Automatically add build phases in Cordova based Xcode project - ios

Question

I have a Cordova based iOS project in which I need to add a custom script to the build phases. I have one set up and it works fine, however I need to be able to add the build phase automatically somehow, as I need the project to be able to install and build automatically on a CI server, without having to manually add the phase in Xcode.
To clarify, when cordova platform add ios is run the project is created without build phases, I need to add a build phase in programmatically, before (or during) cordova build ios.
I can add custom build settings in the .xcconfig file, is there somewhere I can define build phases? I see that the build phase is present in my .pbxproj file, however this is automatically generated and contains some random IDs so I am not sure its something I can just parse and insert arbitrary stuff into?

Answer 1

The solution I have found is to use an Xcode project parser, there are a few around. I have used cordova-node-xcode. I couldn't find any API documentation but the unit tests were helpful in figuring out what I needed. I needed to use the proj.addBuildPhase method, an example of using this to add a run script can be seen here: https://github.com/apache/cordova-node-xcode/blob/master/test/addBuildPhase.js#L113

Answer 2

Based on an accepted answer i created the code maybe somebody can use it :)
Install xcode npm with:
npm i xcode
Create extend_build_phase.js in root:
var xcode = require('xcode');
var fs = require('fs');
var path = require('path');
const xcodeProjPath = fromDir('platforms/ios', '.xcodeproj', false);
const projectPath = xcodeProjPath + '/project.pbxproj';
const myProj = xcode.project(projectPath);
// Here you can add your own shellScript
var options = { shellPath: '/bin/sh', shellScript: 'echo "hello world!"' };
myProj.parse(function(err) {
myProj.addBuildPhase([], 'PBXShellScriptBuildPhase', 'Run a script',myProj.getFirstTarget().uuid, options);
fs.writeFileSync(projectPath, myProj.writeSync());
})
function fromDir(startPath, filter, rec, multiple) {
if (!fs.existsSync(startPath)) {
console.log("no dir ", startPath);
return;
}
const files = fs.readdirSync(startPath);
var resultFiles = [];
for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) {
var filename = path.join(startPath, files[i]);
var stat = fs.lstatSync(filename);
if (stat.isDirectory() && rec) {
fromDir(filename, filter); //recurse
}
if (filename.indexOf(filter) >= 0) {
if (multiple) {
resultFiles.push(filename);
} else {
return filename;
}
}
}
if (multiple) {
return resultFiles;
}
}
Extend config.xml with the following code:
<platform name="ios">
...
<hook src="extend_build_phase.js" type="after_platform_add" />
...
</platform>
I'm created an Ionic project so to make it work I use the following commands:
ionic cordova platform rm ios
ionic cordova platform add ios
ionic cordova build ios