I have an iOS app that I need to extend to tvOS.
All the information that I found are explaining how to start from scratch!
Is there any way to extend my app to tvOS or I should start a new project with it?
Update1:
My question is: How to extend my existing project to support tvOS without building it from scratch?
Update2:
Jess Bower point on Apple's website:
Empower customers to enjoy their favorite apps on both iOS and the new
Apple TV with a single purchase by enabling universal purchase for
your app on the App Store.
Which means that we need to create a new bundle on our existing project and enable "universal" purchase so it will count as one app on App Store.
The tvOS SDK is based off of iOS, but is not interchangeable. Unlike when the first iPad was released, the new Apple TV will not be capable of running iOS apps.
The AppStore for the TV will only include apps built specifically for tvOS.
For any iOS developers looking to create apps for Apple TV, I'd recommend checking out the new documentation page: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/General/Conceptual/AppleTV_PG/index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40015241-CH12-SW1
Specifically, check out the Inherited iOS Frameworks section to give you a sense of what will work out of the box from your existing iOS projects.
In Xcode 7.1 (which introduces tvOS SDK) you can add a tvOS target as any other (File -> New -> Target... -> tvOS -> ...) and it supports both Objective-C and Swift, so yes - it's possible to share code between your iOS and tvOS app, you just need to check your source target membership and enable it on your tvOS target. To extend the purchases across iOS and tvOS app we should use Universal Purchases.
Took me a little while to find all the things needed to change but this list should cover it.
click iOS target and duplicate
change base sdk of new tvOS target to tvOS latest
make copy of info.plist and have tvOS point to that one
make all the tvOS icons and launch images
set TARGETED_DEVICE_FAMILY to 3 for the tvOS build settings
add any new tvOS specific versions of code e.g. without shouldAutorotate, prefersStatusBarHidden etc.
I also believe that adding a new target for tvOS is the way to go, especially if you have lots of objective-c or swift code to share between projects.
For those instances where there might be some tvOS-unsupported types in your shared code, I have used these preprocessor symbols to provide alternate code snippets for tvOS:
#if TARGET_OS_IOS
// iOS-specific code
#elif TARGET_OS_TV
// tvOS-specific code
#endif
Just to list out some limitations and challenges:
1. There is no persistent local storage for apps on Apple TV. Data must be stored on iCloud. 2. The maximum size of an Apple TV app is limited to 200MB. On-demand resources (app contents that are hosted on the App Store) should be used. Benefits are smaller app size and lazy loading of app resources. 3. The UI is drastically different. Human Interface Guidelines must be followed as per the doc. 4. Creating a Client-Server App using JavaScript and TVML framework. 5. Controlling the UI touch focus. UIFocusEnvironment controls focus-related behavior for a branch of the view hierarchy. UIViewController conforms to UIFocusEnvironment protocol. 6. Creating Parallax Artwork You have to create a LSR image with Xcode and then use terminal to create a LCR image. A UIImage object can display a LCR image correctly.
A new target has to be added for tvOS. There are two ways to do that
Add a new target through File > New > File...> tvOS Target.
Duplicate an existing iOS target and change TARGETED_DEVICE_FAMILY to 3 and "Supported Platforms" to tvOS in "Build Settings"
Pods need to be added to the tvOS target using pod install. There could be a different list of pods that you can/want to use in tvOS. Pods for different targets can be separated in Podfile using:
target 'iOS TARGET NAME' do
pod 'podname', :git => 'https://github.com/name.git'
end
target 'tvOS TARGET NAME' do
pod 'podname', :git => 'https://github.com/name.git'
end
Most Pods at the moment do not support tvOS. For those Pods, here are the steps to make them work in your project:
Clone the git repo on your local disk
If a version of the pod is being used in another target (iOS target), change the name, otherwise CocoaPods will complain: e.g. RestKit --> RestKitTV and use :path In Podfile to point to the location of the cloned repo:
pod 'RestKitTV', :path => 'Other/RestKitTV'
Update the podspec file in the cloned repo:
Modify the name to be compatible with the new name
Change the platform to tvOS or add tvOS to the list of supported platforms
Pod::Spec.new do |s|
..
s.platform = :tvos
..
end
OR
Pod::Spec.new do |s|
..
s.tvos.deployment_target = '9.0'
s.tvos.exclude_files = 'framework/Source/Mac', ....
s.tvos.frameworks = ['OpenGLES', 'CoreMedia', 'QuartzCore']
..
end
Add files to the target:
Add source code (.m files) to "Compile Sources" of "Build Phases" for the target
Add images to "Copy Bundle Resources"
Add frameworks to "Link Binary with Libraries". Note that not all frameworks are compatible with tvOS
Use TARGET_OS_TV and TARGET_OS_IOS macros to separate tvOS non-compatible code
#if !TARGET_OS_TV
*iOS only code*
#else
*tvOS only code*
#end
+Simon-Tillson answer is correct, however I had some backwards compatibility issues with iOS 8.1 and below SDK's where TARGET_OS_IOS was not defined (for older Xcode versions)
The following code fixes that and works the same for iOS 9.0/9.1 SDK + and previous 8.1 and less SDKS.
#if TARGET_OS_IOS || (TARGET_OS_IPHONE && !TARGET_OS_TV)
// iOS-specific code
#elif TARGET_OS_TV
// tvOS-specific code
#endif
In case of my project, I simply added a new target to the existing iOS project, and modified some code appropriately (using #if os(tvOS/iOS) in a few areas). I am now able to run the same app either on iOS devices or Apple TV.
