Fixing SkillQuest Version Management - From Hardcoded to Automated

The Problem

While debugging a missing timer session, we discovered a bigger issue: the app always showed "Version 1.0.0 (1)" in the About screen, regardless of what was specified in pubspec.yaml. Even after running flutter clean and full rebuilds, the old version persisted.

After investigation, we found that the Android build file (build.gradle.kts) contained hardcoded version values that blocked Flutter's automatic version injection:

// ❌ PROBLEM: Hardcoded versions
versionCode = 1
versionName = "1.0.0"

This meant that any version update in pubspec.yaml was completely ignored by the Android build system.

The Solution

1. Semantic Versioning Implementation

We updated the app version to use proper semantic versioning for the development phase:

# pubspec.yaml
version: 0.9.0-beta.1+20251024

This follows the SemVer format:

0.9.0 - Pre-release version (not yet 1.0.0 production)
beta.1 - Beta release identifier
20251024 - Build number in YYYYMMDD format (October 24, 2025)

2. Automatic Version Injection

The Android build file was modified to automatically read Flutter's version:

// ✅ SOLUTION: Automatic version injection
defaultConfig {
    applicationId = "com.skillquest.app"
    versionCode = flutter.versionCode      // Reads "20251024"
    versionName = flutter.versionName      // Reads "0.9.0-beta.1"
    // ...
}

Now the Android manifest automatically syncs with pubspec.yaml on every build.

3. Enhanced About Screen

The "About SkillQuest" screen was enhanced with detailed version information:

New features:

Version number - Displays semantic versioning (0.9.0-beta.1)
Build number - YYYYMMDD format for release tracking
Build date - Automatically parsed from build number with locale-aware formatting

Code example:

String _formatBuildDate(String buildNumber) {
  if (buildNumber.length == 8) {
    try {
      final year = buildNumber.substring(0, 4);
      final month = buildNumber.substring(4, 6);
      final day = buildNumber.substring(6, 8);
      final date = DateTime(
        int.parse(year),
        int.parse(month),
        int.parse(day)
      );
      return DateFormat.yMMMd().format(date); // "Oct 24, 2025"
    } catch (e) {
      return buildNumber;
    }
  }
  return buildNumber;
}

4. Complete Dutch Localization

The About screen was still entirely in English. We added 15+ new translations for Dutch users:

{
  "about_title": "Over SkillQuest",
  "about_version_label": "Versie",
  "about_build_label": "Build",
  "about_build_date_label": "Gebouwd op",
  "about_description_title": "Wat is SkillQuest?",
  "about_features_title": "Belangrijkste Functies",
  "about_credits_title": "Credits",
  // ... 8+ more strings
}

Results

After these changes:

✅ Automatic sync - Version in pubspec.yaml is immediately visible in the app ✅ Semantic versioning - Clear distinction between pre-release (0.x) and production (1.x) ✅ Build tracking - YYYYMMDD format makes release history transparent ✅ Localized UI - Fully localized About screen for Dutch users ✅ Future-proof - No manual updates needed in build files