Im currently working on creating a Swift Framework, my framework currently includes OpenCV as a Linked Framework. I have read up on the standards for distributing frameworks, and many people say that frameworks shouldn't be compiled/packaged with other 3rd party frameworks as this can cause issues like framework collisions etc...
So I knowing this I have been trying to work out how to build my framework but without packaging OpenCV with it, so the application will have to depend on OpenCV in order to use my framework.
I've had a look into Cocoa Pods and how the dependency management there will handle this for me. The problem with Cocoa Pods is the distribution, we need to be able to carefully control who can gain access to the framework.
So in conclusion, what would be the best way to create my framework without including the 3rd party dependency? Im open to any ideas!
This is the first framework I've created and some help or pointers would be very appreciated.
Related
iOS8:
I'm trying to create a Database framework (DBKit) that will be used amongst our apps. DBKit requires Couchbase (ObjC) and Alamofire (Swift) frameworks.
I'm trying to avoid using Umbrella framework as it's discouraged by Apple.
Questions:
When creating a framework, how do I tell the framework to use Couchbase and Alamofire within the Demo Project?
Is using Cocoa Pods to manage frameworks inside a framework a good idea?
Believe you should be linking to the respective external libraries from within your application and NOT your own framework.
For Couchbase, you can simply drag in the frameworks to the 'Supporting Files' folder within your iOS project.
I have been looking for 2 days now, trying to find a way to get a single iOS framework-file for the ZXing QR reader. The only thing i can find, is a ZXingWidget project to include in my own project. But here, i have to add path's, dependencies etc. for it to work.
Isn't there a way to create one single .framework file that can easily be added to any new projects needing this feature?
I have found a kstenerud iOS framework template to create frameworks, but i can't make it work with the ZXing project.
No, there's no good solution for this for iOS.
Frameworks are generally (always?) dynamically-linked libraries and Apple doesn't allow DLLs on iOS. Note that there are now framework builds for OS X.
It may be possible to hack Xcode to produce a framework with a statically linked library, but that's going against Apple's patterns which means I suspect it will push Xcode into corner cases which fail in subtle and hard to debug ways and which have a high chance of breaking across Xcode versions.
This opinion comes in part from talking to Apple Xcode engineers at WWDC about cleaning up the ZXing project files. There are new project files now that follow all the best practices they recommended but on iOS they still require the same include path and library linkage project customization that the old project files require.
Not many libraries such as GHUnit suggest you to use them as a Framework.
While most libraries such as Facebook iOS SDK just require you to drag the project into existing XCode project.
So when you are building a library which suppose to be re-use by other project in the future, should you use Framework or just like many current opensource projects, don't use Framework provided by XCode.
There is a reason why those opensource projects are provided as static libraries or just source code and not Framework, Frameworks are currently not supported by iOS SDK.
You can only use Frameworks provided by Apple - parts of SDK itself. Your code cannot be linked against your own or third party Frameworks.
So stick with one of those ways - I personally prefer static libraries.
Is it possible to create an own obj-C Cocoa Touch framework which can be used by other developers? And furthermore can you protect this framework?
I've created templates for Xcode 4 that allow you to build universal iOS frameworks (which work in both device and simulator).
Once the templates are installed, you simply select "Static iOS Framework" when creating a new project and it does the rest. It also works with unit tests.
https://github.com/kstenerud/iOS-Universal-Framework
You can create a static library. There is an option in the XCode project chooser to do this. You'll have to distribute the compiled static library file and the header files to users of your library. Your actual implementation files (.m) do not need to be distributed.
GHUnit does a good job of this - packaging up the libraries for both simulator and device - so I recommend looking at this project. (I also recommend using this library for unit testing :-)
The frameworks in Objective C are typically just C / ObjC code and a bunch of classes, nothing amazingly special. As such, you can create your own if you'd like, and then just include that in your project when you build it. The iPhone doesn't care about the difference, it just knows to put all that code into your app, along with everything else.
Have a look at the Framework Programming Guide on Apple's website. It will get you started. Essentially what you'll do is create a Framework project in XCode and then go from there.
As for "protecting" your framework, I assume you mean making your code unreadable. I'm not sure if and how you can do this, but perhaps Apple's guide will say something about it.
Yes you can create frameworks for use with Cocoa Touch.
However there are these caveats:
has to be a statically linked libary, no dynamic loading (dyld) for us
should be a combined (lipo) library for i386 (simulator), arm6 and arm7
you need to hack a bundle project into a framework
you should embed (small and few) images into the library so that the developer does not have to mess around with resources but just drags/drops it into his project
... or if you have large and many images build a bundle with these
I have guides for these things on my site.
1+2 = http://www.drobnik.com/touch/2010/04/universal-static-libraries/
The other links you have to google because this site does not let me post more than one URL.
You could make a static library available as binary (i.e. rudimentary "protection") to third parties, but not a dynamic one, as Apple's App Store policy prevents dynamic linking.
Take a look at a worked example for static libraries given at
this site
If you're going to do it, in my opinion JSON.framework is a great example to follow. To hide/obfuscate the source code is a different story, and a different question entirely,
When creating a new project, navigate to iOS > Framework & Library > Cocoa Touch Framework, it's as simple as that. When you are successfully compile, .framework will be created under Products folder in XCode. Right click to show in Finder, and you can find the output.
It's unlikely this will work the way you want it to because the other developers won't be able to use your framework. This StackOverflow Question explains why.
The error I'm getting:
in /Users/robert/Documents/funWithFrameworks/build/Debug-iphonesimulator/funWithFrameworks.framework/funWithFrameworks, can't link with a main executable
Cliff notes:
trying to include framework
doesn't want to link
More detail:
I'm developing for a mobile device... hint, hint using Xcode and I'm trying to make my
own custom framework which I can include from another application. So far, I've done the following:
Create a new project; an iPhone OS window based app.
Go to target info-> under packaging, change the wrapper extension from app to framework
Go to Action->new build phase -> copy headers. Change roles of headers to 'public'
From my application, I add the framework to the frameworks group.
Apple clearly said that you can not use dynamic libraries on their mobiles. And a private framework is just this.
You can, however, use static libraries.
Egil, that's usually considered as one of the implications of section 3.3.2 of the iPhone developer agreement, which (in part) forbids plug-in architectures or other frameworks. The fact that they don't provide an Xcode project template for an iPhone-compatible framework tends to reinforce the idea, though of course it could just be an oversight or something they're discouraging without actually forbidding.
Whether this is the intended meaning of that section is something you'd have to ask Apple about, and possibly consult a lawyer, but this is where the oft-stated "no frameworks" idea comes from.
For those who have framework code they'd like to use in an iPhone app, an alternative approach is to use the framework code to build a static library. That then gets compiled into the application instead of getting dynamically loaded at run time. The fact that it's part of the application executable avoids any potential concerns about this part of the agreement.
Though dynamic libraries are not allowed, you CAN create a framework (using static libraries and lipo).
Check out: http://accu.org/index.php/journals/1594
I haven't tried it for so called mobile device, but I would guess its very similar to the method for a regular Cocoa application. Check out this tutorial:
Embedded Cocoa Frameworks