Using Fastlane for Flutter: A complete guide

Fastlane is an open-source tool suite designed to automate the release and deployment processes for Android and iOS applications, significantly reducing deployment time and streamlining tasks like handling screenshots, beta deployments, and code signing. This guide provides a comprehensive walkthrough on utilizing Fastlane with Flutter applications, starting with installation and setting up prerequisites such as having an active Flutter application and necessary familiarity with Flutter and Firebase tools. The installation process involves using Homebrew to install Fastlane on macOS, confirming its installation, and configuring the application package name using Android Studio. Furthermore, the guide details setting up Supply, a Fastlane tool for uploading app metadata and binaries to Google Play, which requires a JSON file from a Google Developers service account. The initialization of Fastlane for both Android and iOS deployment is explained, including setting up Firebase App Distribution for testing purposes. The guide concludes by demonstrating how to deploy an application using Fastlane and emphasizes Fastlane's efficiency in saving hours of deployment time, recommending further exploration of its official documentation for more advanced features.