Development Pod Doesn't Have Class Prefix - ios

I'm building a private pod and provided a class prefix when I ran pod lib create MyPod. It looks like the example app included in the workspace has the class prefix set, but the development pod doesn't. Because of that, I have to manually add my class prefix to each new file I create in my pod. (I realize that's not a lot of work.)
I currently have the field set on the Pods project but that is cleared during pod install or pod update. That's also not a good place to put it IMHO because that's technically for the entire Pods project, including any other pods that mine is dependent on.
You can add project settings to podspecs and podfiles, but I believe that adds it to the entire Pods project which I'm not convinced is the best solution.
Is there a way to keep a class prefix for a development pod?
I'm currently using Xcode 6.4 and cocoapods v0.37.2 on OSX 10.10.4

Related

What is a development pod?

I am new to CocoaPod and IOS in general, I am trying to use a framework I built locally in my podfile as follows:
# Pods for Example
pod 'OsonWidget', :path => "../OsonWidget/"
when I run a pod install and open the .xcworkspace of the project, the framework gets saved under Pods/Development pods. So my question is what is Development pods
Normally in Podfile you point to the repo with its git name and your intended version.
You’re not doing that. Instead you are pointing to the pod by the :path identifier in the Podfile.
Other than the two ways mentioned above, there are other ways to point to a repo.
Obviously you are locally pointing to a pod, ie the pod was not fetched from the actual repo, implying that you own the pod and you’re developing the pod, you want to make changes to it and immediately see how the changes work for you in your Example app. Hence it’s named ‘development pods’.
Any change you make will be reflected into the Example project. Though if you add a new file, then you need to run pod install again so the projectfile gets updated.
This is slightly different from other dependency managers where the term 'development' is used for dependencies that are necessary for testing, benchmarking, and other developer tasks. Example with Ruby Gems, you have add_development_dependency vs. add_runtime_dependency
With CocoaPods the decision to use something as development vs. deployment is per file i.e. whether or not a pod/framework imports a file.
This all means you could have a file in your test target i.e. only import the pod in your test target and never include it in production e.g. the KIF pods. But mainly if you import a pod in your production code, then you'd need to import it again in files you have under you unit test target.
I did some digging on cocoapods.org, and found this snippet:
Development Pods are different from normal CocoaPods in that they are symlinked files, so making edits to them will change the original files, so you can work on your library from inside Xcode. Your demo & tests will need to include references to headers using the #import <MyLib/XYZ.h> format.
https://guides.cocoapods.org/making/using-pod-lib-create

How do I create a cocoapod framework and add files to it?

I'm creating a private pod and would like it to be used as a module. According to Using Pod Lib Create, in CocoaPods.org:
The first question you're asked is what language you want to build a pod in. For both choices CocoaPods will set up your library as a framework.
In fact, when I run pod lib create MyLibrary, the initial project template they generate does have everything configured to be a framework, so that I can add a class to Development Pods/MyLibrary, and access methods of that class from the sample project simply by importing the module using #import MyLibrary; (or import MyLibrary, in Swift).
The problem lies on the fact that the same page tells us
With the questions over, we run pod install on the newly created Project.
And as soon as I do that, the module-related files are gone, and all the files that I had added to my Development Pods folders are gone. Not only that, the framework Target itself is gone, so it's not even a matter of simply adding the files back again.
What's the correct approach here? I don't seem to find anyone with the same problem.
I'm running Cocoapod v1.5.3
Any help is highly appreciated!
tl;dr:
pod lib create MyLibrary
cd MyLibrary/Example
pod install
Now notice that the project has no module configuration anymore. How can I avoid this?
According to the same page:
[!] Note: Due to a Development Pods implementation detail, when you
add new/existing files to Pod/Classes or Pod/Assets or update your
podspec, you should run pod install or pod update.
In my experience, you have to be very careful when adding new files because they may end up on a different folder than the expected Pods/Classes.
When in doubt, I go to the folder containing the project and search for the missing file and move it to the correct folder.
What's super important is that when you run pod install CocoaPods will look into your PodSpec and only install files that match the source_files criteria mentioned in the PodSpec i.e. the files need to be
correct extension
correct path.
But basically you have to add the file to the exact directory you want. If you're using groups it gets messed up. So instead of adding a new file using Xcode, just add the new file using Finder and then run pod install.
Not sure why but if I add to the same group that has a similar file at the appropriate directory, Xcode and CocoaPods will just put the file at the top directory.
On a complete tangent:
If you've been pointing locally to to your private pod using :path and then add new files into your private pod, those new files aren't reflect in the repo that pull in the private pod. They'r not reflected because their source control is from another git repo.
As long as you see the new file of your private pod in your main app and your main app compiles then you're good.

