DEV Community: Yashvant Singh

GSoC Week 12: Fading Transitions, Broken Builds & NASA Phones

Yashvant Singh — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 12:29:14 +0000

So here we are, the final week of my coding period in Google Summer of Code.

This week has been a rollercoaster — from upgrading Gradle and AGP, fixing compatibility conflicts, to making the app feel more alive with microinteractions and transitions. And yes, testing on my “NASA-powered” phone that just couldn’t keep up 😅.

Starting the Week with a Big Upgrade

The week started with my PR: Upgrade AGP to 8.5.0 and Gradle to 8.7 for Kotlin 2.1.10 compatibility #425.

I put in the work to address all of Coderabbit’s suggestions (so much so that I’ve started seeing Coderabbit’s reels on my Instagram feed now 🐇📱).

But when Hardik reviewed the PR, we hit some bumps:

Upgrading Flutter to the latest stable caused conflicts between hive_generator and build_runner.
Even though I pinned them to compatible versions, the build still failed.
And most importantly — I had upgraded the Java version. Hardik pointed out that this wasn’t viable within the current timeline since all contributors would also have to upgrade.

So yeah… the PR couldn’t be merged, and I had to eventually revert the changes.

I did test the auth flow by generating my own client ID and secret. It worked perfectly fine — so when Aboo generates the final keys, it should be ready to roll.

Animations vs Microinteractions

I thought the gradle upgrade PR will merge, I switched to UX improvements.

I studied the difference between animations and microinteractions in layman’s language:

Animations: Big, visible motions that catch attention (like screen transitions, loaders, or onboarding visuals).
Microinteractions: Subtle feedback elements that make the app feel “alive” (like a button bounce when clicked, a smooth fade when a form is submitted, etc.).

So I added microinteractions to our button components. Then I tackled page transitions. Luckily, the project has a centralized router.dart, so I slipped in a sleek fade transition across pages.

When I tested on my phone, nothing showed up (thanks to my laggy, NASA-powered device 🚀📱).

But testing on my friend’s phone confirmed it — the app felt way more alive!

Weekly Meet with the Mentors

Yesterday, we (me, Hardik, Aboo) had a project meet. Since this was the final submission week, we discussed the remaining tasks.

I explained the auth flow progress.
We talked about the interactive book feature. Hardik clarified that it won’t be possible during GSoC due to time constraints, but we can revisit it post-GSoC. Until then, I’ll keep exploring possible solutions.
I also reviewed the open PRs (mostly from dependabot), marked which can be merged directly, and made required changes. But with the Gradle PR dropped, I had to revert a bunch of things. (Thankfully, I saved my code, so it’s just copy-paste-push when the time comes ✨).

And then came the big question — Do I want to join the core team?

Honestly, that’s a huge question. We were joking around, but Hardik did mention they love reading my blogs — for the innocence and realism they hold. That meant a lot. ❤️

Back to Auth, Deployment & Stores

Today, I:

Reverted everything back to the earlier version (with the correct settings and versioning).
Worked again on the auth flow.
Studied deployment on the Huawei AppGallery (to target the Chinese audience). Key takeaways:
- We can add our APK for review.
- No need to pay anything.
- The only constraint: we must not depend on Google services. Currently, only google_sign_in is an issue, everything else is fine.
Next up: I’ll also increase my pace for the deployment on F-Droid Store.

Final Blog & Wrap Up

I’ve also started working on my final blog report. Not gonna lie, I spent 2 hours just making the cover — but it looks good (I think 🤞).

This week has been about trying, failing, learning, and then finding another way. The build may have failed, but the app is alive and kicking with better UX. And honestly, I couldn’t ask for a better ending to my GSoC journey. 💙

✨ Thanks to everyone — Hardik, Aboo, and the CircuitVerse team — for all the guidance, laughs, and late-night debugging sessions.

Until the final report....

GSoC Week 11: Nearing the Finish Line with CircuitVerse

Yashvant Singh — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 14:29:38 +0000

Week 11 of GSoC

Writing Week 11 of my GSoC blog feels very different. We are so close to the end, and honestly, it’s a mix of emotions. What started with a lot of uncertainty and fear — “Am I even good enough to do this? Will I be able to pull it off?” — now feels like a journey I’ll always cherish.

The constant support from the CircuitVerse community made this possible, especially Hardik and Aman (who are also my college seniors, though we didn’t talk much back then). Their guidance has been invaluable.

A heartfelt farewell to Nihal. He helped me with so many things — always humble, always polite, and always replying almost immediately, putting in the effort to get things done. And bro, the last demo you gave was a killer. Also, congratulations to Nihal for being felicitated as the 4th Year Computer Engineering Topper during the Dewang Mehta Memorial Lecture & IT Awards 2025 in Ahmedabad. Proud moment!

The Last Meet Vibes

Our last contributor meet was on 10th August, and I decided to go first with my updates. Surprisingly, no mentor or admin joined that day — it was just us contributors. But man, the talk we had was amazing.

We discussed our project updates, helped each other with doubts, and then shifted to life beyond GSoC — college life, attendance, ladies (👀), and more. It was pure fun.

The best part came later when it was just me, Vivek, and Nihal. We started discussing our projects, and then Vivek asked me about my startups. Bruh, I went on for like 40–45 minutes straight . It turned into one of the greatest discussions ever.

Vivek also shared about his current venture and how they’re pulling it off. Super insightful and motivating. Wishing more success to my broski.

