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Handling Upgrades

Handling Dependencies & SDK Upgrades​

Upgrading dependencies in a large Flutter project like Talawa can sometimes be tricky due to "diamond dependency" conflicts. This is often caused by local packages (like talawa_lint) having stricter version constraints than the main project.

The Common Conflict: talawa_lint vs SDK​

When you try to upgrade the Flutter SDK or main dependencies (like build_runner), you might encounter a version solving error related to analyzer or macros.

Why this happens:

  1. Newer SDKs/plugins require a newer version of the analyzer package (e.g., > 6.0).
  2. Our local talawa_lint package (located in talawa/talawa_lint) often has a pubspec.yaml that constrains analyzer to an older version (e.g., < 6.0).
  3. Only running flutter pub upgrade in the root folder does not update the constraints in the sub-package, causing the build to fail.

How to Fix It​

If your upgrade is blocked by talawa_lint or similar local packages, follow this workflow:

  1. Locate the Sub-Package: Go to the talawa_lint directory:

    cd talawa_lint

  2. Update Constraints: Open talawa_lint/pubspec.yaml and broaden the version constraints for conflicting packages (usually analyzer or custom_lint).

    dependencies:
      analyzer: ">=5.12.0 <7.0.0" # Example: Increase the upper bound

  3. Upgrade Sub-Package: Run upgrade inside the directory to generate a new lockfile for it:

    flutter pub upgrade

  4. Handle Stubborn Conflicts (Dependency Overrides): Sometimes, a package (like hive_generator) might still strictly require an older analyzer version even after you fix talawa_lint. In this case, you may need to force a newer version in the root pubspec.yaml:

    dependency_overrides:
      analyzer: ">=6.0.0 <8.0.0" # Force compatible range

  5. Upgrade Main Project: Return to the root directory and attempt the main upgrade again:

    cd ..
    flutter pub upgrade

Diagnosing Conflicts​

To see exactly which package is causing a version lock, use the verbose flag:

flutter pub upgrade -v

Look for lines indicating that talawa depends on talawa_lint which in turn depends on a specific version of analyzer.