betto_pdfium_ios #

Flutter iOS companion plugin for betto_pdfium.

What this package does #

betto_pdfium loads PDFium via DynamicLibrary.process() on iOS, which requires PDFium's symbols to already be present in the process. iOS apps link libraries statically via the Swift Package Manager (SPM) — there is no dlopen at runtime. This package carries the PDFium static xcframework as an SPM binary target so that Flutter wires it into the app at link time.

Without this package, DynamicLibrary.process() will fail to resolve any FPDF_* symbols on iOS.

Usage #

Add both packages to your Flutter app's pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  betto_pdfium: ^0.1.0
  betto_pdfium_ios: ^0.1.0

No additional setup is required. Flutter auto-discovers betto_pdfium_ios as a plugin and wires it into FlutterGeneratedPluginSwiftPackage automatically when Swift Package Manager integration is enabled.

One-time global Flutter setup (required):

flutter config --enable-swift-package-manager

SPM dependency chain #

FlutterGeneratedPluginSwiftPackage
  └── betto-pdfium-ios  (product from betto_pdfium_ios Package.swift)
        └── PdfiumIos   (Swift plugin stub — BettoPdfiumIosPlugin)
              └── PdfiumAnchor  (C target with __attribute__((used)) anchor)
                    └── pdfium_binary  (xcframework binaryTarget)

The C anchor file references FPDF_InitLibraryWithConfig with __attribute__((used)), which prevents the linker from dead-stripping the xcframework and ensures all PDFium symbols are present in the process image.

Platform support #

This package provides iOS support only. On other platforms, betto_pdfium loads PDFium via native-assets (dart:ffi / DynamicLibrary.open) and does not require this companion package.

Versioning #

betto_pdfium_ios is versioned in lock-step with betto_pdfium. Both packages bundle the same PDFium build. Always use matching versions:

dependencies:
  betto_pdfium: ^0.1.0
  betto_pdfium_ios: ^0.1.0

A version mismatch between the two packages could cause runtime symbol resolution failures if the xcframework and the Dart FFI bindings are at different PDFium upstream commits.

Licenses #

This package is provided under Apache License, Version 2.0 — see LICENSE.