Has anyone had any success in finding a reliable, generalised solution for managing dependencies for iPhone projects? I'm looking to split my iPhone applications up into reusable components and then pull them into projects that require them. I guess I'm looking for a Maven-esque workflow but for Xcode/iPhone projects. I've tried a number of things so far such as:
I've created a Maven plugin for iPhone applications which automates the building and signing of the applications but I constantly feel like I'm fighting against Maven to get this to work and it is altogether pretty messy. I'd rather not use this unless there are no other options.
I have also tried using static libraries to package the code up to re use but the problem with this is that I'd also like to include reusable XIBs and images in my projects and these cannot be included in the static library for redistribution. They are great for code but I'd like to have one system that does everything rather than different dependency management systems for different types of dependency.
At the moment I've settled on using the version control system to do my dependencies for me. In this case I'm using SVN externals to load the dependencies into the workspace when I checkout the project.
Does anyone have any ideas as to what I could do?
Update
I'm now using CocoaPods to perform this task.
The way I've done it in the past is as follows:
Static Library for shared code
Bundle for Images / Data Files / Etc (Non Code)
By doing this, you only ever have to worry about updating the project that manages your static library / bundle and not the applications that use them.
The key thing to creating a bundle, is that Bundles are not listed under iOS when adding a new target to a project. Instead they are listed under Mac OS X. Don't worry, it works great.
Once you've created your Bundle and Static Library targets, you'll need to get those into your application:
Add the Static Library under Link Binary With Libraries (Xcode 4)
Add the Bundle under Copy Bundle Resources (Xcode 4)
The final thing to keep in mind is that when you want to load resources from the newly created bundle you need to do something like the following if you were going to load an image:
UIImage *myImage = [UIImage imageNamed:#"YourBundle.bundle/MyImage.png"];
With Static Libraries, you can distribute the XIB's/Images/Strings in a Bundle Folder which can be imported easily. It is the easiest approach I've found for distributing dependencies short of distributing the actual Code/Xcode Project
Related
I want to build two apps, one optimized for iphone and one for ipad.
both of these applications invoke server API calls and would share the same code for model objects, so I would like to share this code between my iphone and ipad projects.
I am using xCode 4, with a concept of workspace (which is supposed to allow sharing of code between projects) but I was wondering if I need to create another project for just the shared code.
Has anyone done this and care to share the best practices?
I prefer to share code across projects, be it for iPhone/iPad reuse or any other sharing scenario by leveraging a Static Library Project to house shared code, and used as a Target Dependency in all projects that consume it. In a bit more detail...
You can create a new Xcode Project with a Cocoa Touch Static Library template. This project can house all of the shared code between projects. Then, in any app in which you want to use the static library, you can add a project reference to the static library project by dragging the static lib project into the client project. In this client project, it's a good idea to add the static library as a Target Dependency build phase of the client project. This forces the shared library to be re-built anytime the client project is built. Then, you'll add the static library product to the "Link Binary With Libraries" build phase of the client project.
And, as one final caveat, you also need to tell the client project where the headers for the static library live. This is a result of static libs not containing their own headers like a Cocoa Framework on the Mac does. To do so, just find the "Header Search Path" build setting in the client project, and add the path to the static library headers. I've found it most useful to reference the ones produced by Xcode and placed in Derived Data (if you have Xcode configured to do so).
If you are going to build two separate applications, then you need to create one workspace with two iOS application projects and one static library project. The static library should contain all of your shared code, and the library should be included by both of your iOS application projects.
Each C/C++ library has some amount of headers that should be used with that library. And if you're use more than 1-2 libraries, custom header paths is kind of headache.
So I thought: is there a way to compile C libraries as frameworks. Static library + headers + versioning.
I found in XCode template for Cocoa framework but nothing about iPhone framework building. This simple step could allow developers to build and share between each other frameworks with some interesting code.
Also it would be great to use libpng, libjpeg and other libraries packaged as frameworks.
I won't use dynamic libraries in those frameworks. Only static version will be present.
I combined techniques I found here and here into my open source library here (NOTE - I have since removed the relevant scripts from this project. I have updated the link to point to the last revision that included these techniques.). Think that's basically the solution you're looking for.
Basically, it has a target that will build a fat static library (lipo builds for arm6, arm7 and i386). It has another target that takes that library and builds it into a framework.
