I like to keep a store-bought version of my iPhone apps on my phone so that I can reproduce any customer issues that come up, but I obviously also want to run the most current development version. I can install both (one from iTunes, one from xCode) but I'm interested in ways that I'm better able to tell the two apart. I could just change the name or icon temporarily, but that doesn't seem very failsafe, i.e. I might forget and ship it with the wrong icon.
Is there a happy funtime developer way to do this?
I was inspired by Eric's idea of adding a user-defined setting to the project but I didn't want to run a script every time I built the project.
We know that the iPhone looks for icon files named "Icon.png" by default. It turns out that the "Icon File" setting in the project plist isn't necessary at all if you've named your icon properly. However, if there is no file named "Icon.png" in the project, xCode looks at the value of the "Icon File" setting.
I set a user-defined setting in "Debug" called "Icon_Name" to a non-standard icon name, "DevIcon.png" and "ReleaseIcon.png" for the "Release" config. The "Icon File" setting in the project plist can now be set to ${ICON_NAME} and will take on the value of whatever config file we're using. Now building under two different configurations does use two different icons.
Edit: For multiple icons (high res, small, ipad, etc) I made a slightly different approach. The user-defined setting is now "IconPrepend" which is "Dev" for debug and "Release" for release config. I'm now using "Icon Files" (rather than "Icon File") in the info plist which takes an array of strings. Each string is prepended with ${ICONPREPEND} so that debug configurations look for "DevIcon.png" or "DevIcon#2x.png" and release configurations look for "ReleaseIcon.png" or "ReleaseIcon#2x.png".
Here's an idea - if you set a User-Defined Setting in your Project Build properties for Debug only along the lines of USE_DEV_ICON=YES (or something). Then, using the "Run Script" option in your Build Target you could copy different icons based on which Active Configuration you called.
Something along the lines of (pseudo-code):
if ($USE_DEV_ICON == YES)
cp DevIcon.png Icon.png
else
cp RealIcon.png Icon.png
Then every time you build, depending on the active configuration, it will copy the correct icon.
Most probably there is no other way. Your app store version and development version is completely different to the OS. If you want to distinguish, you need to change the icon or name. You can also include some debugging label (e.g. version number) in your development version, but you may also forget to remove this.
Maybe you'd just buy a second iPhone? Seriously. On your place I'd ask the same question as you do, but I will definitely take such a solution in mind. If I was an iPhone (or whatever other specific platform) developer, I'd most probably have more than one.
Couldn't you make a new target which has a different Bundle name in the Info.plist file, and use this target whenever you want to build the app to run on your iPhone?
Related
Using Xcode 4.2, if I want to change my application/project name (including the name of the project folder and subfolder that are auto created by Xcode), what are the different items I need to update to make the whole thing compile and work again like a charm ?
I have noticed that I have to change the pch acces path, the bundle identifier, ... but I'm afraid of missing something.
It's really easy in Xcode 4. Simply double click (slowly) on your project name in the Navigator (the bar on the left). When you change the name of your project, Xcode will ask you to confirm which files to change (generally, it will be all of the ones necessary).
Alternately, if you simply want to change the name of your bundle (the name of your app as it appears in a users' home screen), you can just change your "Bundle Display Name" in your app plist.
An advice : NEVER change the name of your project without having saved the whole thing before. Even if XCode has a feature that helps to do this, using it may destroy all your hard work to organise your project, letting many many dirty things everywhere, not changing everything that needs to be changed, it's just awfull. I've tried this some days ago on a just simple project, letting XCode change the main things, but it has let so many things unchanged, or changed things without updating links, so I've had to rebuild a new project from the beginning to make it compile again.
If you just want to change the App name, select the project in xcode, select the app in TARGETS > YourAppOldName. Press enter, rename the OldName. Save, compile. thats all!
