Deep link validator fails to load & validate links

[CodingAleCR]

<-- Please describe your problem here. Be sure to include repro steps. -->

1. Create a file ".env" at the root path of your project

   {
       "APPLICATION_ID": "com.my.app.id"
   }
   

2. Edit your android/app/build.gradle file with this after the plugin section :

   def dartEnvironmentVariables = [];
   if (project.hasProperty("dart-defines")) {
       dartEnvironmentVariables = project.property("dart-defines")
           .split(',')
           .collectEntries { entry ->
               def pair = new String(entry.decodeBase64(), "UTF-8").split("=")
               [(pair.first()): pair.last()]
           }
   }
   

   Still on the build.gradle file, edit the application id defaultConfig like that :

       defaultConfig {
           applicationId dartEnvironmentVariables.APPLICATION_ID
           ...
       }
   

3. Verify that your application is working well using "--dart-define-from-file" on your run command. Here an example with a custom launch config for VSCode if you are using that IDE (.launch.json file)

   {
         "name": "Android - DEV",
         "request": "launch",
         "type": "dart",
         "program": "lib/main.dart",
         "toolArgs": [
             "--dart-define-from-file", ".env"
         ]
   }
   

Result: Unable to load deep link validator tool.

Reference screen shots:

---

DevTools version: 2.40.2

[elliette]

FYI @chunhtai @hannah-hyj

[elliette]

I did some investigation into this. To get the app link settings for an Android app, the deep link tool calls:

flutter analyze --android --output-app-link-settings --build-variant={{buildVariant}} {{appPath}}

devtools/packages/devtools_shared/lib/src/deeplink/deeplink_manager.dart

Lines 139 to 156 in 79f0a20

	Future<Map<String, Object?>> getAndroidAppLinkSettings({
	required String rootPath,
	required String buildVariant,
	}) {
	return _runFlutterCommand(
	<String>[
	'analyze',
	'--android',
	'--output-app-link-settings',
	'--build-variant=$buildVariant',
	rootPath,
	],
	outputMatcher: _outputFilePathRegex,
	).then<Map<String, Object?>>(
	_handleReadJsonFile,
	onError: _handleRunFlutterError,
	);
	}

On the flutter_tool side:

I believe the the AndroidAnalyze command likely expects the application ID to be a string, and therefore needs to be updated to handle parsing an environment variable instead (https://github.com/flutter/flutter/blob/8fe76181e34852d78802b1f24e612bded2cecdfe/packages/flutter_tools/lib/src/commands/analyze.dart#L288) I've filed flutter/flutter#179705 for that.

On the DevTools side:

We should at least show an error message to show what has gone wrong instead of an infinite spinner. @chunhtai @hannah-hyj - do either of you have the bandwidth to add better error handling here?

---

FYI @CodingAleCR and any others who run into this - as a temporary workaround I believe you should be able to hardcode your applicationId in build.gradle when you need to validate deep links for your app and then reset it when you are done.

[TDuffinNTU]

Still present in 3.44.1, which I believe post-dates the flutter-side fix.

However in my case it appears that the issue is related to our usage of build flavors. We have the following android app variants:

Flavor	Variants
Dev	DevDebug, DevProfile, DevRelease
Uat	UatDebug, UatProfile, UatRelease
Prod	UatDebug, UatProfile, UatRelease

Manual command results

flutter analyze --android --output-app-link-settings --build-variant=Dev ./dartworkspace/apps/myapp/

Task 'outputDevAppLinkSettings' is ambiguous in root project 'android' and its subprojects. Candidates are: 
'outputDevDebugAppLinkSettings', 
'outputDevProfileAppLinkSettings', 
'outputDevReleaseAppLinkSettings'.

flutter analyze --android --output-app-link-settings --build-variant=DevDebug ./dartworkspace/apps/myapp/

Running Gradle task 'outputDevDebugAppLinkSettings'...           2,970ms

result saved in C:\Users\REDACTED\Dev\dartworkspace\apps\myapp\build\deeplink_data\app-link-settings-DevDebug.json

I verified the latter outputs what appears to be valid - it picks up the newly-added intent I added to my app.

