kiwix / kiwix/overview

New request: Flutter library for reading ZIM files

Open
#169 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
project idea question
Dominant language
HTML
Stars
93
Forks
14
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

Hello,

First of all, thank you for the amazing work on the ZIM ecosystem and the tools around it.

I would like to request support for Flutter applications.

Currently, there does not seem to be a maintained Flutter/Dart library for reading ZIM files. Having such a library would make it possible to build cross-platform applications (Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, and Web where applicable) that can access ZIM content natively.

This would greatly benefit projects that want to integrate offline knowledge into Flutter applications without relying on platform-specific implementations.

A Flutter package could either:

provide a native Dart implementation for reading ZIM files, or
expose the existing libzim functionality through Flutter platform bindings (FFI).

I believe this would help expand the ZIM ecosystem and make it easier for developers to build modern cross-platform offline applications.

Thank you for considering this request, and thank you again for your excellent work on the ZIM project.

@kelson42

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reviewing the existing libzim functionality and the two proposed approaches: a native Dart implementation or Flutter platform bindings through FFI. Done means a maintained Flutter/Dart package can read ZIM files across the requested platforms, including Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, and applicable web targets.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
dart, flutter
Domain
desktop-dev, mobile-dev
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.