This reminded me once again: Open source is about community and people. What you learn from others, how you grow together, and the bonds you form — that’s what makes the process fun and fast. CircuitVerse fosters this culture so well, and I’m proud to be part of it. ❤️

Work Updates

As mentioned in last week’s blog, I raised the PR for the simulator, but it had some flaws in how we were storing things and their compliance with the Play Store:

Simulator PR → #421

Then we started working on upgrading the Android Gradle Plugin and Gradle for Kotlin 2.1.10 compatibility:

Upgrade AGP to 8.5.0 & Gradle to 8.7 → #425

This was supposed to be a small PR, but it turned out bigger than expected. In the process:

I upgraded Flutter to 3.35.1 (new stable release).
Fixed CI test failures caused by GitHub changing macOS runners.
Resolved incompatibility between hive_generator and build_runner.

We also worked on removing flutter_facebook_auth as planned earlier. I included that commit in the AGP PR itself.

Finally, I tested the auth flow by regenerating new keys. It works fine, though it still needs thorough testing to ensure smooth user experience without any breakage.

A Fun Incident

During the last meet, after I gave my updates, Vedant mentioned that Satvik is also working on the deployment part. I was like:

“Uh, pardon, Vedant… who is Satvik? Can you give me context?”

Vedant: “Oh, you don’t know Satvik? He is one of the co-founders of CircuitVerse.”

And I was like: “F** ”*

So yeah, wish me luck with the deployment. Pray I don’t mess it up.

Closing Thoughts

This week has been special — not just in terms of work but also the people, conversations, and connections. With only a week left in GSoC, I can proudly say that beyond code, I’ve gained mentors, friends, and experiences that will stay with me forever.

Till next week.

GSoC Week 10 – The Week of… Well, Distractions

Yashvant Singh — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 11:03:42 +0000

Week 10 started with a very clear plan.

Me and Hardik had a meet to decide what to do for the simulator issues and in which order:

Download Image
User Manual
Discussion Forum
Themes

Simple. Clear. Easy.

But then… me being me… I saw another bug and just couldn’t resist. Sorry, Hardik.

The Detour #1 – Project Description Editing Mess

While working on the simulator, I stumbled upon something that kept bugging me.

When you try to edit a project you created:

The UI wasn’t uniform.
The tag input field had no instructions on how to add multiple tags.
Even worse — you update the project, then try to re-edit it… and all your previous details are gone. You’d have to write from scratch.

So I fixed the persistence issue first — now, when you re-edit a project, your details are still there.

But then I saw another thing: tags weren’t even showing up on the project description page after saving.

I checked the CircuitVerse website and saw how they have nice colored chips matching the theme.

Tags on website

Tags implementation in App

So… yeah… I implemented that too. This “small” side quest stretched way longer than planned. I am again very sorry, Hardik.

PR: Project details pre-fills saved data and added tags

The Detour #2 – Share Button on Project Card

And then, while going through the project cards, I had another thought:

"Wouldn’t it be cool if people could just share a project directly from here?"

Right now, if someone liked a project, they had to open it, copy the link, and then paste it somewhere.

That’s too many steps — especially for people who just want to quickly share a project with friends, classmates, or in the community.

So… I added a share button right on the card.

Tap once → share instantly via your device’s share sheet.
No extra navigation needed.

This wasn’t in our priority list (again, sorry Hardik 😅) but I feel like it improves the overall UX a lot.

PR: Share button in the Featured Circuit Card

The Detour #3 – Shrinking the App Size

While doing all this, another thought hit me:

"Hmm… why not reduce the app size too?"

So I went ahead with R8 optimization.

Turns out R8 was technically already implemented, but some key configurations were missing.

I will discuss this with Hardik and then I will make the PR.

I added:

minifyEnabled true
shrinkResources true
proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android-optimize.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'

What these do:

minifyEnabled true → Removes unused code for smaller APKs.
shrinkResources true → Removes unused resources like images/XML.
proguardFiles → Ensures critical code isn’t stripped accidentally.

At first, removing my changes gave the same APK size,
but after reading more, I realized my config gives better control over R8 in the long run.

Told Hardik, he was happy… but also reminded me (again) to stick to the plan. 😅

Back to the Actual Simulator Issues

1. Download Image

Problem:

The “Download Image” button in the simulator (running in a Flutter InAppWebView) technically worked, but the file:

Wasn’t saved in a public, user-accessible location.

Didn’t appear in the Gallery or Downloads folder until a device rescan/restart.

Why this happens:

Android needs a media scan after saving a new file, otherwise the system doesn’t “know” it exists.

Fix:

Saved files to /storage/emulated/0/Download
Added runtime permission checks for older Android versions.
Created a MethodChannel in MainActivity.kt to call MediaScannerConnection.scanFile from Dart — instantly updates the gallery/download list.

2. User Manual & Discussion Forum

Issue:

Both buttons (inside the simulator WebView) were doing nothing. No crash, no error — just silence.

Root Cause:

flutter_inappwebview was intercepting the external links and not letting them open in the system browser.

Fix:

Update navigation handling logic.
Detect external URLs and open them using url_launcher instead of keeping them inside WebView.

3. Themes

This one… just started working on its own.
I’m not touching it. If it works, it works.

PR: Enhance Simulator Download & External Link Handling with Android 13+ Media Support

Next Up

We’ll now focus on the authentication issue.
And yes, Hardik, I promise I’ll try not to get distracted… try.

This Week’s Lessons

Bugs are like side quests — you can’t just ignore them when they’re staring at you.
Flutter WebView + external links = tricky business.
R8 optimization isn’t just about enabling it — proper configuration gives more control.
Sometimes, the universe fixes bugs for you… don’t ask why.

GSoC Week 9: Bugs, Collaboration & a Few Funny Glitches

Yashvant Singh — Sat, 09 Aug 2025 15:19:19 +0000

We kicked off Week 9 by discussing what needed to be done in the CircuitVerse mobile app simulator.

For those who don’t know, the CircuitVerse Mobile App lets you dive into the world of logic circuits for free! From simple gates to complex sequential circuits, plotting timing diagrams, automatic circuit generation, exploring standard ICs, and more, it’s your personal electronics lab in your hands.