Devtools (web) logs

Inspecting the devtools on web, This is the console logs after starting the deeplink analysis:

main.dart.mjs:81 FormatException: Unexpected character (at character 3)
[2+2]
  ^

main.dart.mjs:81 
    at convert_patch.dart:1657:5
    at convert_patch.dart:755:11
    at json.dart:160:12
    at _deep_links_api.dart:15:15
    at async_patch.dart:96:32
    at zone_root.dart:48:47
errors_patch.dart:40 Uncaught Exception {stack: undefined}stack: undefined[[Prototype]]: WebAssembly.ExceptiongetArg: ƒ getArg()is: ƒ is()stack: (...)constructor: ƒ Exception()length: 2name: "Exception"prototype: WebAssembly.Exception {Symbol(Symbol.toStringTag): 'WebAssembly.Exception', getArg: ƒ, is: ƒ}arguments: nullcaller: null[[Prototype]]: ƒ ()[[Scopes]]: Scopes[0]Symbol(Symbol.toStringTag): "WebAssembly.Exception"get stack: ƒ stack()length: 0name: "get stack"arguments: (...)caller: (...)[[Prototype]]: ƒ ()apply: ƒ apply()arguments: (...)bind: ƒ bind()call: ƒ call()caller: (...)constructor: ƒ Function()length: 0name: ""toString: ƒ toString()Symbol(Symbol.hasInstance): ƒ [Symbol.hasInstance]()get arguments: ƒ arguments()set arguments: ƒ arguments()get caller: ƒ caller()set caller: ƒ caller()[[FunctionLocation]]: [[Prototype]]: Object[[Scopes]]: Scopes[0][[Scopes]]: Scopes[0]No properties[[Prototype]]: Object
$func974 @ errors_patch.dart:40
$func978 @ errors_patch.dart:20
$$invokeCallback @ timer_patch.dart:82
(anonymous) @ main.dart.mjs:600
main.dart.mjs:815 [zoneGuarded]: FormatException: Unexpected character (at character 3)
[2+2]
  ^

org-dartlang-sdk:///dart-sdk/lib/_internal/wasm/lib/convert_patch.dart 755:11                         parsePartialNumber
org-dartlang-sdk:///dart-sdk/lib/convert/json.dart 160:12                                             jsonDecode
file:///b/s/w/ir/x/w/devtools/packages/devtools_app/lib/src/shared/server/_deep_links_api.dart 15:15  requestAndroidBuildVariants
org-dartlang-sdk:///dart-sdk/lib/_internal/wasm/lib/async_patch.dart 96:32                            _awaitHelper
org-dartlang-sdk:///dart-sdk/lib/async/zone_root.dart 48:47                                           _rootRunUnary

_1679 @ main.dart.mjs:815
$func29899 @ main.dart.wasm:0x50e046
$func1306 @ zone_root.dart:56
$func3318 @ main.dart.wasm:0x1da526
$func3322 @ zone.dart:633
$func1513 @ stream_impl.dart:381
$func1510 @ stream_impl.dart:375
$func1502 @ type.dart:1605
$func1500 @ broadcast_stream_controller.dart:385
$func1498 @ broadcast_stream_controller.dart:379
$func1470 @ broadcast_stream_controller.dart:257
$func3413 @ broadcast_stream_controller.dart:255
$func3409 @ logger.dart:238
$func3391 @ logger.dart:296
$func3390 @ app_error_handling.dart:99
$func1324 @ async_patch.dart:96
$func1304 @ zone.dart:962
$func1269 @ future_impl.dart:222
$func1294 @ future_impl.dart:720
$func1323 @ future_impl.dart:715
$func1257 @ schedule_microtask.dart:40
$$invokeCallback @ timer_patch.dart:73
(anonymous) @ main.dart.mjs:600

Other observations, not sure if related

Details

If I set the project at the dart workspace root I _do_ get an error, which is expected: *** Opening the tool on web and inspecting the browser logs, I can see:

main.dart.mjs:814 HttpRequest api/androidBuildVariants failed status = 500, responseText = {"error":"Flutter command exit with non-zero error code 1\nYou provided the path 'c:\\c:\\users\\REDACTED\\dev\\dartworkspace\\apps\\myapp', however it does not exist on disk\n"}

Note the duplicated c:\\c:\\ in the path.

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