Package dependency between application and package

Let's say that I created a local package that has this pubspec.yaml dependencies:

dependencies:
  flutter:
    sdk: flutter
  webview_flutter: x1.y1.z1. /// Just an example of a package

This is just to simulate working with a package. Imagine that this package can be a developer package that I did not develop.

Let's also assume that I have a simple application with the following pubspec.yaml dependencies:

dependencies:
  flutter:
    sdk: flutter
  webview_flutter: x2.y2.z2
  package_name:
    path: PATH_TO_LOCAL_PACKAGE

I am trying to resolve the following issues:

1. If the package has a version of webview_flutter that is higher than that of the application
2. If the package has a version of webview_flutter that is lower than that of the application

The error I get is:

> Because every version of package_name from path depends on webview_flutter 2.4.0 and resolving_depedencies depends on webview_flutter 2.3.0, package_name from path is forbidden.
> So, because resolving_depedencies depends on package_name from path, version solving failed.
> pub get failed

In both of these scenarios, if x1 and x2 are equal (meaning the same major version), this can be solved easily with the caret (^) syntax (taken from here).

My problem is when the major versions (x1, x2) are different.

For example,

x1.y1.z1 = 3.0.0
x2.y2.z2 = 2.3.0

I am aware of the dependency overrides option, but it is not something I want to do.

Obviously, in the scenario where the package has a higher version than the application, I can update the application, but in the scenario where the package has a higher version, I won't be able to do that.

Is there any way to solve this scenario without dependency overrides?

First, I advise you to read this documentation which is awesome to understand how pub resolves your dependencies.

From that documentation, we learn that:

• pub resolves each dependency to a unique version.
• As stated here, you can have disjoint constraints which makes the resolving impossible.

In your case, if the package has a lower version of webview_flutter than you, then you are bound to use its version at most, or to use dependency_overrides (which is highly dangerous because then it might break the package which depends on a lower version).

Your next step should be to ask the package maintainer to update its dependency, and to downgrade your version of the dependency in the meantime.