android - Hide Google Maps API key from source control in a Flutter app

Question

To enable the Google Maps SDK you must update: android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml for android, and ios/Runner/AppDelegate.m for ios with your API key.

The problem:

I don't want to check in my API key into source control.

Is there a way to hide this key with a .env file and .gitignore?

What is best practice here?

Answer 1

You can set your api keys as environment variables which can be read during build on your local machine only. Create an env variable MAPS_API_KEY="your-key-here", then add these lines to [your-project]/android/app/build.gradle

 defaultConfig {
        manifestPlaceholders = [mapsApiKey: "$System.env.MAPS_API_KEY"]
    }

and then you can use the mapsApiKeys to pass your api keys in AndroidManifest.xml

 <meta-data android:name="com.google.android.geo.API_KEY"
                android:value="${mapsApiKey}"/>

For ios, add these to AppDelegate.m

NSString* mapsApiKey = [[NSProcessInfo processInfo] environment[@"MAPS_API_KEY"];

[GMSServices provideAPIKey:mapsApiKey];