Change the config.xml from the main www directory
Here is the Name you want to change
here is description of your application
My team
Now rebuild app with CLI
phonegap build ios, phonegap install ios or phonegap run ios
How can I restore Xcode project settings? I can't see few settings (like Targeted Device Family, iPhone OS Deployment Target, etc.) after I gave my Macbook to my friend. :(
I also saw that the info.plist file was not in the project, I recovered it via TimeMachine though, the Base SDK is also missing. :( She messed all things up, I don't know why she went in there. Anyways, is there any way to restore the settings?
Unfortunately, the snapshot that I have is also very old. :(
No way to restore them. You can set the base sdk on the project info screen.
Project > Edit Project Settings > Base SDK, Check the same for your Target.
Is this issue occurring for a specific project, or all projects? If you create a new project, what happens?
I forget the exact syntax, but different versions of XCode handle project files slightly differently. A new SDK (and version of XCode) couldn't read my project file right (same symptoms you explain).
In my case, there were 2 different SDK settings in the project file due to 2 separate versions of XCode editing the file (this could be very likely if you restored from backup and had upgraded SDKs in the interim).
Look for something like:
SDKROOT = iphoneos4.2;
Or really, just look around the text that contains the build settings (all of your build settings are stored in the file in flat text) -- you may see something related to SDKs where there are 2 lines very similar right next to each other. That'd probably be your problem. If you don't know which to delete, try both and then re-set the setting using the interface.
Of course in any case, you should back up your project file (project.pbxproj) before trying any of this.
Is there a way to add multiple resources with the same name to an Xcode project and have 1 of them take priority over the others?
Example:
I added 2 files, both called icon.png, to an Xcode project. They are on different folders in the file system (Folder1/icon.png and Folder2/icon.png) and on different groups in Xcode. Is there a way to tell Xcode to have Folder2/icon.png take priority over Folder1/icon.png? And if only 1 icon.png exists, then use that one.
Thanks.
EDIT (2010-12-23):
You can have multiple files with the same name in an Xcode project even if they are not in separate folder references, but they are in separate groups. Once compiled, the app bundle (which will be flat with no folders in it), will only have one copy of the file (icon.png). How do you pick which copy of the file to use?
I was told that you can do this for BlackBerry. It works something like this: The compiler will go down the list of files in the project and start adding them to the app bundle. If it sees a duplicate, it will overwrite it (or not), so the files at the bottom (or at the top) will have higher precedence and will be the final bundle.
This can better easily be solved by using folders within a resource bundle in your Xcode project. Take a look here: http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/CoreFoundation/Conceptual/CFBundles/Introduction/Introduction.html
Wait a second, since you specifically mentioned icon.png, are you trying to supply different iDevices (iPad, iPhone4, iTouch3...) with different icon images?
If yes, check this out, http://d.pr/W2w0 , Apple has already provided a way for us to finish this task with convenience. All you need to do is following a specific naming convention.
What we do if we have a situation like this is:
We have several subfolders on the file system level of the project dir and add them to XCode into separate groups.
This works well. For actually building, we try to avoid Files with the same Name in one target. Icon.png and iTunesArtwork are only added once in every target.
It just proved to be a Maintainability Nightmare
Can't seem change the name of my iPhone app 100%.
I followed multiple threads and performed the outlined methods below, but the old name keeps popping back up in Console. I'm concerned that on some deeper level the app's name has not really been changed 100%.
My concern is with the fact that I've made a "Lite" version by starting with a copy of the "Full" version. So I don't want the device to get confused if my customers upgrade and download the full version and the device see two apps with the same "CORE or ROOT" name.
Console continues to output:
2010-07-03 10:56:35.129 *OldAppName* [45672.207] Test Message
I have changed the Product_name, ".app" name, Bundle name, etc... - Where does "Console" get this name, so I can truly change the app's name 100%? I don't want an conflicts with the full version down the road as the apps grown independently in complexity. (i.e. Push Notifications, iAds, and other "APP" specific items)
I have performed the following, but still not getting 100% name change:
I. I have used Xcode, Project, Rename.
II. I have used the suggested answer on stackoverflow thread, Changing iPhone App's Name, to
Go to Targets in Xcode,
"Get Info" on your project's target (your current silly development name),
Search for "Product Name" under "Packaging". Change the value of that what you want the new program name is going to be.
