Cocoapod library and multiples configurations embedding - swift

After googling a lot regarding my need, I finally ask to this awesome community a way to achieve my goal.
I need to create a swift library with cocoapod, and integrate multiple build configurations. I want to create 3 schemes on my project to switch easily environments variables (like target API, log level, and many more).
I really want to do this on library side, not on app-side, since it's for debug & testing purposes, and finally, applications which embed this pod will only use the "Release" build (except us, developers who maintain this library)
I tried opening the _Pods.xcodeproj and doing update in this file (create *.xcconfig files I need, mapped to configurations schemes) but disappear after ran a "pod install".

Not sure at all if you can do that hack on library side. Looks weird.
But the best practice would be:
When initializing and configuring libraries, endpoints etc (all you need to change between schemes), just check which one is used, and pass different parameters
create a file, FE Constants
struct Constants {
static var libraryApiKey: String {
#if DEBUG
return "debugKey"
#else
return "productionKey"
}
And when initializing
Library.initialize(withKey: Constants.libraryApiKey)

Related

Aurelia - How to do composite applications that can be loaded at runtime

What I'm trying to do in Aurelia, is something like Prism is doing in WPF- Composite applications.
So lets say I have a "shell" application that defines the main application layout, then i have modules that I can plugin at run-time. Those modules can be an Aurelia application per se or Aurelia plugin (don't know what to use - need recommendation).
When loaded, the module needs to add it's menu items to the main application menu to expose it's features.
This is a mockup of the application:
Each module can have multiple menu items and can be pretty complex.
I'm using latest Typescript, Aurelia-CLI to create the application, and I'm using the built-in bundler : Aurelia's new built-in bundler.
So What I don't know is:
Those modules/features - what must they be? (Maybe Aurelia Plugins, or another Aurelia application?)
How to load those modules/features at run-time? (like deploy it in some plugins folder and tell the main shell application to load them)
How to modify the main menu and add new menu items from the loaded module?
Please help
Aurelia supports ultra dynamic applications. Also, there have been other community members who have had similar requirements and was able to resolve it. So I think the scenario is possible.
It seems the sub-application can just be a route.How/where to load the route should be determined based on the application URL
Those modules doesn't need to do anything specific, they can just be a normal, plain JS/TS class with lifecycle methods to handle activation/deactivation. I guess that main shell and all sub-applications need to share a common URL, you cannot have more than one router.
There could be a singleton/central store for new route to register information about loaded features, or it can be loaded upfront by a configuration file/metadata file or a database fetch.
Here is a similar question from another community member that I think can help you see how to glue things to https://discourse.aurelia.io/t/dynamicaly-load-routes/1906

Maintaining different URLs for different Build Configurations in xcode

I created four different build configurations to my xcode project, they are QA, STAGING< UAT<& PRODUCTION. I use 4 different urls each for one build i created.
Now my question is xcode 4 is very good at detecting DEBUG mode as there is already predefined macro available, but How can I detect my custom builds so that i can pass different urls for different builds configurations?
In each one of those build configurations go into build settings and add a #define THIS_IS_QA=1 then test for it in your code and use it as you would use the DEBUG macro
The preprocessor macro route works alright and is quick to implement. But it does not scale well since you will end up with copies of each variable. The route I find works the best is to do the following.
Define the configuration as a User-Defined Setting in the project or target build settings.
Doing this allows for different values to be specified for each build configuration (eg. Debug or Release or even a custom one)
Create an information property in the projects plist file.
This allows the build setting to be accessed through the plist.
Write the code once to load the value form the plist file.
Example:
In the project create a User-Defined Setting called "BASE_API_URL" and set the debug configuration to "http://www.test.example.com" and the release configuration to "http://www.example.com".
Then in the plist create a new information property with the key of "BaseAPIUrl" and the value of "$(BASE_API_URL)"
Lastly in the app delegate where you define the base url add the following code:
let baseUrl: NSString = NSBundle.mainBundle().infoDictionary?["BaseAPIUrl"]! as NSString

How could I include a plugin system for my Dart app?

