iOS Dyanmic Framework with Firebase Dependencies - ios

Question

We are developing a framework that is dependent on some firebase dependencies like login, analytics, etc. Once our framework is developed we will distribute it to our customers.
Things to be taken care of are
Code should not be visible(Best suggestion is to create XCFramework)
If possible create a dynamic framework instead of a static framework
Can be distributed via Swift package manager or cocoapods
What we have tried
We have tried to create a dynamic framework using pods and then create a XCFramework. But while importing into client app, pods module are not found
We created static library and add firebase manually(In project directly) instead of pods, in that case XCFramework is not imported
We have tried to create XCFrame Work as mentioned here (for dynamic framework)
XCFramework with Pods Dependencies
To hide code umbrella framework and universal library can be used,but with firebase, this approach is to typical and also not suggested on the internet at many places
Is there any other/alternative way where we can fulfill our requirements?

Answer 1

We have the exact same setup right now, and it works quite well. Hope that'll also be of help for you.
Things that are taken care of:
It's an XCFramework distribution.
It's been distributed by CocoaPods (albeit in a private Podspec repository)
It's a dynamic framework.
Prerequisites:
CocoaPods version >= 1.10.1
Xcode version >= 11.6 (could be lower though, not sure)
After creating your .xcframework, you need to have a .podspec for your framework, which should look like:
Pod::Spec.new do |s|
# ――― Spec Metadata ―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――― #
#
s.name = "MyAwesomeSDK"
s.version = "1.0.0"
s.summary = "Best framework ever: MyAwesomeSDK"
s.description = <<-DESC
"Best framework ever: MyAwesomeSDK"
DESC
s.homepage = "http://github.com"
s.license = "MIT"
s.author = { "ItIsI" => "me#myself.com" }
# ――― Platform Specifics ――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――― #
#
s.platform = :ios
s.ios.deployment_target = '11.3'
# ――― Source Location ―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――― #
s.source = { :http => '<MyAwesomeSDK.zip> (We're storing our zipped .xcframework in a hosted page)' }
s.vendored_frameworks = 'MyAwesomeSDK.xcframework'
s.swift_version = "5.0"
# ――― Dependencies ―――――――――――――――――――――――――――---――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――― #
s.dependency 'SwiftProtobuf', '1.12.0'
s.dependency 'lottie-ios', '3.1.8'
# Any other dependency you might need.
end
Then, we are consuming it in another project via Podfile, that will look like:
platform :ios, '13.0'
# If you're going to have a private Podspec repo, add the source URL here.
# Don't forget to add the original source if you're going to specify another source.
# source 'https://cdn.cocoapods.org/'
target 'Test' do
# Comment the next line if you don't want to use dynamic frameworks
use_frameworks!
# If you are publishing the SDK publicly or in a private Podspec repository, this is it:
pod 'MyAwesomeSDK'
# If not, you should provide the .podspec to your customers, and:
pod 'MyAwesomeSDK', :podspec => '<path/to/MyAwesomeSDK.podspec>'
target 'TestTests' do
inherit! :search_paths
# Pods for testing
end
target 'TestUITests' do
# Pods for testing
end
end
Then, that's it! When running pod install, you should see:
Analyzing dependencies
Downloading dependencies
Installing MyAwesomeSDK (1.0.0)
# These are our own:
# ---
Installing SwiftProtobuf (1.12.0)
Installing lottie-ios (3.1.8)
# ---
Generating Pods project
Integrating client project
Pod installation complete! There is 1 dependency from the Podfile and 3 total pods installed.
P.S: We also had to add a post_install setup in our Podfile, otherwise it'll not properly link the dependency frameworks:
if ["SwiftProtobuf", "lottie-ios"].include? target.name
target.build_configurations.each do |config|
config.build_settings['BUILD_LIBRARY_FOR_DISTRIBUTION'] = 'YES'
end
end