CodeMagic.yaml Flutter Version Ignored in favor of Workflow Editor Flutter version

[wolfe719]

If you are looking for help, please confirm the following...

• I confirm I have searched the Docs, Codemagic Sample Projects, and GitHub Discussions.
• I confirm the software versions on my local computer match the ones in CI environment (e.g. Xcode version, Gradle version). See here
• I confirm I am able to do a fresh clone of the repository and build the project on my local computer.

Which mobile framework are you using?

Flutter (Dart)

Steps to reproduce

1. Create a flutter project
2. Create a CodeMagic app with workflow editor that specifies explicit versions of Flutter / Xcode / Cocoapods
3. Make sure that CodeMagic builds the application correctly
4. Create a codemagic.yaml file that specifies a different version of Flutter and Xcode
5. Alter the pubspec.yaml to explicitly fully specify the Dart SDK of the YAML file's version of Flutter
6. On the web interface, switch from using Workflow Editor to using YAML file
7. Kick off a build of a branch that has the new codemagic YAML file

Expected results

Watch the build use the codemagic.yaml file specified Flutter / Xcode / Cocoapods versions

Actual results

See the build fail because of a mismatch of Dart version specified in the pubspec.yaml and the Dart version from the formerly-specified-through-the-CodeMagic-Workflow-Editor Flutter version.

The codemagic.yaml flutter version is not used.

Instead, the Flutter version that has been specified in the CodeMagic Workflow Editor is used.

NOTE: In the build ID case listed below, the codemagic.yaml file calls out a Flutter version 3.24.4. The CodeMagic Workflow Editor (if I switched back to it), shows a Flutter version 3.24.3, and my pubspec.yaml calls out the specific Dart SDK 3.5.4 (belonging to Flutter version 3.24.4)

Build id (optional)

67bf389159a14e4ca8866ecc

[dam-ease]

Hey @wolfe719.
From the logs of the build ID, the flutter version 3.24.3 is being used. The reason for the build failure was also explained in the failed step:

Resolving dependencies...
The current Dart SDK version is 3.5.3.

Because device_flutter requires SDK version 3.5.4, version solving failed.


You can try the following suggestion to make the pubspec resolve:
* Try using the Flutter SDK version: 3.24.5. 

It's attempting to run the flutter packages pub get command with Dart version 3.5.3 but because version 3.5.4 was explicitly stated in your pubspec.yaml file, hence the failure. You can use a range in your pubspec.yaml file instead e.g:

environment:
  sdk: ">=3.2.6 <4.0.0"

and the correct version 3.5.3 will be used.
Please let me know if you have any further queries.

[wolfe719]

No - thank you for re-stating what was already output in the build logs.

The question was "WHY was flutter 3.5.3 being used for my build when I specify:

flutter: 3.5.4

in my codemagic.yaml file? It passed your syntactic parser, after all!

The problem?

YOUR SYNTACTIC PARSER IS FAULTY - it does not catch the error where the line SHOULD BE:

flutter: v3.5.4

Notice the 'v' before the version number for flutter? Neither of the other version numbers for xcode and cocoapods requires this leading 'v', and your parser does not flag the failure.

So I was left wondering and trying to figure out what was going wrong.

Finally, a colleague pointed out that, in your documentation examples, WAY down a page on codemagic.yaml, there was an example flutter version that had the 'v' before the version number.

PLEASE FIX YOUR CODEMAGIC.YAML SYNTACTIC PARSER

AND PLEASE HIGHLIGHT THE FLUTTER VERSION SETTING MORE EXPLICITLY FOR THE NEXT POOR SOD WHO RUNS INTO THIS ISSUE!

Upper casing is only to highlight the really important sentences in this reply.

Thanks for any help you can render!

[dam-ease]

Hello @wolfe719,
Thanks for your detailed response. I'd like to give further details on this.
The version you are using in your pubspec.yaml file is Dart SDK version 3.5.4 and not Flutter 3.5.4. So, just to confirm that I got the report clearly, I'm not so sure I understand where the issue is.
In your pubspec.yaml file, you have the below:

environment:
   sdk: ^3.5.4

The Workflow Editor where the issue occurs makes use of Flutter version 3.24.3 which is the Build ID you shared; this version of Flutter uses Dart SDK version 3.5.3, hence when this is used to build, there is a conflict which results in the error message you have.

Also, please note that whatever configurations are set in the codemagic.yaml file is independent of what you have in your Workflow Editor, i.e. no detail is passed from your codemagic.yaml file to your Workflow Editor Configuration. If you have specified the Flutter version in YAML as below as you mentioned:

flutter: 3.24.4

Once you switch to the Worklow Editor, you need to confirm or make changes to the flutter version here:

So that the version 3.24.4, which is compatible with the Dart SDK version in your pubspec.yaml file can be used in the Workflow Editor build.

I hope this provides more context, if not, kindly help with more information.

Lastly, as regards this

Notice the 'v' before the version number for flutter? Neither of the other version numbers for xcode and cocoapods requires this leading 'v', and your parser does not flag the failure.

So I was left wondering and trying to figure out what was going wrong.

Finally, a colleague pointed out that, in your documentation examples, WAY down a page on codemagic.yaml, there was an example flutter version that had the 'v' before the version number.

Yes, specifying flutter version with v works fine as stated in the docs but not with code and cocoapods, hence the reason it's used as thus in the docs

flutter: stable # Define the channel name, version (e.g. v1.13.4), or fvm for Flutter Version Management
xcode: latest # Define latest, edge or version (e.g. 11.2)
cocoapods: 1.9.1 # Define default or version

Apologies if this was frustrating to debug since it wasn't flagged in the YAML UI, we'll also consider adding clearer validation and documentation updates to prevent this issue for others in the future.

Thanks again for your patience, and I appreciate the detailed breakdown of your findings!