I've seen project such as ios-universal-framework, but I want to know why XCode iOS does not natively support having a framework. Is it some kind of legal issue. The static library option is not good enough because I want to be able to use .dylib files in my framework.
A little background on what I want to do with a framework. I have a project that is generated from Unity3D, and when we update, we have to manually add back all of our project changes.
What I want is to use a framework that can store most of those external libraries and resources to make it easier to upgrade our project when updates are released.
From a security perspective no code is allowed to be dynamically loaded, thus only static libraries are allowed.
It is possible to create static psudo-frameworks. Take a look at GitHub iOS-Universal-Framework.
What you need is a PosprocessBuilder as described in the build pipeline described in the Unity3d Documentation.
You can manage the Xcode configurations in this pipeline using scripts like the Xcode Zerg.
I've used one python script written by a guy called Calvin Rien that worked really well, if you want to know more about this script this blog post should give you a hint.
What you really need to look for to you automate the these steps is to look for posts of Continuous Integration using Unity 3d and iOS like this one:
Unity3d: from commit to deployment onto tester devices in 20 min using Jenkins
Related
Every time I meteor build, I have to open XCode and do the following:
remove and add an item from "Link Binary With Libraries" (Facebook SDK)
add a URL Type (custom URL scheme for my app)
add a "Required device capabilities" to "Custom iOS Target Properties"
How can I edit my Meteor project to have these steps done automatically, and to auto add things to AndroidManifest.xml?
In some way use mobile-config.js or cordova-build-override?
I'm happy to see another guy who is trying to build a hybrid application using Meteor / extending a Meteor Cordova iOS app, since I'm facing the very same issues. So I'm very happy to share my experiences and approaches with you. :-)
So far, I ended up with the following approach:
I created a base template for my iOS app using meteor build (not meteor run ios-device, since I did not know if Meteor does some optimizations for production code).
Then, I copied the whole Xcode project under /platforms/ios to another loaction and used this new project as my "master" project from then on. This project is being enriched with native code, e.g. it also includes the Cocoa Pods I'm needing.
Of course, I also did not want to copy files each and every time I trigger a new Meteor build. At least, I would like to have the Staging/www folder updated, as this is happening quite frequently.
So my first (rather naive) approach was
delete the Staging/www folder in the master project
replace it with a relative link (using Xcode's linking functionality) to the Staging/www folder inside the .meteor/local/.../ios/ project
This approach did not work, since the shell script used in the Meteor Xcode project can't handle these links.
My second approach is to create a symlink on the filesystem level instead. This works as it should, and I'm able to build the project in Xcode as it should.
I could have followed the same approach for the Cordova plugins folder, but I've decided to replace the plugins manually in order to get a better control over them, even it means a bit more effort then.
Having the symlink in place also means that Xcode's version management (and also SVN which I am using for everything) will ignore everything below Staging/www, which is good in my opinion, because I'm already versioning the webapp code in the Meteor project itself.
BTW: I've started a discussion thread on hybrid mobile app on the Meteor forums as well, but so far it did not get too much attraction:
https://forums.meteor.com/t/building-a-hybrid-meteor-cordova-app-share-experiences/8212
Maybe we could follow up on Meteor-specific things there, to have the Meteor community participate in the discussion?
EDIT: I would also like to share an approach that failed completely, at least for me, maybe I was too dumb... Before I used Meteor's Xcode template as the starting point, I also tried it "the other way round", i.e. I started with my already existing Xcode app project and tried to include Meteor's / Cordova's part by hand. Using this approach, I never managed to set everything up correctly. I had lots of troubles and also had to tweak a lot of the compiler / linker flags to even get the code compiling. This grew me a lot of gray hairs. But even after I managed to get everything to compile, Meteor hang during startup - and I never figured out why.
One remaining problem I'm still facing is that Meteor's hot code push functionality seems to have some severe issues on iOS, that are also documented as GitHub issues. It can happen that the iOS app gets completely broken and needs to be reinstalled. I tried the mdg:reload-on-resume package, but this did not work as it should and made things even worse. As far as I can tell from the GitHub discussions, one should better disable hot code push until the Meteor team has addressed these issues. Breaking the app completely due to code pushes is not what my users would expect.
Unfortunately plist values (and assumably AndroidManifest.xml as well) can only be changed by a plugin:
Add entry to iOS .plist file via Cordova config.xml
I have developed a generic app, which can ne customized for clients. Each app should be available in the app store.
Any idea what is the best way to deploy the different apps? This is of course also necessary on app updates.
Only the package name, some graphics and some settings change for different Apps. The Code will be the same for all.
Consider deploying your app as a framework, static library or CocoaPod. The clients should be able to use your framework/pod to customize the appearance (and anything else) and publish their apps.
CocoaPods: If your project is in progress and your client is using it, I wouldn't recommend it. Pods are great way for managing dependencies mostly if dependencies are not going to change on nightly basis. Also you'll have to make a few decisions about how to integrate it with your source control. If you and your clients will be working on their client app and pods simultanously. They'll most likely have to get your pods in a workspace, which defeats the purpose of pods. (If somebody knows a better way around editing pods and project simultanously, please let me know as well.)