The heart of the app is the simulator, where you can build, test, and learn about circuits. It’s the mirror of CircuitVerse’s web simulator, integrated into our Flutter app using flutter_inappwebview — a powerful package that allows you to embed and control web content inside Flutter apps.

While the simulator works well overall, some bugs had been bothering us:

Download Image feature not working
User Manual link not opening
Apply Themes not applying correctly
Discussion Forum link broken

First Round of Debugging

I started the week tackling these issues. To get more clarity, I discussed them with my mentor Hardik, who suggested I connect with (Harsh Rao) — another contributor working on Project 2: Desktop Application and CV-frontend-Vue (Project Board here).

Our discussion was super productive:

Themes Issue: Harsh tested it on his iPhone it worked fine. I tried it on a friend’s phone also fine. Turns out, it was just my phone acting up.
User Manual: Harsh gave me a perspective I had overlooked. When I followed that direction, it worked.
Discussion Forum: On the web, selecting the same option led to a non-existent page. We decided the simplest fix was to remove it entirely from the web, which would automatically reflect in the app. Harsh said he’d discuss this with his mentor.

Balancing GSoC with Other Things

In between debugging, I was also:

Filling out the Y Combinator application
Attending an interview for startup fund allocation

I communicated this to Hardik — and he, being incredibly supportive, gave me the space to focus on those while helping me plan the next week so we can wrap up GSoC with a 100% complete project.

The Best Part of the Week

The highlight? Collaborating with Harsh Rao.

Not only did I get clarity on the issues, but we also discovered we were facing some of the same challenges, funnily enough, even with tasks we had originally written in our proposals.

We ended up talking about life, college, plans… and then came the topic of Aboo (our org admin).

We both agreed he’s an amazing person, full of knowledge, and deeply supportive. But yes… we’re both a bit scared of him! Not in a bad way — more like the “I don’t want to let this person down” kind of way.

My Funniest (and Most Embarrassing) Moment

Last time I had a meeting with Aboo and Hardik, I was working on the simulator with three desktop workspaces full of apps and browser tabs open. Naturally, my laptop had a meltdown right before the call.

“No problem,” I thought, I’ll just join via phone. As I just want to present the simulator and that can be done via phone too. Except… when I went to present the app, it was not there in the phone (which I had built barely 10 minutes earlier).

Yes, I was just staring at an empty screen in front of Aboo and Hardik.

Embarrassing? Absolutely.

Supportive? They both were.

Closing Thoughts

This week was a mix of planning, mistakes, and fixes — but also great conversations and teamwork.

We’re getting closer to the finish line, and soon you’ll see the CircuitVerse Mobile App live on the Play Store.

Week 9 was proof that Google Summer of Code isn’t just about code, it’s about collaboration, learning, and the occasional laugh over tech glitches.

GSoC Week 8: Linting Upgrades, UI Redesigns & Simulator

Yashvant Singh — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 14:35:52 +0000

Week 8 of GSoC has been all about refining and polishing—from updating development standards to enhancing user experience and improving project editing workflows. Let's dive into the highlights!

Upgrading Linting: Flutter Lints 6.0.0

I kicked off the week by cleaning up the codebase and aligning it with the latest best practices by upgrading flutter_lints from 5.0.0 to 6.0.0

Pull Request: chore: upgrade flutter_lints from 5.0.0 to 6.0.0 #405

Why Flutter Lints 6.0.0?

The new version introduces stricter type safety and code readability rules:

strict_top_level_inference: Forces explicit type annotations, improving clarity and catching errors early.
unnecessary_underscores: Promotes cleaner naming conventions by flagging redundant underscores in unused parameters.

Changes Made:

Bumped flutter_lints in pubspec.yaml
Added explicit type annotations to constructors and method parameters
Cleaned up unused parameter names to follow the new underscore rule
Ensured zero violations with dart analyze

Summary:

Type safety → Improved
Readability → Sharpened
Functional changes → None, but the code is now cleaner and future-proof

Featured Project Card Redesign

Next, we shifted gears to user-facing components. The FeaturedProjectCard got a complete makeover to enhance both functionality and aesthetics.

Major Improvements:

New layout with better visual hierarchy
Display of project statistics: Stars ⭐ and Views 👀
Better responsive design with thoughtful spacing
Added a fallback image (default_project_image.png) for projects without custom images

Widget Test Updates:

Tests updated to reflect the new TextButton (replacing CVPrimaryButton)
Coverage improved for all new logic and edge cases

Extras:

HTML tags stripped from project descriptions
Enhanced dark mode support for consistent UX

Pull Request: Featured circuit card #406

A quick note on the PR journey:
Last week, I didn't submit the PR as the UI changes were pending review from Nitin. This week, I finally opened it, and Aboo himself reviewed it! There were a few corrections to make, but after addressing them, the PR was merged successfully.

This revamp significantly improves how projects are showcased—making the browsing experience visually appealing and informative.

imgBot PR Fixes: Lighter Assets, Faster Loads

We also worked on resolving the imgBot PR, which optimized asset file sizes across the repo.

Benefits of Image Optimization:

Reduced initial load time
Lower data consumption for users
Better performance on low-bandwidth networks
Smaller bundle sizes for improved deployment efficiency

Pull Request: chore(images): optimize assets with Imgbot #407

Every kilobyte counts, and this cleanup brings long-term benefits to app performance.

Project re-editing

The most impactful feature of the week was integrating project re-editing, along with several UX improvements in the editor.