Using a CocoaPod dependency while developing a CocoaPod

I'm creating a CocoaPod, say MyPod, which depends on another Cocoapod, say RxSwift.
So I have this in MyPod.podspec:
s.dependency "RxSwift", "~> 3.0.1"
However, while developing MyPod, how can I actually use the dependency?
import RxSwift
// ^
// No such module 'RxSwift'
public class MyClass { //...
Is there a step I'm missing, or some common convention? It looks like some other projects like Moya are using Carthage to build dependencies while developing. Should I be doing that, or maybe adding a Podfile?
I know that this shouldn't be a problem for an Example App located within the repo, which would have its own Podfile. However, I'd like to still have tests located at top level, outside of the Example App, and to be able to actually build the framework while working on it, again, outside of an Example App.
I can't speak to whether or not to use CocoaPods or Carthage. Both have their strong points and weak points. Plus the decision should be made considering many factors, some of which you might not be able to control (like a client that insists you use CocoaPods!) So I'll skip that part.
However, to your question, indeed a pod you are developing can depend on another pod. You already have the correct s.dependency line. That's necessary.
However, I suspect that the reason why you were not able to reference the dependent pod could be because you did not have a Podfile in your 'tester/example' project and/or you did not do a pod install after adding the dependency in your Podspec.
The reason for this is requirement I suspect is that since the Podspec is not actually processed at all by Xcode, you're not actually downloading (or compiling) the dependency.
Instead, when you do the pod install (via command line of course), CocoaPods will create a Pods project with your development pod, the pods you depend on (in Podspec) as well as any other pods in your Podfile.
To test this theory, I:
Created a new pod (using CocoaPod's own 'pod lib create' (https://guides.cocoapods.org/making/using-pod-lib-create.html).
Opened the workspace that CocoaPod created for me and edited the Podspec to add the dependency s.dependency 'RxSwift', '~> 3.0.1'.
Added another pod in my Example App's Podfile (to demonstrate the difference between Podfile dependencies and Podspec dependencies.)
Performed pod install in the Example App's folder.
Edited my Pod's class to do something useful AND to add the import RxSwift line.
Added a label to my Example App ("Hello World" of course).
Used PureLayout to do all the auto layout constraints for the label (and to demonstrate how the Example project has access to both pods - the development pod as well as the referenced pod PureLayout.)
You can check out the demo I created on my public GitHub:
https://github.com/ericwastaken/CocoaPod-Dependency-Demo
Honestly, I've created several pods using the pod lib create and it does indeed create a nice structure that has always worked for me. For this reason, I would recommend always using it to create your pod's skeleton.
Xcode 8 comment: pod lib create still seems to create a Swift 1.x project. So, right after you use this tool, when you open Xcode, you'll be offered to "convert" to a newer version of Swift. I would let that conversion happen right then and there (the first time) so that you can be in Swift 2.x or 3.x syntax (you choose).
I ended up using Carthage to build the framework dependencies. I imagine I could have used CocoaPods to do it as well. However, that would have required that I start using a workspace, and I didn't want to have to do that so as to keep changes as minimal as possible.
Also, with Carthage, it didn't require that I add a new Podfile/Podfile.lock, since Carthage will use the existing Cartfile/Cartfile.resolved that's already there. That's because Carthage uses the Cartfile.resolved when using the framework in another project and when building the framework on its own. Whereas, with CocoaPods, *.podspec is used when using the framework in another project but Podfile.lock (if you've added a Podfile) is required to install dependent pods in the framework itself.
This was a very challenging problem to solve, and required a combination of a few solutions pieced together. #EricWasTaken's solution helped, as well as adding:
source 'https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs.git'
to the top of my Podfile. Then navigating to the Example app and run
pod repo update
pod install
Now the framework I am creating can find the cocoapods my framework requires.

Xcode cannot see the file added manually into cocoapod

I maintain my 3rd party libs with cocoapods. But recently I found some bugs and would like to add some new features to one of the libs so I manually created some .h and .m files in one of the libs.
However when importing those added .h files, Xcode gave the file not found error and couldn't compile them.
How can I solve the problem?
Thanks.
When integrating the Pods into your project, CocoaPods generates libraries that cannot be easily modified from Xcode. If you're having CocoaPods build frameworks, instead, those cannot be modified at all. You usually have to rerun pod install or pod update to let CocoaPods regenerate them if you add files to a Pod.
If you want to reliably add files to a Pod, you should checkout a copy on your machine, somewhere NOT in you project's folder and use something like the following to tell CocoaPods that that one Pod is one you're developing and therefore should integrate differently:
pod MyPod, :path => 'path/to/MyPod.podspec'
Still, even in this case, if you add files to the Pod, although it's easier to add them from Xcode, you might want to rerun the pod command line tool to have CocoaPods reintegrate your pod. However, in this case, you'll only have to make sure your files are added to the right project target in order to add files directly from Xcode.

Making a private cocoapod with dependencies on other cocoapods

I've read all the tutorials (some less deeply than others), and discovered that there is a huge focus on using the pod lib create command and how to get your new cocoapod into the the podspec repo and available to other developers, but they are all missing the middle part involving actually setting up and developing your pod, Xcode example project, etc..
I'm trying to make a cocoapod for internal use that has dependencies on other pods. I told pod lib create that I wanted an example project and now I need to be able to build and run it using the pods it depends on. I'm not clear on how I actually get those pods to download. I understand that there is a podspec syntax for specifying dependencies:
spec.dependency 'SOMEPOD', '~> VER.0', but that doesn't do much for my example project.
Am I supposed to make a Podfile in the folder with my example project? Does that conflict with the podspec somehow? Do I need to include the pod I'm making in that podfile? Should I not be using an example project and just be developing my pod in conjunction with a test project that pulls my pod in like any other cocoapod?
Also, when all my testing is said and done, does the example project get distributed with the pod and set up as a weird sub-target in whatever project uses the pod? Or do I eventually have to make a different repo that just has the pod (without the example project)?

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