Static Library/Frameworks: Rey Wenderlich has a good tutorial for creating frameworks. http://www.raywenderlich.com/65964/create-a-framework-for-ios
I've been working on a mobile app for a couple of months. Now I want to develop other apps but reusing the code I've written. I'd like to have reusable code (ViewControllers) in order to be used in many projects. In this way, if there is some bug in one of these, I'd fix the bug and then apply the changes to all the projects that use my library. In short words, I'd like to know what is the best way to develop my own library for iOS with XCode. I've been developed for Android but I'm new in iOS development.
Is it possible to add my own library to CocoaPods?
Do you suggest any other alternative?
Thank you very much
Yes, you can create your private, internal, pods and make your applications depend on them. As an alternative you could use git submodules either.
But if you want you can even use both: having your private pods, which are also git submodules of your project, - they are usually called Development Pods - because you might want to fix a bug on your internal pod and push the fix immediately to the bleeding edge of your library as soon as you tested it on the application in which you spotted the bug in the first place.
A couple of interesting articles on this topic:
Working with internal pods
Development pods
On a totally side and obvious - I think - note, you can do this manually as pointed out by user1118321.
You can create a static library or a framework (shared library). From the "File" menu choose "New Project" and then click on "Framework&Library" under "iOS". Then choose "Cocoa Touch Static Library" or "Cocoa Touch Framework".
I'm completely confused and I don't know where to start asking questions. I tried googling, but the terminology is confusing and I'm not sure what either of these things do (except for Xcode). Can someone explain like I'm 5?
I'm on the cocos2d-swift website and after reading the getting started section it says "From this point onwards, using SpriteBuilder is optional.". I don't know what they mean by that.
How do each of these correlate with each other?
Also, how is an API Documentation Browser and Code Snippet Manager useful to an everyday iOS Developer?
cocos2d-swift is a framework that enables you to build things like sprite-based games quickly.
SpriteBuilder is a tool that helps you build your own multilayered sprites (images and animations grouped into a single package -- i.e. Mario, a Goomba, a Fireflower fireball, etc.).
Xcode is a developer environment in which you write your source code, compile, distribute, and test.
CocoaPods is a tool that fetches and manages framework/SDK dependancies.
You would use CocoaPods to fetch the cocos2d-swift framework so that you could build a sprite-based game in Xcode using sprites you generated in SpriteBuilder.
Not sure what Cocos2d is, but swift is the latest programming language by Apple for both OS X and iOS development.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swift_(programming_language)
SpriteBuilder is a framework used to create games for iOS very quick. Think of it as a game engine.
http://www.spritebuilder.com/about
Xcode is the IDE (integrated development environment) that you use when writing native OS X and iOS applications. It's awesome!
CocoaPods is a way to load in third-party libraries and frameworks without having to manually install them on your own. It also makes it very easy to keep the frameworks up-to-date. Pods also allows your project to be more portable as it's much easier to install an application with multiple dependancies via Pods.
http://cocoapods.org
A documentation browser is good if you want to have access to documentation while offline. However, I almost always use Google to find what I'm looking for regardless of what technology I'm working on. Google is just the best way to search.
Finally, I'd start off with this book. I read the first edition years ago, and made things very easy for me to understand.
http://www.bignerdranch.com/we-write/ios-programming.html
Hope this helps!
Here are some basics:
XCode (A Program)- Most of your iOS development will happen here. Coding, creating the app etc.
Think of an SDK as a suite of commands or tools you can use-API's (API - Application programming interface)
Cocoas2d (An SDK) - Game engine. A software development kit for creating games. you would pull this library of code and tools into xcode to use it.
SpriteBuilder (An SDK) - Suite of tools for building games. Just like Cocoas, you would pull this into xCode to make use of it as you code.
CocoaPods - A tool for linking/loading SDK's into XCode and easily updating them.
Moral of the story: XCode is the software you will use for everything. Everything else are just additional libraries of code you can pull in.
How can I add stuff like AdSupport.framework to a Unity project?
I don't want to add them (on the Xcode side) every single time I do a build for iOS...
Using Unity 4.6.
Update, related:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/ios-plugin-how-to-link-ios-framework.156231/
http://feedback.unity3d.com/suggestions/frameworks-and-plist-on-ios-outp
https://github.com/AdColony/AdColony-Unity-SDK/wiki/Unity-and-Xcode-Project-Setup
http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/222478/how-do-i-automatically-include-a-framework-with-my.html
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/get-tired-in-dragging-frameworks-and-dependence-in-xcode-try-xuporter.190752/ - https://github.com/onevcat/XUPorter - https://github.com/josh-ruis/XUPorter
Until there is an official way of doing this within the Unity editor, I'll just answer like this:
There is no official way to do this. You have to do this every single time you build an iOS project. Does UT hate iOS?
Or you could check out some 3rd party plugins that try to address the issue. I haven't tried it myself yet but https://github.com/onevcat/XUPorter or one of its forks could do it. It appears 3rd party tools have a hard time keeping up with new Unity and Xcode versions.
Or this: https://github.com/openkit/openkit-unity
Also: Something that would work from day-to-day is to select "Append" at build time instead of replace. That way framework setup is maintained (however splash screens settings seem to be ignored, and possibly other stuff too). It won't work however of you checkout the project on another computer or similar.