Flutter › Flutter Plugin & Package Development
How does a federated plugin architecture let several genuinely separate teams or contributors independently maintain the different platform specific implementations of exactly the same overall shared plugin?
IntermediateAnswer
A federated plugin splits what would otherwise be one single combined plugin package into several genuinely separate packages, typically including one app facing package exposing the actual public Dart API, one separate platform interface package defining the shared abstract contract every platform implementation must properly follow, and then individual separate platform specific implementation packages for Android, iOS, web, and so on, and this particular architecture lets genuinely different teams or contributors independently maintain and separately release updates to just one single specific platform's own implementation without needing to coordinate a combined simultaneous release across every single supported platform together at once.
my_plugin/
my_plugin_platform_interface/
my_plugin_android/
my_plugin_ios/
my_plugin_web/Real-world example The official url_launcher plugin uses a federated architecture, letting its own web specific implementation be updated and separately released completely independently of its Android and iOS implementations, without requiring every single platform to always be coordinated and released together simultaneously.