Alan Flutter Framework

Available on: Android iOS



The Alan Flutter plugin helps you to integrate your voice experience and Alan Studio script into your Flutter app.

Note

The alan_voice package version 3.0.0 supports null safety. If your app does not use null safety yet, upgrade the Dart version to 2.12 or higher or use a previous version of the alan_voice package.

Integrating with Alan

To integrate a Flutter app with Alan:

  1. In the pubspec.yaml file of your Flutter project, add the Alan voice dependency:

    pubspec.yaml
    ...
dependencies:
  flutter:
    sdk: flutter
    ...
  alan_voice: 2.4.0

  2. Open the main.dart file and at the top of it, add the alan_voice package dependency:

    main.dart
    import 'package:alan_voice/alan_voice.dart';

  3. In the _MyHomePageState class, add the method for initializing the Alan button:

    main.dart
    ...
class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
...
  _MyHomePageState() {
    /// Initializing Alan with sample project id
    AlanVoice.addButton(
      "",
      buttonAlign: AlanVoice.BUTTON_ALIGN_LEFT);
 }
...

  4. In Alan Studio, go to Integrations, copy the value from the Alan SDK Key field and insert this value in the quotes.

    main.dart
    ...
class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
...
  _MyHomePageState() {
    /// Initializing Alan with sample project id
    AlanVoice.addButton(
      "314203787ccd9370974f1bf6b6929c1b2e956eca572e1d8b807a3e2338fdd0dc/prod",
      buttonAlign: AlanVoice.BUTTON_ALIGN_LEFT);
  }
...

That’s it. Now you can run the app, tap the Alan button and start interacting with Alan.

Specifying the Alan button parameters

You can specify the following parameters for the Alan button added to your app:

Name

Type

Description

projectId

string

The Alan SDK key for a project in Alan Studio.

authJson

JSON object

The authentication or configuration data to be sent to the voice script. For details, see authData.

buttonAlign

Int

The Alan button position in the app. Use one of the two constants: BUTTON_ALIGN_LEFT or BUTTON_ALIGN_RIGHT.

Using the Alan button methods

For details on methods exposed by the Alan Flutter SDK, see Client API methods.

Handling events

When you run an app with Alan voice, multiple events come from the Alan backend. You can handle the following events:

  • onCommand: this callback is invoked when the app receives a command from the voice script. For details, see onCommand handler.

  • onButtonState: this callback is invoked when the Alan button state changes. For details, see onButtonState handler.

  • onEvent: this callback is invoked on Alan events. For details, see onEvent handler.

Switching between logging levels

By default, Alan does not log its system events such as change of the Alan button state to the IDE console. If you want to see messages from Alan, switch to the all logging level:

main.dart
AlanVoice.setLogLevel("all");

To disable logs, either remove the line above or switch to the none logging level:

main.dart
AlanVoice.setLogLevel("none");

Troubleshooting

To troubleshoot problems you may have with your Flutter app, check the solutions below:

  • The minimum possible Android SDK version required by the Alan SDK is 21. If the version in your project is lower, you may encounter the following error: AndroidManifest.xml Error: uses-sdk:minSdkVersion 16 cannot be smaller than version 21 declared in library [:alan_voice]. Open the ./android/app/build.gradle file, under defaultConfig, locate minSdkVersion and change the version to 21.

  • Starting from version 3.0.0, the alan_voice package supports null safety. If you encounter the following error: Cannot run with sound null safety because dependencies don't support null safety, upgrade to the latest package version.

Trying Alan sample apps

In our GitHub repository, you can find sample Flutter apps already integrated with Alan. Download these apps to get an idea of how you can voice-enable your app and trigger activities in the app with voice commands.

  • Alan simple app: an example demonstrating how to integrate Alan with a Flutter app

  • Flutter Shrine app: a shopping app with a voice interface synchronized with the app visual elements

What’s next?

You can now proceed to building a voice interface with Alan. Use the following resources: