I have been developing my first SWIFT MacOS App and it uses Core Data. I've just done my first release build and found that it still points at the same SQL Lite DB as my debug build. As I didn't not specify it's location I assumed (incorrectly) it would be in a different location for release.
How do I specify the location of the Database for Core Data ? Is there a way to automatically set a different location for Debug and Release ? I want to be able to run release and debug on the same machine.
What I usually do is have separate debug and release versions of the app. Then I can have both installed on the same device at the same time. The persistent store (and other files) use the same file names, but since they're separate apps the data is separate.
You can do this by duplicating the app target in Xcode, and making a few changes. In the list of targets, right-click your app and select "duplicate". Give the new one a similar but slightly different name. For example, maybe add "-dev" to your app's name to indicate it's the development target.
You'll also need to change the bundle ID and display name of the app. The bundle ID tells iOS it's a different app, and the display name makes it obvious which one you're tapping. You can also add a different app icon if you like.
Now you can build two versions of the app and install both on the same device. The dev version can have whatever code you're working on that's maybe still kind of broken, and the release version can be whatever's ready for release or a version downloaded from the App Store.
In iOS, your CoreData database file is usually located in Library/Application Support within the sandboxed App. Pre iOS 10 it used to be in the Documents folder.
On MacOS with sandboxing enabled it's usually located at ~/Library/Containers/<app_bundle_id>/Data/Library/Application Support/<app_target_name>
Depending on your needs, you can choose different locations for each of your persistent stores when you setup the CoreData stack.
However, I don't see any reason to choose different store locations for different Build Configurations. Thats not the purpose for Build Configurations anyway. Your database will end up being exactly the same - it cannot be affected by build settings.
I would also not recommend to use different store locations for any purpose - except perhaps when you perform Unit Tests.
What you can do however, is to set certain environment flags that affect CoreData's behaviour, for example that enables Thread Violation Assertions. You do this in Xcode Schemes - not in the build settings. Note, that a scheme uses a certain Build Configuration, say Release or Debug and that the name for the scheme can be the same which is often confusing.
You should ensure that these helpful assertions that you can set in a Scheme are not enabled when you build a release. ;)
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I currently have an app in the Appstore. I need to make changes to the app, but they are significant enough that we've decided it would be easier to create a new Xcode project from scratch rather than modify our existing project. I don't fully understand everything that goes into an iPhone application, just enough to support the code and make basic changes. But I assume that the binary I upload to the Appstore, to replace my existing code there, needs to be similar enough so Apples sees it as the "same" code. What things in the new project do I need to make sure are the same as the old project so Apple knows it's the "same" app?
I've compared the Info.plist file in both projects to make sure they're the same. I only needed to change the bundle identifier in the new project to match the old. Also, the Product Name has been modified to be the same. I don't know if these changes are necessary, but they are the sort of things that I think need to be the same. Are there others? If so, what are they?
The only thing that matters, as far as the app store is concerned, is the app id (Bundle identifier). You can rename the app, change the icon, upload an entirely different program, whatever. As long as the app id matches, the store considers it the same.
Other things I would check are the Build Settings if the defaults are not suitable or the Code is having issues compiling and the Build Phases and Build Rules for all your Targets.
Essentially if your Code compiles fine and you have no issues within the Application then the Bundle Identifier and the name (Basically the Info.plist) needs to be the same to replicate.
Edit: If you have migrated from an older Xcode version then you may have different Build Settings and Build Phases. I would just see if compilation is okay and the App works properly in functionality under all your Targets
I noticed that there are different requirements for each platform here. I was wondering if it's possible to build a single project but with multiple targets where each target is Mac OS X (something like a CD / install build), Apple Mac Store, and iOS device.
IfIi'm going about this the wrong way then I'd love to know! I mostly develop on the PC but with the state of the App Store I'd love to spread out as much as I can!
Keeping separate targets for the Mac app store and an independently-distributed Mac application is simple. You just need to ensure that your receipt validation code is conditionally included on the app store target and not in the other target; and your custom licensing scheme is included the other way round. Things get a bit more complicated if you target different operating systems in the two targets, but they're not insurmountable: you can test for the existence of classes or selectors at runtime to ensure you never call newer API on older systems.
By the way, it's also worth having separate Info.plist files for these targets. Partly because you don't need or want to include things like Sparkle properties in your app store target, but also because each target should have a unique bundle identifier. The app store does odd things when you have an app installed that it thinks came from the store but really didn't, and you don't want to risk your updater or Apple's trying to update the app deployed via the other mechanism. But that's not really about organising your Xcode project, it's a deployment issue.
For the most part, yes. All Mac/iOS apps can be written in Objective-C and the code is very similar. However, you must bear in mind that iOS devices have different screen sizes from the Mac and even from each other. That means that the input metaphor is different, and that the UI is different. While it is possible to do what you want, it's not advisable to just code once and compile thrice.
