Currenct Project Status

[vicenterusso]

Still being maintained?

One year without updates, iPhone models with problems, and many other PRs ignored. Is there any fork alive?

[thorito]

Idem

[Dionnie123]

This package is dead.

[rydmike]

This package is dead.

Yes so it seems, might need to fork it and make living version.

[Yetispapa]

@rydmike If you possess a functioning fork, would it be feasible to share it here?

[rydmike]

@Yetispapa I have not made any mods to the fork I might have, yet at least. I saw links in some of the other issues to some fork(s) that claimed to contain some merged fixes, I did not look into them though. If you browse around in the issues you might find one or two, sorry I don't recall exactly where it was.

There are a lot of PRs open with what seems like valid good fixes, but this package has not been updated in 15 months. I am thus assuming it is not being maintained anymore. This is a pity of course.

At the moment I am only using the part that draws device frames, which is in its own sub package called device_frame. I'm using that in the Themes Playground web app, and putting selected content (screens/demo apps) in them.

Even device_frame contains errors in some device frames concerning pixel density and resolutions, so I excluded them as choices. There are even PRs to fix some of those and to add some new frames, but so far no actions to merge anything.

---

@aloisdeniel maybe we can get some clarity about the package status and plans? We know, understand and respect that this is a free open source package, and that maintaining it is best effort and as always a bandwidth issue. Still, it would be nice if you would communicate if you have any plans to go through the issues and merge at least critical fixes or make similar fixes yourself.

If you do not plan to maintain this nice and popular package yourself, maybe getting it into the Flutter community maintained ones could be an option, we could check if that is a possibility. Or alternatively transfer it to somebody else willing to maintain it a bit more actively.

Of course, just discontinuing the package is also an option, which would be sad, but at least it lets devs know that it is not maintained anymore. In that case I'm sure there will be forked version(s) popping up on pub soon enough, with one probable getting more popular than others eventually. A more planned and graceful path would of course be preferred if you do not plan to maintain the package yourself anymore.

Discontinuing the maintenance of an open source package is of course at the choice and discretion of the author. We totally understand and respect such a choice too. 💙

[Tienisto]

The pub.dev maintainers / Flutter team should really introduce a threshhold of 1-2 years of no updates that unlocks the package name to allow taking over the project with a fork.

All those _plus, _minus, _fix or what ever package suffixes people come up really clutters the package space of pub.dev. device_preview is a nice package name with a good branding. Sad that it will be lost.

[rydmike]

@Tienisto I'm not sure Flutter Community has any capacity to take on packages in the way suggested above. Perhaps, but probably best to reach out to them and ask.

They do have instructions for package authors that may want to transfer maintenance/ownership of popular packages that author(s) are no longer willing or able to maintain. This would perhaps be something @aloisdeniel might also consider if he no longer plans to maintain this package. Which at least for now seems to be the case, since all PRs and requests for comments and input are ignored here in the repo issues.

We could ask him politely what the status and intent is on X/Twitter too. Might help with getting clarification on this topic, or it might not 🤷🏻‍♂️ 💙

[aloisdeniel]

Really sorry about the lack of news recently!

I still want to push a new version of DevicePreview I've been working on in the future (which is a complete rewrite that reimplements the WidgetBindings, to implement a real device simulation), but just put this on hold for a while because of personal life events (new born baby, intense work, health, moving from current location...).

In the meantime, I don't see other options than using forks since I have absolutely zero time to review PRs on my open source projects (unpaid). My priority remains my family life; therefore paid work; therefore my clients.

I don't see ownership transfer as a solution, except if someone wants to continue my work on the 2.0.0 release, but honestly, it could be a full-time job for someone who isn't familiar with the codebase.

I really hope that Flutter team will provide an official solution for a device preview, integrated into the devtools (which I was planning to integrate too if they add support for plugins). I created this package because I was needing it, and was lacking from the official tools, even if it should be part of it IMO.

Also, if someone wants me to add a mention on the readme, pointing to a working and well maintained fork, I will do it!

[rydmike]

Thanks for the update and info @aloisdeniel, we appreciate the honest and open answer 🙏🏻 💙

[fredgrott]

@rydmike and everyone else I found the project that google is using for their cloud based IDX IDE, the public
package before its complete fork to Google is here:

https://pub.dev/packages/stager

The Google github repo is here

https://github.com/google/flutter-stager

It is what I am switching to in addition to using Golden Toolkit in my widget testing.

[defuncart]

Similar to @rydmike, I am also using device_frame independent of device_preview, and it would be great to have the latest fixes and ability to add new features (i.e #235). As device_frame is also used by a couple of existing packages, perhaps it could be extract out and maintained by another team? Perhaps I am wrong, but I assume the current device_preview v2 work does not heavily modify device_frame? @aloisdeniel

[bharathwajv]

when is release/2.0.0