There's no reason you can't use the same techniques for a C project. In fact I've started work on porting C the VTD XML parser to an Objective C framework using the same techniques.
Frameworks are basically just bundles of dynamic/shared libraries. Since this is not allowed in the App Store, you have to build static libraries and link them with your App's executable at compile time.
However, to ease the pain a little, you can have a Xcode project for each library and compile each library into a static lib. Another way would be to put all required source files into the main Xcode project and configure it appropriately so it all builds at once (I did this with small libraries like Minizip, for instance).
Hope that helps.
the problem you are trying to make already exists - it's called DLL hell
Best way is to stick with plain old static libraries when making small apps and organizing source/headers structure
i want to share some code with other iOS projects. So I create static library.
When I use this library in other projects and use header file from that lib I get an error like No such file and Directory. Can any one tell me fixes of it.
Here I get reference for making static lib
http://www.amateurinmotion.com/articles/2009/02/08/creating-a-static-library-for-iphone.html
I downloaded that sample. It is also not working in my case. So please help me to fix that error.
Thanks in advance
My guess would be because the blog, whilst detailed, is probably a bit old now. Like anything there's a thousand ways to skin a cat.
You can now create frameworks for the iPhone sdk and include both simulator and device versions of the classes. Frameworks have the advantage that they can simply be dragged and dropped on Xcode to include them in a project. In addition I like to store my frameworks in version numbered directories so if I make changes, dependent projects can still use the old ones until I'm ready to update them.
I don't do it, but for the above reasons I'm not sure I'd drag and drop a libs project on a client project. To me the idea of a static framework is that it's independent on it's clients. Dropping it into client projects makes a connection between the two projects that is too tight.
Anyway do some searches on lipo and static frameworks. I also have so scripts in my project at https://github.com/drekka/dUsefulStuff that you mint find useful.
I've build a static library working nice in a Cocoa Touch environment. Now I'd like to compile it also for Cocoa.. Can I have a single XCode project with different sdk targets? Is there some resource out there able to give hints about best the practices in this (and other) sense?
This last two months I have been working on exactly this task ( cross compiling static library for iPhone/Android/Mac OS/Linux/Windows...
It is certainly possible, a nice way, is adding an external xcode project as a target to your first xcode project. So you create a new "Active Configuration" for Mac OS X, iPhone and other platforms that you want to support.
Here, you can find a good tutorial about how to use a secondary Xcode project as a target of your main project to build a static library. It's a cool way because if you debug for example you still have all the symbols of the library, etc.
It can be done but it requires some manual tweaking of the build.
Start with the Xcode Build System Guide.
As an informal way of accomplishing this, you can create two separate projects and add references for exact same set of library source files to each project. Set one project to compile for Cocoa-Touch and the other for Cocoa. If both projects reference the same files, changes made in one project will be automatically reflected in the other. (If you have both projects open, Xcode will complain that the file has been changed by another app but otherwise it won't notice.)
I have a utility class that I continually dump new methods in. I add it to every project and just park methods as I need it. The new methods show up in old projects because the source files are shared across all the projects.
I am working on a number of iPhone development projects and I am starting to refactor code and would like to be able to package it in a library or framework that I can reuse in different xcode projects for different iPhone applications. I looked at the New Project dialog in xcode and the only option I have under iPhone OS is to create an Application. I have also read somewhere in the iPhone SDK documentation that I cannot create my own framework to reuse in different iPhone apps. What is then the best way to package my reusable components? I went over the iPhone SDK documentation and could not find out. I could keep all my reusable classes in a dummy project and link to those source files from other projects (so I would have a single copy of the source to maintain), but that feels very clumsy.
Thank you,
fxt
Create your common code as a static library.
Drag the xcodeproj file into the groups and files section of the project you want to use it in.
Update the include path to point to the headers of your static library.
In the info pane for the project you want to use the static lib in add it as a direct dependancy.
This process makes it almost as easy to work with as a regular framework.
Unfortunately Apple does not allow frameworks for the iPhone development at this stage. You can either bundle your code in a static library or just the source files in such a way that can easily use them in multiple projects.
I use SVN and keep my reusable code in repositories so that I can easily include them in new projects as externals
Apple does not allow to create own framwork. But you can achieve your goal by creating static libary.
Here is important link for kick off Static library.
Have a look:
http://blog.stormyprods.com/2008/11/using-static-libraries-with-iphone-sdk.html