Simulator Editing Features:

Passed Project object to SimulatorView
Dynamically generated simulator URL based on the editing context

final Project? project = Get.arguments as Project?;
String get url {
  if (_projectToEdit != null) {
    return '${EnvironmentConfig.CV_BASE_URL}/simulator/edit/${_projectToEdit!.id}';
  }
  return '${EnvironmentConfig.CV_BASE_URL}/simulator';
}

Rich Text Editor Enhancements:

Added 16px padding for cleaner UI
Maintained full toolbar functionality
Improved readability and layout

Router Enhancements:

Modified routes to accept project arguments
Improved type safety and argument passing throughout

`Open in Simulator` Button:

Added a direct entry point to the simulator from the project edit view
Seamless flow between project editing and simulation

Pull Request: Project re-editing feature #409

Video of working

Collaboration Update:

This feature was a team effort! Aboo, Hardik, and I had a meeting to discuss the implementation, ensuring everything aligned with the project's vision.

This improves both the developer experience and the usability for users working with projects interactively.

Beyond GSoC: Life Updates

While GSoC has kept me busy with coding, other areas of life have been equally active:

Academic Commitments: College has resumed with full schedules, creating an interesting challenge balancing coursework with GSoC responsibilities.
Career Development: I have an upcoming external panel interview for a grant opportunity - your encouragement is appreciated!
Entrepreneurial Pursuits: I'm currently in the process of applying to Y Combinator, a long-term goal I'm excited to be pursuing.
Business Ventures: Alongside technical work, I'm gaining valuable experience co-running a digital marketing agency.
Technical Growth: I've been expanding my systems programming knowledge through learning ownership concepts in Rust.

Upcoming Focus Areas

Looking ahead to the next few weeks, my priorities will be:

Deployment Strategy: Finalizing plans for both Play Store and F-Droid distribution
UI Refinement: Identifying and resolving any remaining interface issues
Interaction Design: Planning micro-interactions and animations to enhance usability and also getting it reviewed, so that we can raise a PR
Multi-language Support: Discussion for adding more languages or say to choose which language to add next

Closing Thoughts

Week 8 represented significant progress in elevating our standards - from code quality improvements through linting upgrades to user experience enhancements in both the UI and simulator integration. Each of these refinements contributes to building a more robust and polished application.

I'm looking forward to sharing more updates as development continues!

GSoC Week 6: Deep Diving into the Interactive Book Issue

Yashvant Singh — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 16:42:49 +0000

As I mentioned in my GSoC Week 5: Markdown broke, CI/CD woke, after completing the release pipeline of the app, I jumped back into the Interactive Book issue.

Since it hadn’t been resolved the previous week, I decided to approach it with a fresh mind—and honestly, a whole new debugging strategy. I started from scratch and quickly discovered that the three custom builders—IbEmbedSyntax, IbMdTagSyntax, and IbLiquidSyntaxwere the main culprits.

These builders are responsible for parsing custom markup, but they weren’t doing a great job. I attempted to make them more robust by tweaking their RegExp getPattern methods to improve parsing. There was some progress, but unfortunately, it still wasn’t functioning properly and lost core functionality toward the end.

At this point, I had a realization, I've never actually seen the fully functional version of the Interactive Book in action 😶. I didn’t even have a proper reference for the content it used to display. So, I shifted focus.

I dug into the markdown content (which looked okay to me) and attempted to set up the project locally just to confirm whether all the content was loading or not. Although I ran into some hiccups setting up Ruby, I managed to at least check the markdown rendering. And yes, the content was there but still no breakthrough.

After trying a few more iterations with no results, I took a step back and decided to understand the entire history of the Interactive Book—its origin, its evolution, and all the previous attempts to fix it.

I went through:

Issues: Idea: Integrate Interactive Book in Mobile App for easy learning., Interactive book throwing error
PRs: POC: Interactive Book Page Parser, Interactive Book Integration Phase 1 | GSoC 2021, Revert "Interactive Book Integration Phase 1 | GSoC 2021", Interactive book throwing error , markdown builder bug fixed, Upgrade to flutter 3.29.2
Docs, blogs, comments… literally everything I could find.

In doing so, I found a previous workaround by @tanmoysrt, where an invisible character (U+200E) was added to help the parser terminate the AST correctly. But later, he upgraded the flutter_markdown package, and things seemed to work again—for a while.

That’s when I learned something crucial:

Until about 3 months ago, we were using CircuitVerse’s community fork of flutter_markdown:

👉 https://github.com/CircuitVerse/packages

However, this fork was not actively maintained and lagged far behind the main fork. It was finally replaced with the official package during the last Flutter upgrade via this PR.

Digging into the version history, I found this helpful comment:

"This issue might give you a little bit of a hard time as flutter_markdown was buggy. We're using our own fork of it... feel free to open a PR there, though it’s not up to date."

To add to this mess, Flutter officially discontinued flutter_markdown due to limited resources.

Here’s the issue: https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues/162960

Despite pushback from the community, it’s now archived.

I tried looking for other community-maintained forks, but... nothing.

In one of the discussion threads, someone mentioned markdown_widget as a potential alternative. After talking to Hardik about this, he suggested downgrading to a previous flutter_markdown version that used to work—but no luck there either.

Then I explored a few other alternatives:

✅ flutter_markdown_plus – Too new and didn’t align well with our complex structure.
✅ markdown_widget – Seemed promising, but the architecture is entirely different and does not support custom builders. Implementing it would mean rewriting a lot from scratch.

Final Thoughts

This is where I am with the issue right now.

Honestly? It doesn’t feel like much progress. It feels like a lot of trying and failing. But at the same time, I’ve learned so much—about the history of the feature, about our dependencies, and about package maintenance and community forks.

Even if it doesn’t feel like a win yet, I know this groundwork will help us find the right way forward.

Let’s see what Week 7 brings!

GSoC Week 5: Markdown broke, CI/CD woke

Yashvant Singh — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 12:18:10 +0000

So this week started with me working on the buggy Interactive Book part of the app. We hit this error:

══╡ EXCEPTION CAUGHT BY WIDGETS LIBRARY ╞══  
'package:flutter_markdown/src/builder.dart': Failed assertion: line 267 pos 12: '_inlines.isEmpty': is not true.

