Octopus Community SDK for Flutter #

Embed a moderated, white-label social community — feed, groups, posts, comments, reactions, profiles — in your Flutter app with one Dart API over the native Android and iOS SDKs.

What you get #

• Native UI, not a webview. The community screens are the native Android and iOS SDK views, embedded as Flutter widgets (OctopusHomeScreen) or presented as a route or modal.
• Your brand. OctopusTheme sets colors, fonts, logo and light/dark mode.
• Nothing to host. Octopus runs the back end, storage, moderation, engagement tools and analytics; you integrate the client.
• Your users, your accounts. Connect your signed-in users through SSO, with a JWT minted by your backend.
• Wired into your app. Push notifications, a typed event stream, and a bridge that attaches a community discussion to your own content (articles, products, events).

Requirements #

On Android the plugin compiles with Kotlin 2.1.10 and a JVM target of 11; your app's Kotlin toolchain has to be able to consume that. CI builds and tests on the Flutter version named above.

The package's MAJOR.MINOR tracks the native SDKs it wraps, so a breaking Dart change can land in a minor release; each one is listed in CHANGELOG.md and MIGRATING.md. Details: Versioning.

Installation #

flutter pub add octopus_sdk_flutter

or in pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  octopus_sdk_flutter: ^1.14.0

Two one-time native steps: on Android, MainActivity must extend FlutterFragmentActivity (not FlutterActivity); on iOS, set the deployment target to 14.0. Full list: Platform setup.

Quickstart #

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:octopus_sdk_flutter/octopus_sdk_flutter.dart';

Future<void> main() async {
  WidgetsFlutterBinding.ensureInitialized();
  await OctopusSDK().initialize(apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY');
  runApp(const MaterialApp(home: CommunityPage()));
}

class CommunityPage extends StatelessWidget {
  const CommunityPage({super.key});

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) => OctopusHomeScreen(
        navBarTitle: 'Community',
        onNavigateToLogin: () {/* open your login screen */},
      );
}

Users can browse anonymously from there. To connect your signed-in users (SSO), theme the UI or wire push, follow the integration guide.

Sample app #

A full sample — every presentation mode, theming, push, deep links, the bridge, multi-community switching — lives in example/:

git clone https://github.com/Octopus-Community/octopus-sdk-flutter.git
cd octopus-sdk-flutter/example
flutter run --dart-define=OCTOPUS_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY

Android builds also need your Firebase google-services.json; see example/README.md. To get an API key, request a sandbox key through the form on octopuscommunity.com (also on the Getting Started page); it arrives within 24 hours.

Links #

• Documentation: doc.octopuscommunity.com
• Integration guide: doc/integration-guide.md · push with Firebase: doc/push-notifications-with-firebase.md
• API reference: pub.flutter-io.cn
• CHANGELOG.md · MIGRATING.md
• Other Octopus SDKs: Android · iOS · React Native · Unity
• Issues: GitHub

License #

Distributed under the Octopus Community Mobile SDK License — see LICENSE.

Custom icons #

Use OctopusTheme.icons to customize the native icon set, activity button and reaction images. See the icon customization guide for Flutter asset loading and examples.