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If developing on linux/windows, or even developing on a mac, it is now possible to do flutter integration testing on real iOS and Android devices in the cloud using AWS Device Farm. For details see:
If not on a mac, you can use Travis-CI or probably any other CI. 
AWS Device Farm comes with 1,000 free minutes. A test takes about 5 minutes.



On Saturday, July 27, 2019 at 5:34:40 AM UTC-7, David Bain wrote:
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