alex #

alex - command line tool for working with Flutter projects.

Getting started #

Installing #

It's recommended to install the package globally and use as an executable.

You can install the package from the command line with Flutter:

$ flutter pub global activate alex

And follow the instructions (you should add PATH variable on unix systems).

Now you can execute commands with

$ alex

Check the version with:

$ alex --version

⚠️ Attention! If when you try to run alex you will see something like:

~/Development/flutter/.pub-cache/bin/alex: line 17: pub: command not found

In such case you can edit specified file (~/Development/flutter/.pub-cache/bin/alex in this example). All you need to change in it - it's use flutter pub instead of pub or dart pub, so replace pub global run alex:alex "$@" with flutter pub global run alex:alex "$@", save the file, and you are all set.

Updating

To update alex you should execute the same command as for installing:

$ flutter pub global activate alex

Fix problems with cyrillic encoding on Windows

When entering Cyrillic characters (while saving changelog) they may not be displayed correctly or may not be displayed at all. To avoid this, it is recommended to use the external git bash terminal (C:\Program Files\Git), in the settings of which you must specify encoding (Options -> Text -> Character set -> UTF-8).

Usage #

alex is working in the current directory. So if you want to work with a specific project, you should run the command in project's root directory.

Configuration

To provide more convenient way to work with project, alex can use some configuration. You can define configuration in your project's pubspec.yaml, section alex, or in separate file alex.yaml.

You can see all configuration options and it's default values in the example config /alex.yaml.

More about specified configuration parameters - in modules descriptions in the Commands section.

Commands #

Release #

// TODO @chessmax: release command description

Feature #

Work with feature branches and issues.

alex feature <command>

or

alex f <command>

Finish feature

Finish feature by issue id:

• merge feature branch into develop;
• update CHANGELOG;
• delete feature branch from remote;
• merge develop in pipe/test.

alex feature finish --issue={issueId}

or

alex f f -i{issueId}

Also you can run command without issue id:

alex f f

Then alex will print all current feature branches and ask for issue id in interactive mode.

If you have a problem with interactive mode (for example encoding issues on Window), you can provide changelog line as an argument:

alex f f -i{issueId} -c"Some new feature"

It's important to use double quote (") on Windows, but on macOS or Linux you can also use a single quote (').

l10n #

Work with localization files.

Extract string to ARB

alex l10n extract

Generate Dart code by ARB

alex l10n generate

Generate XML for translation

alex l10n to_xml

Also you can export json localization to xml. Json localization can be used for a backend localization.

alex l10n to_xml --from=json --source=/path/to/json/localization/dir

Also you can export only difference (new and changed strings) to xml. You should specify the path to the directory for files with changes.

alex l10n to_xml --diff-path=/path/to/files/with/changes/diffs/

Check translations for all strings

To check all translations for all locales, you can use the command:

alex l10n check_translations

or just:

alex l10n check

If you want to check translations for a specific locale, you can use the --locale option:

Import translations from XML

It's for working with translations from Google Play.

You can export xml translations to the project arb translations:

alex l10n from_xml

Also you can export to the Android localization:

alex l10n from_xml --to=android

And to the iOS localization:

alex l10n from_xml --to=ios

Localization xml files for iOS should start with ios_ prefix.

Import translation from Google Play to project XML files

When you download and unzip translations from Google Play, you need to import them in project's xml files. You can copy it all manually, but it's very inconvenient. So you can use the command import_xml to do it.

alex l10n import_xml --path=path/to/dir/with/translations

If the files have the suffix _diffs then they will be imported as a list of changes.

Cleanup XML files

Remove unused strings from XML files. Check ARB files for all keys and remove unused strings from XML files for all locales.

alex l10n cleanup_xml

Code #

Work with code.

Generate code

Generate JsonSerializable and other.

alex code gen

Pubspec #

Work with pubspec and dependencies.

alex pubspec <command>

or

alex pub <command>

Update dependency

Update specified dependency. It's useful when you want to update dependency for git.

alex pubspec update

and input package name. Or define it right in a command:

alex pubspec update -dPACKAGE_NAME

Get dependencies

Run pub get for all projects/packages in folder (recursively). It's useful when you have multiple packages or project and package in single repository.

alex pubspec get

or

alex pub get

Global settings #

Set global settings for alex.

Currently supported settings:

• open_ai_api_key - OpenAI API key for using ChatGPT features.

Set settings

Allow to set setting's value.

alex settings set <name> <value>

For example:

alex settings set open_ai_api_key abc123

Development #

Do not forget regenerate code when updating the version:

alex code gen

or

dart pub run build_runner build --delete-conflicting-outputs