A Comprehensive Guide to Integrating Firebase Crashlytics in Flutter for Effective Bug Fixing

Introduction

Firebase Crashlytics is a powerful tool that can help you track and fix crashes in your Flutter apps. When a crash occurs, Crashlytics collects a variety of information about the crash, including the stack trace, the device information, and the user's environment. This information can be used to identify the cause of the crash and fix it.

In this blog post, we will show you how to implement Firebase Crashlytics in your Flutter app. We will also provide some tips on how to use Crashlytics to improve the stability of your app.

Before you start, you will need to have the following:

1. A Flutter project

2. A Firebase project

3. The Firebase Crashlytics plugin installed in your Flutter project

To integrate Firebase Crashlytics into your Flutter app for collecting crash reports and fixing bugs, follow these step-by-step instructions:

Step 1: 

Set up Firebase

Create a new project or select an existing project in the Firebase console (https://console.firebase.google.com/).

Add your Flutter app to the Firebase project by following the provided instructions, including downloading the google-services.json file.

Step 2: 

1. Add Firebase Crashlytics Dependency

2. Open your Flutter project in your preferred editor.

3. Open the pubspec.yaml file.

4. Add the firebase_crashlytics dependency to your pubspec.yaml file:

 dependencies:
   firebase_crashlytics: ^2.6.0

Save the pubspec.yaml file.

Run flutter pub get to fetch the Firebase Crashlytics dependency.

Step 3:

Configure Android

Copy the google-services.json file downloaded from the Firebase console into the android/app/ directory of your Flutter project.

Open the android/build.gradle file and add the following code at the bottom of the file:

  Dependencies {
  // ...
  classpath 'com.google.firebase:firebase-crashlytics-gradle:2.7.0'
 }

Open the android/app/build.gradle file and add the following code at the bottom of the file, just before the apply plugin line:

  apply plugin: 'com.google.firebase.crashlytics'
  

In the same build.gradle file, inside the android { ... } block, add the following code:

 firebaseCrashlytics {
  nativeSymbolUploadEnabled true
 }

Save the build.gradle file.

Step 4: 

Initialize Firebase Crashlytics

Open the lib/main.dart file.

Import the required packages:

 import 'package:firebase_core/firebase_core.dart';
 import 'package:firebase_crashlytics/firebase_crashlytics.dart';

Inside the main() function, add the following code to initialize Firebase:

 void main() async {
  WidgetsFlutterBinding
      .ensureInitialized();
  await Firebase
      .initializeApp();
  FirebaseCrashlytics.instance
      .setCrashlyticsCollectionEnabled(true);
  FlutterError.onError = 
      FirebaseCrashlytics
          .instance.recordFlutterError;
  runApp(MyApp());
 }

Save the main.dart file.

Step 5: 

Test Crash Reporting

To test if Crashlytics is working correctly, you can force a crash in your app:

1. Open any part of your app's code where you want to simulate a crash (e.g., a button's onPressed callback).

2. Add the following code to cause a crash:

 FirebaseCrashlytics.instance.crash();
 

3. Build and run your app on a device or emulator.

Trigger the crash by interacting with the relevant part of your app.

Step 6: 

View Crash Reports

After triggering a crash, go back to the Firebase console.

Open your Firebase project.

Navigate to "Crashlytics" in the left sidebar.

You should see crash reports listed there.

By following these steps, you should be able to integrate Firebase Crashlytics into your Flutter app, collect crash reports, and fix bugs effectively. Remember to refer to the official Firebase Crashlytics documentation for any further details or updates specific to the library version you are using.

Thankyou for your Support

- Nachiketa Pandey