My "Product_Name" field was blank for all builds, I changed it to the new name, but I continue to get the console output referencing the OldAppName.
III. I'm not trying to change the "Bundle Name", those are the same, as this is a Lite Version. And changing this does not change the Console reference name anyway, I tried.
IV. I have deleted the entire "Build" folder several times to assure no legacy issues, but the name still does not change.
I'm currently working on a large copy/paste migration over to a new project to try and fix this completely with a new project, because I would like to get app uploaded to the AppStore asap, but there must be a better way of achieving this.
Where does the "Console" get this name? Does this mean that if my customers' download the full version that on some deeper level the device will get confused-(i.e. NSUserDefaults with the same names, running issue, sandbox issues, etc...)?
The names are not stored in the info.plist, they appear to just be referenced from the target, but when I search through the target, I don't even find the OldAppName, is their an additional storage file for this core information?
I would like to stay in Xcode if possible. I have seen suggestions about using other programs or trying to change the XML directly through text editor, but I don't want to accidentally leave a "Third-Party" application marker or trial that might get rejected by Apple Reviewer's as they seem to be coming down hard on this issue.
Any detailed suggestions??
I had the same problem about a year ago.
I've got really nice & easy solution for your needs. You need to click on the "superview" of blue icon (Project/Targets) and then hit enter to change the name of the project. You can also double click on that field, but you need to do it with quite a long delay between clicks.
This method will change magically name of the project in all important places.
http://i.stack.imgur.com/3f1RD.png
Only Solution that Worked, and it was the one that feared the most and was trying to avoid.
I had to start a new project and painstakingly move all 96 class files (about 27mb of text) over one by one, because dragging the classes over kept giving me an error. I tried dragging over the classes as one large group, but that would not work. A little "re-factoring", rebuilding the .plist info, and setting up the new targets, and it I got it working again. I think that there was some sort of legacy issues that Xcode was getting caught up on.
It is working now under a new project, but there must be a better way.
Have you tried opening all files in your project in a text editor and searching for the old name?
Have you tried creating a new empty project and merely adding your content and code files to this empty project?
I have done these in the past and found they work fine:
http://drjunker.org/2008/04/10/xcode-rename-project-and-application-change-copyright-and-version-number/
http://homepage.mac.com/kelleherk/iblog/C1216817469/E1454445171/index.html
I also Clean All Targets/Builds and rename the Executable after.
I had a problem when there was a localized strings (infoPlist.strings) file in project with "CFBundleDisplayName"="MyOldAppName" in it. Removing this file and renaming target to my NewAppName worked for me.
I searched for a long time on stackoverflow using every keyword I could think of to solve this. I am programming for iphone and I have a lite and paid version of my app. I followed the instructions here Creating Lite Versions of iPhone Games / Apps for duplicating the target. This works and now I am working on slimming down the lite version.
Main problem? Images. The lite version needs to have several hundred less images than the paid version. So, I made 2 groups in XCode. One "Folder Group" in Xcode - named "FreeImages" and another "ProImages". I want all FreeImages only to be included in the lite app and all FreeImages and ProImages to be in the paid app. I do not care that XCode considers these Groups to be Virtual Folders. I reversed the instructions to a point and have an environment flag (-D) set in XCode "PLUS_VERSION" I want XCode to basically do the following:
If (PLUS_VERSION)
{
copy contents of FreeImages *and* ProImages where normally they go
}
else
{
copy contents of FreeImages where they normally go.
}
Anyone know where to start to tell XCode to conditionally copy contents of groups into the target?
For each resource (or folder of resources) you want to direct to a specific target, you can click on the resource and inspect it (either via right-clicking and selecting Get Info or by clicking on the Inspect toolbar option). Within that info dialog will be a tab called Targets, where you can check the targets you want the resource (or even source code file) to be incorporated into, and uncheck the ones you don't.
Alternatively, I believe you can navigate to the target itself in Xcode, click on the triangle next to its name to expand the list of build phases, expand the Copy Bundle Resources build phase, and manually delete from the list there any resources you don't wish to have copied over into that target.