The widget causing it was:

SingleChildScrollView:file:///C:/Users/emper/Desktop/cv_app_gsoc/lib/ui/views/ib/ib_page_view.dart:501:22

This is an assertion failure in the flutter_markdown package, and basically, the parser found some weird inline elements in our Markdown that it couldn’t handle. Either some broken tags or bad formatting. Now we were already using a sanitizeMarkdown() function (I’d mentioned that in the last blog), to catch broken lines and tags but still, this popped up.

Digging deeper, I noticed this in our custom builders:

RegExp get pattern => RegExp(r'{:\s?(.+)\s?}');

This is for extracting content between {: and }. We had more such patterns, and I was trying all ways to fix things from the UI side wrapping in an error boundary, adding debug logs, etc.

Also ran into a null operator used on a null value kind of thing, so I added proper checks for that as well.

But then… Hardik pinged

Hardik asked me to pause this bug-hunt for a while and work on releasing the app — a basic GitHub release so others in the community can try it too.

This was literally the first time I was doing anything with CI/CD — had zero idea about it 😅. So I just told my mentors: “Yeh we can do that, but I don’t have much knowledge on this… could you share something I can start with?”

Hardik shared this article:
👉 Automating Flutter Builds with GitHub Actions: A Step-by-Step Guide

It was actually really well written and easy to understand. But in that article, they used a single file for the workflow.

In our project, we had three files: main.yml, ci.yml, and cd.yml.

So I read more and turns out it’s perfectly fine. You use one file if your project is small, but for a bit more structure, people prefer separate files. In our case:

main.yml: Just validates commit messages (we're using action-conventional-commits). Triggers on pull_request.
ci.yml: Handles build, test, and code checks (formatting, analysis, coverage). Runs on every push/PR.
cd.yml: Manages release and deployment using semantic-release, Fastlane, GitHub Releases, etc. Triggers manually or on push to master.

What I added

I added this part to build and upload the APK:

- name: Build APK (Android)
  if: ${{ matrix.platform == 'ubuntu-latest' }}
  run: |
    flutter build apk --release \
      --dart-define=FB_APP_ID=${{ secrets.FB_APP_ID }} \
      --dart-define=FB_APP_NAME=${{ secrets.FB_APP_NAME }} \
      --dart-define=GITHUB_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID=${{ secrets.GH_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID }} \
      --dart-define=GITHUB_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET=${{ secrets.GH_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET }}

- name: Upload APK Artifact
  if: ${{ matrix.platform == 'ubuntu-latest' }}
  uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
  with:
    name: android-apk-${{ github.run_number }}
    path: build/app/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk
    if-no-files-found: error

Then I added the release section to automate GitHub release creation when code is pushed to master:

release:
  if: ${{ github.event_name == 'push' && github.ref == 'refs/heads/master' }}
  needs: build
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  steps:
    - name: Download APK Artifact
      uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
      with:
        name: android-apk-${{ github.run_number }}
        path: ./

    - name: Get Current Date
      id: date
      run: echo "date=$(date +'%Y-%m-%d')" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT

    - name: Create Release
      uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
      with:
        tag_name: "v1.0.${{ github.run_number }}"
        name: "Release v1.0.${{ github.run_number }} - ${{ steps.date.outputs.date }}"
        body: |
          Android APK release built from commit ${{ github.sha }}.

          Build number: ${{ github.run_number }}
          Build date: ${{ steps.date.outputs.date }}

          Download and install the APK file below.
        files: ./app-release.apk
        draft: false
        prerelease: false
        generate_release_notes: true

To try what I learnt, I created a separate repo and tried out the learning here:
👉 Learning GitHub Workflow

The PR : Enhance CI with automated releases #398

After this, Hardik made the release public in the community and shared the APK. And guess what — people actually downloaded and ran it!

And then... F-Droid?

Someone in the community — salmoneatenbybear aka Aditya (I hope I’m right 😅) — mentioned F-Droid deployment. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know what F-Droid was at that moment.

So I looked it up.

Turns out:

F-Droid is a free and open-source app store for Android.
It doesn’t track users, hosts only FOSS apps, and is maintained by the community.

It’s kinda like Play Store, but for open-source-only apps. Very cool.

I tried checking the last PR related to it (or maybe it wasn’t a PR), but it didn’t really come to a conclusion. Still need to explore it more.

If you're curious about how to contribute or deploy on F-Droid, here’s a good starting point: 📘 F-Droid Contribution Guide

Wrapping up...

So yeah — started the week trying to make Markdown behave, ended the week building CI/CD pipelines, publishing GitHub releases, and learning about app stores I never knew existed 😄

Next up: probably explore more around F-Droid, improve release notes, and see if I can finally fix that Markdown crash for good.

Thanks for reading! If you have suggestions, feel free to drop them in comments 🙌

GSoC Week 4: RTL Madness, OAuth Adventures & Markdown Mayhem

Yashvant Singh — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 10:30:43 +0000

Week 4 of my GSoC journey started with a fresh set of tasks—one of which was fixing the authorization flow.

It All Started with OAuth… and a Missed README

So the week started with a new task: fix the OAuth authorization.

Seems straightforward, right?

Well, I might have missed reading the README properly. Turns out, it clearly mentioned:

“For Google OAuth we use google_sign_in. You'll need:

cv_debug.jks in android/app/
key.debug.properties in android/

For these secrets, just message us on Slack. We'll take care of the rest.”

And guess who didn’t read that? 🙃

I messaged Aboo (our org admin), only to learn the files were on his old laptop. So I hopped on texts with Hardik, and we decided: okay, let’s set it up from scratch — new OAuth credentials, new keys, new everything.

We also geeked out a bit on why OAuth fails sometimes. Quick tip: OAuth credentials can expire if they’re rotated or due to change in Google's policies. So if you’re facing weird auth issues — always check your keys first.