The only framework missing in tvOS was WebKit (which was necessary to render rich text), and I needed to come up with an alternative mechanism.
I am going to open source this project soon (before the end of October), so that other people can take a look.
Don't forget to change the Base SDK into TVos 9.x in the build settings. It's necessary for the Tv simulator to show up
Related
Worked on Xcode 10. Now in the beta I can't build I keep getting this error:
a "WatchKit" is not available when building for iOS Simulator.
Consider using #if !os(iOS) to conditionally import this framework.
I had the same issue for one swift file in the WatchKit Extension. It turned out that it was a member of both the iOS app and the WatchKit Extension. I unticked the iOS app in the target membership section for the file so that it only belongs to the WatchKit Extension target. Now the project builds successfully.
Some of the functionality to communicate between the Apple watch with the iPhone/iPad used to be implemented within the WatchKit framework. But at some point it got moved into the WatchKitConnectivity framework.
If you look in your Target's "Build Phase" -> "Link Binary With Libraries" section, you will see the "WatchKit.framework" with "Optional" status. iOS13+ has become more "strict" so it won't build unless I completely remove the "WatchKit.framework", and instead add "WatchConnectivity.framework".
Also make sure your iPhone/iPad code refers use "import WatchConnectivity" instead of "import WatchKit".
We need to use "Conditional Imports" to resolve the issue.
Replace the import WatchKit header with the below code :
#if !os(iOS)
import WatchKit
#endif
This resolved my issue and build successfully in iOS 13.
Xcode 11 removes WatchKit from the iOS SDK. From release notes:
The WatchKit framework is no longer included in the iOS SDK. If you’re using WatchKit APIs from iOS, you need to remove this use. The WatchKit framework remains available on watchOS. If you’re using WatchKit APIs from iOS to infer availability of features on the paired Apple Watch, include information about your use case when you submit feedback to Feedback Assistant. (49707950)
This includes Cordova plugins that reference WatchKit in plugin.xml:
<framework src="WatchKit.framework" />
The above line will add WatchKit as a framework for the iOS app target. You'll need to remove this and add WatchKit only to Watch target of your app.
Previously to build a framework for particular platform(macOS, iOS), I used to maintain different projects in Xcode and build separately.
My code mostly depends on sqlite3.h and a wrapper class written in Swift.
Is there a way to maintain all the frameworks under one xcode project?
I searched but I didn't get any tutorials on the web.
Thank you.
yes of course xcode can handle this for a long time. you simply create your framework project and then add targets for iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS.
the plus sign below the target pane allows you to add more target. or just duplicate your existing target and change sdk and platform settings.
i want to know how to link frameworks and unlink automatically depending on deployment target.
For example Digits and Twitter Core frameworks are for minimum deployment target iOS 8.0 so i want to link these frameworks when app is running on iOS 8 and higher and when running on iOS 7 i do not want to link.
i also checked setting the Framework options in Build Phases to Optional but its did not work.
How i can specify these frameworks in Bridging Header file so that depending on Deployment that will be linked and unlinked automatically.
You have to create different build targets based on you requirement. While releasing the app to app store you have to release different application which is built with corresponding target. Yo can't unlink on runtime
I've searched for hours but cannot find an answer. I have a xcode project with Cocoapods 0.39. in my Podfile i use !use_frameworks to enable a external Swift library in my Objective-C project.
But when i validate (or submit) with xcode, i get the codesigning dialog box. Normally only my app is shown but now it also shows the dynamic framework (cocoapods dependency). I think this is because of the !use_frameworks option.
The screenshot shows the dialog:
Screenshot
I can upload my binary to testflight and it will get processed but is this something i need to worry about? Is likely that apple will reject my app because of this?
There is nothing to worry about it, cocoapods are usually shown in codesigning dialog box, every cocoapod dependency that you will use will be shown there, there will be no issue and Apple will also not reject cocoapods
If you can upload your binary, I guess your minimum deployment target is iOS 8.0 or above, also in your Swift source code, you must
import AXRatingView
If your App's minimum deployment target is iOS 7, you can do this in the Podfile
#use_frameworks!
and comment
//import AXRatingView
then in your ...Bridging-Header.h
#import <AXRatingView/AXRatingView.h>
My App's minimum deployment target is iOS 7.0, ready for sale now.
Has anyone successfully added the Parse tvOS SDK to an existing iOS project with a separate tvOS target?
The iOS app already uses the Parse SDK.
I added a tvOS target to my project, added the Bolts, Parse, SystemConfiguration, and libsqlite3.tbd (got Parse & Bolts here: https://github.com/parseplatform/parse-sdk-ios-osx/releases/tag/1.11.0)
I can compile and run that target on the AppleTV simulator, but I get tons of warnings like this:
URGENT: building for tvOS simulator, but linking in object file
(<path>Parse.framework/Parse(PFObject.o)) built for iOS.
Note: This will be an error in the future
Also, calling PFUser.logInWithUsernameInBackground just hangs.
Not sure if what I'm trying to do just isn't possible of if I'm doing something stupid. Would be great to get this to work as there's lots of sharable code between the projects.
Figured it out. I removed the iOS framework's path from the tvOS target's Framework Search Paths in build settings. The location of the iOS framework appeared first in the list of paths, which I guess hijacked the framework since the iOS/tvOS frameworks have the same name.
Sometimes you just have to take a break and then double check your assumptions.