I am intern student who working mobile applications on swift. I created an app for company and I need to embed my app to other partner firm's app. I look some solutions on stackoverflow but they were not clear, Should I use target file? How to embed one app to another app?
Thanks for all help!!
Embedding one app to another isn't quiet right definition. What you are looking for is a Dynamic Framework. You can add a new Dynamic Framework target to your partner's app and move all the functionality and resources you need from your app.
https://developer.apple.com/library/content/technotes/tn2435/_index.html
A framework is a hierarchical directory that encapsulates a dynamic library, header files, and resources, such as storyboards, image files, and localized strings, into a single package. Apps using frameworks need to embed the framework in the app's bundle.
In case if you only want to allow the user to navigate from one app to another, you should use iOS Deep Linking mechanism. There are many third party, ready to use solutions for that, like Branch.
https://branch.io/
This can be usefull as well:
https://developer.apple.com/ios/universal-links/
This can be accomplished by defining a URL schema for your app so that the partner's app can point to.
Here is a tutorial that you need
http://www.brianjcoleman.com/tutorial-deep-linking-in-swift/
Related
I am trying to figure out what would be a good way of setting up application architecture and how to setup Xcode project itself, in the case where I have one base application, and I need to make multiple applications of it where the all apps will have those same base functionalities but will differ in a way that:
Assets may be different
Some features can be added ( new screens that uses new endpoints that are not defined in base app)
Localization can be differ (eg. one app can only be translated to english, and other can support multilanguages)
and probably some more, but you get an idea of what kind of an app (kinda template app) I am referring to.
What would be a preferred way to implement something like this? I guess targets and making a framework for a shared code is one way to go? Or there is something else that would be suitable too?
Target is a good start. Thanks to target memberships, you can "share" storyboards, source files and whatever you want between several targets. Then within each specific target, you add your assets and specific functionalities.
Frameworks can be also a good way to share functionalities between apps. But you can start and try simply with targets, and then later factorize code within frameworks.
The way I would do it could be this way :
Create your project with a single target, let's call it "Blank App"
Develop functionalities and prepare generic assets for this app
When you want to add a new App, duplicate the "Blank App" target, remove membership of default assets, add new ones, add also specific source and resource files, and that's it.
After a few targets, you can spot what can be factorized within frameworks. Add a new framework target, migrate your sources in it, make all apps use this framework, and you'll have a nice system.
I have an app implemented in native iOS (Swift). There is a web version of the app as well. A client wants to embed my app to its own app and suggested I use an iFrame and load the web version.
I understand this is a tricky solution as Apple might reject the app for not using native implementation.
What I want to ask is if there is a way to package my app entirely as a Framework and load it that way (app size is fairly big, with several viewControllers and functionality).
I understand that I won't have access to App-load functions like the AppDelegate.
Also what happens if my app has Library dependencies ? (such as Alamofire)
Any other things I should be concerned about ?
Thank you
There are obviously a lot of options around this as far as design/approach.
I've done this multiple times (with apps live on the app store) and really it's just like developing any Framework.
First: AppDelegate. The easy way around this is to have the app's AppDelegate subclass your Framework's AppDelegate:
#UIApplicationMain class ParentAppDelegate: FrameworkAppDelegate { }
Just make sure the App calls super on all the relevant methods.
Second: Dependencies. This is probably the most annoying part since Frameworks can't embed other frameworks. But you still have a few easy options:
Have the enclosing app embed the needed framework
Add the sources of the needed framework directly to your framework.
Use a dependency manager (e.g. cocoapods) that takes care of this for you.
Other Concerns: One trap you can easily run into is working with Bundles. Anytime you dynamically load images/strings/IB references/etc. you will need to specify you're using the Framework's bundle, as at times it can default to using the app's bundle. The easiest way to do this is with this init e.g. Bundle(for: self.self)
Also keep in mind that the settings in info.plist and entitlements your framework needs will need to be added by the parent app.
General Comments on Approach: My advice (take it or leave it ☺️) would be caution around simply adding your full application to a client's application. Aside from IP and App-Review concerns, it can result in adding a lot of complexity or a fork of your current application to support it, making future maintenance a hassle.
Instead I would recommend putting only the portions of the application your client requires into a separate framework that both you and your client use for your separate applications.
I have an iOS app that add Sound FX to videos. Now I want to build app extension target to support stocked Photo App. However, I have to duplicate almost every codes from the iOS app. And my solution that I have so far is to put common functions in a shared files and use it for both targets, because some codes in the app linked to AppDelegate and I can't use it in App Extension. Is there any better way to avoid code duplication in this case?
One more question: most extensions that I saw on AppStore only have 1 screen, is there any rules for this?
In my app, I have to let users to choose sounds from folder & library, and it requires navigation controller. But Navigation Controller is not usable in App Extension, should I build my own Navigaion Controller or is there a better way?
As long as you don't need to target iOS 7 or earlier, you can put the common classes into a shared framework and load that framework from both targets. This avoids having two instances of the code on disk.
As an added bonus, because of the way the OS handles shared library loading, all of the actual code pages get shared between the app and the extension, so you aren't wasting RAM, either.
I want to integrate two Xcode projects together and they both are full Xcode projects with UI and all. For example lets say i have an App 'A' which has a UIButton and on click it should open App 'B' which has its own UI.
I know we can open an App from another App through Custom URL schema but is there a way i can do this without custom URL schema and via connecting Xcode projects.
I know this a little vague question but i don't a better way to put this.
Thanks,
You're question doesn't make any sense. You're talking about two very different things. Yes, you may import one Xcode project into another Xcode project and setup a dependency between them. However, this in no way affects how the apps work with each other. If you're wanting to embed one app inside another, you have to do it at the view controller/code level. You cannot simply add one project to another and expect the two to intercommunicate. You'll have to move the functionality of one app to another. Apps are sandboxed on the device and can therefore have no communication with each other except for by using custom URL schemes as you've mentioned.
I'm doing a series of book apps for a client. There's a lot of books in the series, and each one will be a separate app. Instead of making changes to all the apps every time they want something tweaked in all of them, like the position of a button or something, I'd like to make a universal "framework" (library?) that I can import to a project, just as I would do for one of the iOS SDK's frameworks. The framework would have all the universal components of the apps, which would include a controller class I would subclass in each app to do the app-specific things. Then when I need to make changes to all of them, I could just change the code in the framework, and it would affect all the apps that use it. I'd also like to be able to include common images and other media.
Do I want to use the "Cocoa Touch Static Library" template in Xcode? I also saw this project in github: https://github.com/kstenerud/iOS-Universal-Framework; would this be a better fit for what I'm trying to do?
For your purposes, the simplest approach would simply be to set it up as a static library project. Then, for each application you want to use it, drag the project into your workspace and add the static library product as a dependent target.
As far as I am aware, the current leading method for building a framework on iOS is Jeff Verkoeyen's iOS-Framework.