Welcome to the World of RTL Languages

Just when I thought I was done with multi-language support, Aboo said:

“We also need to support RTL languages — like Arabic and Hebrew.”

I’m going to be honest here — I barely manage English and Hindi. Arabic? Never seen, never typed.

So I started by detecting if the selected locale was RTL, and wrapped my widgets using Directionality. At first, I was manually adjusting everything. It felt huge, and the UI started looking weird to me.

But here’s the cool part — turns out Flutter handles RTL automatically if your localization setup is right. That discovery? Literal joy.

I used DeepSeek to auto-translate for testing (yes, AI is now my bestie), and then came Manar — who joined the RTL-support Slack group and saved my life. She pointed out mistakes that I couldn’t even spot because… I literally couldn’t read the script 😅

I was like:

“Oh this looks like that word… maybe?”

She explained things patiently and I learned a lot — not just about the languages, but about designing with empathy for users you don’t share a language with.

Pull request: https://github.com/CircuitVerse/mobile-app/pull/391

A good video that you can see(recommended by Aboo): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNbNId_MGtc

Also added language-specific screenshots — earlier the UI changed, but the screenshots stubbornly stayed in English. Fixed ✅

Markdown Mayhem: My Widget Had a Meltdown

Now let’s talk about the Interactive Book section.

It broke. Hard.

EXCEPTION CAUGHT BY WIDGETS LIBRARY:
Failed assertion: line 267 pos 12: '_inlines.isEmpty': is not true.

Caused by:

Malformed markdown content
Null or improperly formatted data

To address this, I started writing a function to sanitize Markdown input:

String _sanitizeMarkdown(String content) {
  debugPrint('Sanitizing markdown content...');
  final originalLength = content.length;

  content = content.replaceAll(RegExp(r'[\x00-\x09\x0B-\x1F]'), '');
  content = content.replaceAll(RegExp(r'\r\n?'), '\n');

  content = content
      .replaceAllMapped(RegExp(r'(?<!\*)\*\*([^\*]+)(?!\*\*)'), (m) => '**${m[1]}**')
      .replaceAllMapped(RegExp(r'(?<!_)__([^_]+)(?!__)'), (m) => '__${m[1]}__')
      .replaceAllMapped(RegExp(r'(?<!`)`([^`]+)(?!`)'), (m) => '`${m[1]}`');

  if (content.length != originalLength) {
    debugPrint('Sanitization changed content length from $originalLength to ${content.length}');
  }

  return content;
}

It’s not perfect yet, but it’s helping. Slowly taming the Markdown monster 🐉

Pubspec.yaml Curiosity

I also peeked into pubspec.yaml and noticed:

http: any
markdown: any
webview_flutter: any

dependency_overrides:
  mime: ^1.0.1
  plugin_platform_interface: ^2.1.2
  markdown:
    git: https://github.com/dart-lang/markdown.git

Using any and overriding dependencies isn't best practice—could be contributing to instability. Tried a few changes, but didn’t get far (yet).

“Hey… How Often Do You Talk to Your Mentors?”

Now for the jump scare of the week.

I got a message from Aboo:

“Hey, how often do you discuss the project with your mentors? Do you keep meeting notes?”

And in my head:

“Gyi naukri.”

But later Hardik clarified it was for internal process. Crisis averted.

Beyond GSoC

Startup Update: Our startup got screened for a ₹10 lakh ignition grant!
GSSoC Campus Ambassador: I don’t know why I got selected, but hey—I did.
Rust: I learnt a bit of rust and tried contributing to the main repo (to the documentation, don't laugh).
Big thing brewing: Can’t share yet, but something big is on the horizon.
Web3 Hackathon: Teaming up with seniors. Learning tons.
Notion Geekery: Made a cool Notion template and shared it on LinkedIn, here's the link of that template : My Organized Chaos.

That’s it for Week 4—lots of learning, a bit of chaos, and many “Oh no!” moments turned into “Aha!” ones. If you’ve been in the trenches of OAuth or RTL or just want to laugh at my mishaps, let’s connect!

See you next week 🚀

GSoC Coding Period Week 3:

Yashvant Singh — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 12:05:34 +0000

This week was a classic GSoC rollercoaster—funny moments, frustrating bugs, and fulfilling breakthroughs!

Wrapping Up Codebase Modernization

The week began by finishing up a few pending tasks from codebase modernization. One of those tasks was commenting on Coderabbit's suggestions. Now, here's the funny part—when I saw the suggestions reacting and replying by themselves, I thought Aboo (my mentor) was responding manually.

Turns out, Coderabbit talks back.My reaction? Mild panic, major confusion, and then a chuckle.

Anyway, it's surprisingly helpful. Definitely the kind of AI pair programmer you don’t mind having around.

The Great Key-Naming Fiasco

A BIG mistake I made and I’m writing it in caps so future-me never forgets is this:

Always use unique keys when working with Flutter's localization (gen-l10n)!

For example:

error
profile_view_error, ib_landing_view_error, etc.

Why? Because ARB files are flat JSONs. If you use the same key name ("error": "Error") multiple times, the Flutter gen-l10n tool will crash... hard.

Facebook Auth + macOS = 🥲

Then came the big auth task: the app was looking for a macOS implementation of facebook_auth_desktop, but it wasn’t there. I tried adding it manually—ambitious, I know—but soon hit conflicts with oauth2_clientand flutter_secure_storage.

Hardik, my mentor, rightly pointed out that downgrading just to fix a conflict is not a great long-term solution. So, I went searching.

I discovered flutter_appauth, a promising alternative—but it also needed facebook_auth_desktop, and brought along security constraints due to PKCE.

What’s PKCE?

PKCE (Proof Key for Code Exchange) is a security extension to OAuth 2.0. It prevents authorization code interception attacks, especially on public clients like mobile and desktop apps. Instead of just sending a client secret, it uses a dynamically generated code verifier and challenge.

