Hosting a web server in a local enviroment using only Flutter

Question

Is it possible to host a Flutter web app on a local environment using a Flutter desktop-based app?

Answer 1

The google-search for a solution like this can be difficult, since it involves many keywords that lead to similar situations (online hosting when you need a local solution, command-line only solution, and so on).

After some digging, I ended up using the shelf package to deploy my own Flutter web app on a local network. I developed this for Windows only, so I can't guarantee it will work on other platforms. First thing to do is obviously adding the shelf package in your pubspec.yaml: after that, this is how my main method looks like

import 'package:shelf/shelf_io.dart' as shelf_io;  
import 'package:shelf/shelf.dart' as shelf;  
import 'package:shelf_router/shelf_router.dart' as shelf_router;  

[...]  

void main() async{  

[...]    

  var secureContext = SecurityContext();  
  try {  
    //privKey and cert are the String names of the two files for the SSL connection,  
    //placed in the root directory of the flutter project or along with the .exe  file (when released)
    secureContext.usePrivateKey(privKey);  
    secureContext.useCertificateChain(cert);  
  } catch (error) {  
    logger.e("Error on init SecurityContext");  
  }
  try {  
    //this is the handler that deploys the files contained in 'webAppFolder': I just simply pasted the result of  
    //the flutter webapp building inside (the index.html file is the default one for flutter web)   
    //and put the folder in the root of the flutter project (or, again, in the same folder with the .exe file when released)
    final _staticHandler = createStaticHandler("webAppFolder", defaultDocument: 'index.html');    

    //this I kept just for a reminder on how to deploy a static page, if needed
    final _router = shelf_router.Router()  
      ..get(  
        '/time',
        (request) => shelf.Response.ok(DateTime.now().toUtc().toIso8601String()),  
      );  
  
    final cascade = shelf.Cascade()   
        .add(_staticHandler)  
        .add(_router);  
  
    try {  
      var server = await shelf_io.serve(  
        cascade.handler,  
        InternetAddress.anyIPv4,  
        mainPort,  //this is the number of the port on which the webapp is deployed (I load this from a .ini file beforehand
        securityContext: secureContext,  
      );  
      // Enable content compression  
      server.autoCompress = true;  
  
      logger.i("Serving at https://${server.address.host}:${server.port}");  
    } catch (err) {  
      logger.e("Error while serving");  
      logger.e(err.toString());  
    }  
  } catch (err) {  
    logger.e("Error while creating handler");  
    logger.e(err.toString());  
  }  
  runApp(MaterialApp(  
  [...]

This is the part related to the deploy of a web app: since the flutter desktop app already provides a GUI, I used that to add some maintenance and testing utilities to check if everything is working fine.
For more details regarding shelf, refer to their API on their pub.dev page.