I have a Qt application containing a Webkit module and using Dart (compiled to JS). It's like a bare-bones browser written in Qt. The application basically replaces certain text on the webpage with different text. I want users to be able to make their own Dart files to replace their own text with their own different text.
Any recommendations for approaches to creating a plugin system?
I think that this question needs a little clarification: are you asking about using Dart for scripting Qt applications (where Dart plays the role of a scripting language), or are you asking about a plugin system for Dart application that is compiled to JS and used in a Qt application, probably via QtScript (in which case, the role of a scripting language is played by JavaScript)?
I presume that it is the latter variant (and I don't know enough about Qt to be able to answer about the former variant anyway).
Let's assume that all plugins for the Dart application are available at the build time of that Qt application, so that you don't need to compile Dart to JS dynamically. Then, if you compile a Dart script, resulting JS will include all necessary code from its #imports. All you need is to create a proper script that imports all plugins and calls them (importing isn't enough, as dead code will be eliminated).
Maybe an example will be more instructive. Let's say that you want to allow plugins to do some work on a web page. One way you might structure it is that every plugin will be a separate #library with a top-level function of a well known name (say doWork). Example of a plugin:
// my_awesome_plugin.dart
#library('My Awesome Plugin')
doWork(page) {
page.replaceAll('JavaScript is great', 'Dart is great');
}
You can have as many plugins of this nature as you wish. Then, you would (at the build time) generate a following simple main script in Dart:
// main.dart
// these lines are automatically generated -- for each plugin file,
// one #import with unique prefix
#import('my_awesome_plugin.dart', prefix: 'plugin1');
#import('another_plugin.dart', prefix: 'plugin2');
main() {
var page = ...; // provided externally, from your Qt app
// and these lines are automatically generated too -- for each plugin,
// call the doWork function (via the prefix)
plugin1.doWork(page);
plugin2.doWork(page);
}
Then, if you compile main.dart to JavaScript, it will include all those plugins.
There are other possibilities to structure the plugin system: each plugin could be a class implementing a specific interface (or inheriting from a specific base class), but the general approach would be the same. At least the approach that I would recommend -- making each plugin a separate library.
You probably don't like the step with generating the main script automatically, and I don't like it either. But currently, Dart only allows one way to dynamically load new code: spawning new isolates. I'm not sure how (or even if) that would work in QtScript, because isolates are implemented as web workers when compiled to JavaScript, so I won't discuss this here.
Things will get more complicated if you want to support compiling Dart scripts at the runtime of your Qt application, but I think that I'm already guessing too much about your project and I might be writing about something you don't really need. So I'll finish it like this for now.

one code base for iphone generic application?

I have built a generic application which can handle different content data - but for each content data, it will be a different iphone application (with a different name).
I would like of couse to only keep one code base for all these different apps (as it would be easier maintenance) but I have 2 questions:
1- I would need to change the appname in the buildsettings, etc.. and may be it is going to be an overkill...? especially with the upload process then...? What are your experiences in that domain and what would you recommend me to do?
2- how can I have all the pictures for logo (Icon.png, etc...) to co-exist into one app? For the moment, I have a global variable (as a singleton pattern) that I switch to change appname and loaded data inside the program
Thanks in advance for your help
Cheers,
geebee
You can do this pretty easily, it's what most developers do in their lite versions. All you have to do is add another target to create a new app out of the same code and use that global variable.
In order to change the images included in the app you simply edit the target and under the copy bundle resources menu remove the unnecessary resources. You'll notice that when you add a new resource you have the option to include it in any one or more of your targets. Simply select the one that you want and it will only be accessible to that target.
The reason that this works is that each target can have its very own info.plist. All the settings and resources can be separate, and the code can be different using your #ifdef global_var.
Here's a slightly outdated tutorial that should get you started if you need it.
http://www.bit-101.com/blog/?p=2098
For each application name add one target.
Create one xyz-info.plist for each of the target. (in this case for the xyz.app)
In each of the xyz-info.plist assign the appropriate icon files etc.
Within your build phases for each of the targets you will define which images go with which app.

Equivalent to R in iOS

In android we have the R class that stands for Resources, where we have references to all of our resources and we can easily access them in the code. Is there an equivalent in iOS? I have this doubt because, I want to be able to define multiple files with different values, for instance:
DefaultValuesForViewController1
DefaultValuesForViewController2
Besides creating plist, is there another way (faster and easier like R)?
There is no R class equivalent access method.
In Android, the R class represents access to resources that are consolidated into a native format. iPhone does not do this. Instead, resource files are just copied as is into the application bundle and must be found & opened as such.
You could create a class to store all of your data for the app. iOS generally likes the app to run lean and mean, so only storing your objects for as long as you need them, releasing them as soon as you are done with them. If you were to store everything globally, it would add some overhead, but assuming you don't have a ton of information, it shouldn't be an issue.
There is no equivalent for this in iOS apps. All you get is files that you can enumerate using standard file I/O.
However, you can emulate it partially. Here's a simple demo on GitHub
You can find that SwiftGen(e.g. Tuist used it) can be used as an alternative for autogenerated R.java file on Android
Two point
it is third party source
you have to manually run script after changing your resources