It's secure—but yeah, not simple when you're juggling conflicting packages

UI Time: Card Redesign Sprint

To cool off from the auth-heavy chaos, I shifted gears and decided to redesign the profile cards.

I went deep down the rabbit hole of UI inspiration sites. After scrolling endlessly, I landed on BoltUiX—and let me just say, what a vibe! I learned a lot about spacing, contrast, and minimal design elements just from observing how cleanly they laid things out.

Before:

After:

Frontend work can be so relaxing. It’s like gardening... but with Figma tabs open.

Weekly Discussions & Sync-ups

One of the best parts of this week was how much I talked with my mentors. Frequent discussions are underrated—they make sure you're never sailing off-course, and everyone’s on the same page.

We even had a sync-up call me, Aboo, and Hardik where we discussed upcoming work and blockers.

Funny Incident: My First Code Review (Sort of)

Okay, confession time: I noticed Aboo had requested a review from me... 9 days ago.

The PR was:

chore(deps): bump flutter_lints from 5.0.0 to 6.0.0

Me: “What do I even do in a review?”

I had no clue, so I opened the official GitHub guide like a student before exams. After a few scrolls, I figured out: I can either approve the changes or suggest changes. Got it.

The update brought in a new rule: strict_top_level_inference

This means now you must declare types for top-level variables:

// Before
final primaryColor = Colors.blue;

// After
final Color primaryColor = Colors.blue;

Options we can go for:

Add types wherever necessary
Disable the rule temporarily in analysis_options.yaml and add types progressively with upcoming PRs:

linter:
  rules:
    strict_top_level_inference: false

That’s a wrap for Week 3! Let’s see what Week 4 throws at me <3

GSoC Week 2 — Languages, UX & 40 Failing Tests

Yashvant Singh — Sun, 15 Jun 2025 10:33:29 +0000

This week was a rollercoaster from fine-tuning user experience to modernizing an entire codebase for localization. Here’s what went down:

Smoother Profile Updates – Better UX, Better You

Started off with some subtle yet powerful changes to the update profile feature:

Improved UX
Faster suggestions
Cleaner and more intuitive interface

It’s always amazing how a few thoughtful tweaks can enhance the overall user journey.

Hello, World – In Multiple Languages!

Next up: Multi-language support
We initially had two .arb files – Hindi & English. I added a language toggle in the sidebar and... it worked! Well, kind of. 😅

Turns out it only translated user static strings.

One conversation with Hardik later, I realized what I actually needed to do — modernize the entire codebase for true localization.

Modernizing the Codebase – Line by Line

And so began the mission:

Went file by file, line by line, transforming static text into translatable resources

Every page I touched started speaking a new language — it was oddly satisfying

Faced multiple hiccups — including spending 45 minutes debugging a missing comma in an .arb file (yes, just a comma 🫠)

Eventually, the transformation was complete:

From static strings to notifications, from error messages to button labels everything now speaks your chosen language!

40 Tests Failed… and I’m Weirdly Happy About It

Just out of curiosity, I ran flutter test — now my new hobby.

Boom 💥 — 40 test cases failed!

Why? Because even the test files needed localization updates.
So, that’s what I’m tackling next. Let’s just say, this week kept me very awake 😄

A Quick Shoutout to Crowdin

As I was exploring translations, I checked out Crowdin, a localization management platform already set up by Aboo.

Crowdin is a super helpful tool that simplifies collaboration between developers and translators. It keeps all translations organized, syncs with the codebase, and makes the whole process scalable.

Key Takeaways

Localization isn't just about translating text — it's about restructuring your codebase to support diverse experiences

Always double-check your .arb commas. Always.

Test failures aren’t always a bad thing — they show you how far you've come

Week 2 isn't over yet, and I’m already looking forward to what's next!

If you've worked on localization or used Crowdin in your projects — I’d love to hear your thoughts or tips. 👇

Week 1 of GSoC: Learning Through Dependencies and Communication

Yashvant Singh — Sun, 08 Jun 2025 16:29:32 +0000

My GSoC journey began with something most developers both respect and fear: dependency resolution. The first issue I picked involved fixing deprecated packages and aligning the project with the latest compatible versions. Sounds simple — but I quickly realized just how intricate and interconnected dependency management can be.

What I Learned during this week, I got a solid grasp of:

📦 How Flutter and Dart dependencies interact.

🔍 How to identify compatible versions and understand why upgrading isn't always the best solution.

🛠️ Refactoring deprecated components — such as replacing imageBuilder with a custom implementation.

🚀 Diving into CI/CD pipelines, understanding automated test workflows and how things work post-commit.

📁 Tools like FVM (Flutter Version Management), VIM, and GitHub’s advanced features.

🔐 An important insight: In production, we use .define to keep client secrets (like API keys or client IDs) safe — preventing leaks of sensitive tokens.

🔒 I also explored authorization concepts in more depth, including how tokens are managed securely on the client side.

🚀 I also got to know that in big companies like my org CircuitVerse, we don't work on the latest flutter version, but a bit older version.

Communication: The Real Game-Changer
One of my key reflections this week wasn’t just technical — it was personal.

Initially, I found myself struggling with communication. Not because the mentors weren’t supportive — in fact, they were incredibly helpful and available. It was more about me not reaching out enough or asking the right questions early on. Toward the end of the week, I made a conscious effort to change that and started communicating more proactively.

Special thanks to Hardik for being consistently patient and encouraging throughout this period.

Looking Ahead
In hindsight, I recognize that my initial solutions could have been more efficient. But this is part of the journey — learning by doing, improving with every iteration. From next week, I plan to:

Start with a more structured approach to issues.

Communicate early and clearly.

Document more of my learning as I go.