That said, I don't use Xcode 4 so I can't tell you about that. Of you are looking to do different builds for different devices, you will want to write your app logic and your input logic as separately as possible. Then, you create multiple targets, one for each build. You define compiler flags for each target. In your code you will use those flags to use the appropriate code for your build.
At least as of 3.2.5, this is absolutely not a problem. You won't necessarily be able to apply all of your build settings project-wide, but you can specify them on a per-target basis.
Just add the appropriate-type target (Cocoa Touch, Cocoa, etc.).
I have an application already on the store and would like to release an update. Since my app deals with databases and I've had to change some parts of it, I would like to ensure that the update does not affect the existing functionality in any way once the user updates from the App Store.
What I did was this - install the first version of my app on my device. Changed the update's version in info.plist to 1.1 and run it via xcode (and install on my device). But what happens by doing this is some of the changes I made to the XIBs do not show up. It looks as if the app was only half-updated (if you know what I mean)
Is there any way to update an existing app programmatically without having to go through the app store and then find out it could lead to a disaster?!
Thanks for any help!
I would double check your build configuration. Between building the two versions of the app, I would recommend a "Clean All" just to be safe. The process you described works to verify updates. The only other alternative I can come up with is to create Ad-hoc distributions of both versions of your app, and install those.
I frequently find that I need to have a build on my iPhone which is my 'demo-ready' version which might point to my demo server. I also want a build that is the latest and greatest debug build that I'm developing with that points to my development server. Has anyone found a really simple way for me to install two apps that perhaps are the exact same code but point to different servers? Alternately perhaps I would have an app that was a few versions behind the latest version? Preferably I would use the same XCode project to build and install onto the iPhone.
You can add special build configurations for them that each use a different info.plist file. So, maybe for your demo, you have an info.plist named MyApp-Info-DEMO.plist and MyApp-Info.plist for the release.
Then you could add your server variable as an info.plist variable and look it up when the app starts. Or even just create a DEFINE statement in your new configuration that's something like SERVER=demo.myserver.com for the demo and SERVER=production.myserver.com for the live.
The most important part is to change the CFBundleIdentifier in the new info.plist. So in your demo, you could name it something like com.mycompany.myapp.DEMO and the real one might just be com.mycompany.myapp.
This will allow both versions to appear on the phone at the same time (the different CFBundleIdentifiers). Just remember, if you are using in-app purchases or server push notifications, you won't be able to do this without a separate, specific profile for both your real app identifier and your demo one.
You could create 2 different targets with 2 different info.plists and 2 different preprocessor defines (in the Build Settings for each of the 2 targets). Then ifdef on the preprocessor defines to select the server constant the compiler uses for each target.
Then make the product name and the bundle ID different in the two different target settings (so that neither the device or the Simulator will confuse the two app bundles).
With the current version of Xcode, you'd achieve this by changing the app's Info.plist file to use a different bundle identifier (and possibly also change the Product Name of the app in the build settings).
The upcoming version of Xcode, from what I've read in the prerelease documentation, has a feature that may simplify what you want to do quite a bit. However, since prerelease software is covered under NDA, I can't give you any details.
I have an app on the Store for which we’re readying an update.
The other members of our team have the App Store version already loaded up (~purchased) on their respective iPhones -- and those contain User Data which each member needs to be able to keep.
In the meantime, we need to test out a Beta version of the next version of the app.
Presumably, we’d need to have the two versions (ad hoc, and app store) co-existing on each device, at least until everyone’s signed off on the beta and it’s uploaded to the store (at which point, they'd delete the beta version).
[Once it’s on the Store, of course, they can each update their main (i.e., Release) version of the app via the usual App Store 'update' mechanism. In that case, all their user data is still retained intact.]
So assuming that’s the proper workflow ...
How do I issue a Beta to the team, and have it not replace/overwrite the existing App Store version?
I’ve tried customizing parameters in the beta’s “[appname]-Info.plist”, but haven’t found a setting yet that allows the two versions (beta and release) to co-exist on the same device.
Any ideas? And is this is the proper approach to them being able to keep their data?
(And last, how might I do it with & without a script? I assume there's just one parameter that'd need to be changed.)
I hope this all makes sense -- thank you in advance for your help!
So you want to have two versions of the same application on one device? I don't think there's a way to get this effect -- updating an application, which keys on unique CFBundleIdentifier, replaces old version bundle but not data.
For the effect you want, you must have two distinct applications. They need different CFBundleIdentifiers, so they won't overwrite each other. They then cannot share data, so you'll have to arrange for export/import involving an off-device shared space.
If you don't want this hassle, issue the team extra devices and test on those. The team's primary devices remain on the AppStore version. You must still export/import to bring content from the test devices to the primary devices. Any paid content each has on the App Store version should be available for their beta, though, as usual for app upgrades and one-owner multiple-devices scenarios.