I’m excited for what’s ahead and grateful for this opportunity to grow through real-world, open-source experience. 💪

My GSoC Community Bonding Period with CircuitVerse 💻✨

Yashvant Singh — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 05:32:22 +0000

May 8 – June 1, 2025

The Community Bonding Period of Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2025 with CircuitVerse has been nothing short of amazing! From the very first day, I’ve been welcomed into a vibrant and supportive community full of warmth, learning, and collaboration.

First Impressions Matter 🌸

The journey began with a fun and light-hearted introductory meeting where I got to meet the mentors, fellow contributors, and the entire CircuitVerse community. We shared stories, experiences, and a lot of laughs. It was more like catching up with old friends than meeting a group of techies online!

From there, our bi-weekly meetings began. But these weren’t your usual serious sync-ups — we always started with the good things in life. Fun updates, small wins, random banter... and then came the work. That balance made these meets feel human and refreshing.

We had a shared Google Doc that tracked every discussion point — super helpful for anyone who missed a meet.

The Deep Dive 🐳

During this period, I went full-on OCD (Organized Contributor Disorder 😄). I created a fresh local fork of the app and started combing through the codebase, finding bugs, suggesting improvements, and getting a real feel for how everything worked. It was less about jumping into code and more about understanding the soul of the project.

I had some fantastic 1:1 sessions with my mentors — Hardik Sachdeva and Aboobacker MK — where we discussed timelines, project flow, and features. They helped me set up a GitHub project board to track everything neatly. The coding period hadn’t even started, but these meetings were already shaping how I approached the project.

Also, shoutout to Hardik for making everything feel cool. Quite literally — “Cool” might just be his most-used word, and somehow it always works!

Community: The Real Backbone 💬

I didn’t stop there. I stalked (in a nice way 😅) every other GSoC’25 contributor, especially from my org, and ended up connecting with most of them. We even created a dedicated group for all the CircuitVerse contributors, and the support there is amazing — everyone is always ready to help, share tips, or just laugh at random jokes.

The Telegram GSoC community is another level altogether — chaotic, helpful, and full of energy. A must-join for every GSoCer.

Big thanks to my seniors: Aaditya Patil and Utkarsh Maurya, for being absolute gems. They patiently answered all my silly doubts and gave me guidance throughout.

Key Takeaways from Bonding Period 💡

Organize like Vedant: I learned how you can keep a meeting short, impactful, and on track — Vedant nailed that in 30 mins while mine go on for 2 hours 😅

Use GitHub Project Boards: Absolute game changer for tracking tasks and progress.

Overcommunication > Assumptions: Better to clarify things early than to be stuck later.

Track everything: Logs, notes, tasks — it all adds up.

Everyone wants RCB to win: Ee saala cup namde! ❤️💛

Looking Ahead 🚀

The community bonding period has laid a strong foundation. I feel more confident, more connected, and more excited about the work ahead. The real coding begins now — and I can’t wait to dive in and make a real impact with CircuitVerse.

See you all in the next blog, probably with more code and fewer memes (just kidding, memes will stay 😎).

DEV Community: Yashvant Singh

GSoC Week 12: Fading Transitions, Broken Builds & NASA Phones

Starting the Week with a Big Upgrade

Animations vs Microinteractions

Weekly Meet with the Mentors

Back to Auth, Deployment & Stores

Final Blog & Wrap Up

GSoC Week 11: Nearing the Finish Line with CircuitVerse

Week 11 of GSoC

The Last Meet Vibes

Work Updates

A Fun Incident

Closing Thoughts

GSoC Week 10 – The Week of… Well, Distractions

Week 10 started with a very clear plan.

The Detour #1 – Project Description Editing Mess

Tags on website

Tags implementation in App

The Detour #2 – Share Button on Project Card

The Detour #3 – Shrinking the App Size

I added:

What these do:

Back to the Actual Simulator Issues

1. Download Image

2. User Manual & Discussion Forum

3. Themes

Next Up

This Week’s Lessons

GSoC Week 9: Bugs, Collaboration & a Few Funny Glitches

First Round of Debugging

Balancing GSoC with Other Things

The Best Part of the Week

My Funniest (and Most Embarrassing) Moment

Closing Thoughts

GSoC Week 8: Linting Upgrades, UI Redesigns & Simulator

Upgrading Linting: Flutter Lints 6.0.0

Why Flutter Lints 6.0.0?

Changes Made:

Summary:

Featured Project Card Redesign

Major Improvements:

Widget Test Updates:

Extras:

imgBot PR Fixes: Lighter Assets, Faster Loads

Benefits of Image Optimization:

Project re-editing

Simulator Editing Features:

Rich Text Editor Enhancements:

Router Enhancements:

Open in Simulator Button:

Video of working

Collaboration Update:

Beyond GSoC: Life Updates

Upcoming Focus Areas

Closing Thoughts

GSoC Week 6: Deep Diving into the Interactive Book Issue

Final Thoughts

GSoC Week 5: Markdown broke, CI/CD woke

But then… Hardik pinged

What I added

And then... F-Droid?

Wrapping up...

GSoC Week 4: RTL Madness, OAuth Adventures & Markdown Mayhem

It All Started with OAuth… and a Missed README

Welcome to the World of RTL Languages

Markdown Mayhem: My Widget Had a Meltdown

Pubspec.yaml Curiosity

“Hey… How Often Do You Talk to Your Mentors?”

Beyond GSoC

GSoC Coding Period Week 3:

Wrapping Up Codebase Modernization

The Great Key-Naming Fiasco

Facebook Auth + macOS = 🥲

What’s PKCE?

UI Time: Card Redesign Sprint

Weekly Discussions & Sync-ups

Funny Incident: My First Code Review (Sort of)

GSoC Week 2 — Languages, UX & 40 Failing Tests

Smoother Profile Updates – Better UX, Better You

Hello, World – In Multiple Languages!

`Open in Simulator` Button: