I have a number of XCode projects which are libraries for a game (Core, Renderer, IO, etc). These library projects have their own library dependencies, e.g. Renderer relies on OpenGL. Whenever I add these projects to a parent project I need to re-add the library dependencies to the parent in order to link correctly (e.g. I have to add Opengl libs to the game project even though the Renderer library already specifies it).
Is there a way I can set the parent project to automatically link against the libs in the child projects?
Thanks
Allan
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During my work with development of iOS applications, i noticed that almost every application has some parts that are repeated. For example every application has user management logic, Login, Sign Up, Forgot password.
And every time, i find my self trying to manually import already developed logic (View controllers, nibs, storyboards).
My question is how can i implement these common features in separate component, so i can simply reuse them every time i start new project. Also notice that there should be possibility for small customisations, for example all apps have login screen, but UI design varies for every app.
Long story short, what i need is:
How to encapsulate commonly repeated features in separate component.
How to inject the component in the newly started project.
How to make customizations at the component, without changing the component core.
I guess that here should be made some combination of Framework (Or static library) and cocoa pods, but i wanted to hear if somebody have already developed some concept about this.
Yes, exactly as you supposed, the way I opted for to reuse components is through a static library or sometimes a framework of reusable components, implementing common logic or well structured classes to inherit from in the new projects, which I make available to the new projects as a CocoaPods development pod sitting on my development machine or in a shared git repository. This way should answer your questions 1 and 2. For your question 3, you can either opt to perform customisations to the core dismissing pod updates, or to adapt the core methods to a possible override in the destination project. Hope it helps.
How to encapsulate commonly repeated features in separate component.
Whatever you choose you are going to have to factor out the code your separate component requires from your code base. This is the first step in the entire process - so think long and hard about if it makes sense to turn it into a separate component.
So now you have some code you would like to reuse...
There are a number of ways of doing this, such as Xcode's workspaces, stand alone source files, static libraries and frameworks. Cocoa pods is a package manager and will help you maintain your framework - not write it :(
Xcode's workspaces
A workspace is an Xcode document that groups projects and other
documents so you can work on them together. A workspace can contain
any number of Xcode projects, plus any other files you want to
include. In addition to organizing all the files in each Xcode
project, a workspace provides implicit and explicit relationships
among the included projects and their targets.
Static Libraries
Introduction to Using Static Libraries in iOS
Static libraries provide a convenient mechanism for sharing code among
multiple applications. On iOS, static libraries are the only supported
library type. This document explains how to extract code from your
application into a new static library and how to use that static
library in multiple applications.
Frameworks
In OS X, shared resources are packaged using standard frameworks and
umbrella frameworks. Both types of framework feature the same basic
structure and can contain resources such as a shared library, nib
files, image files, strings files, information property lists,
documentation, header files, and so on. Umbrella frameworks add minor
refinements to the standard framework structure, such as the ability
to encompass other frameworks.
Frameworks are packaged in a bundle structure. The framework bundle
directory ends with the .framework extension, and unlike most other
bundle types, a framework bundle is presented to the user as a
directory and not as a file. This openness makes it easy for
developers to browse any header files and documentation included with
the framework.
Source Files
These are the classes you have factored out of your code base. You could just include them in each project you use them - for instance a separate repo, that contains all of your shared/common code that you add to your Xcode project's workspace. Very simple, not the best to maintain.
How to inject the component in the newly started project.
Depending on how you choose to implement your common code will effect this step. For source files you just need add them to the project and set the target. For frameworks or static libraries you will have to embed them in your project
For workspaces you will add the projects containing the shared code to the main projects workspace.
How to make customizations at the component, without changing the component core.
Again you may find yourself refactoring code so that you expose the UI controls or logic functions that you want to be able to customize. As a general rule the more you expose the more complex the code gets.
I want to create a project with a handful of categories that add useful functionality to UIKit.
I want to keep this as a separate project so that it can be source-controlled separately (and eventually hosted on github, and downloadable as a dependency via cocoa pods...but let's skip this for now.)
But all the Xcode 6.1 project templates imply an app inside. When I select an empty project it complains about missing base SDK. But this cannot be set without a target present. It is quite confusing. I don't need a target. Do I?
The project should be just a shell for a number of categories + a accompanying summary header file.
I want to be able to drag this project as a subproject to any other proper app project, import the summary header file and expose those categories to the main project.
Any advice?
You need a target. Every source file that should be compiled must be a part of a target.
You could reference each source file from the target(s) in your app's Xcode projects, but that'd be tedious as you'd have to add to every project manually when you add source to your shared repository.
Either create an embedded framework project or a static library. Unless you are really going to share code between an app and an app's extension, go with the static library. It is a lot easier to manage.
Create a project that has a static library target, add the files to that static library.
Then create a workspace that has your static library project and your app(s) project(s) in it. Modify the app targets to link against the static library.
Can I reference a Content Project to a Non-XNA project (MonoGame, if it's important)?
Not directly.
The ability to add a content project reference to a project is only available for projects of the types "XNA Game" and "XNA Game Library".
One trick that I use when I want to build and include an XNA Content Project in a WinForms project is to make an empty XNA Game Library project. Reference the XNA Game Library project from the main (Windows) project, and the Content Project from the XNA Game Library project.
Whether this will work for MonoGame is another matter.
The alternative is to simply have a blank XNA Game project that references the content project. Then set up the project dependencies so the XNA Game will rebuild first if necessary. If you need to copy the output files around, perhaps do it as a post-build step?
The sledgehammer option would be to create a custom MSBuild file that does exactly what you want.
I know you already have it solved but yesterday I was having the same problem, Tom Spillman sent me this link:
https://github.com/mono/MonoGame/wiki/MonoGame-Content-Processing
So apparently you can reference it directly
I'm working on an iOS app where I use third party libraries. I want to migrate my project to use ARC, but the third party libraries are still using the old memory management. So I want to separate third party code and put it in a separate project without ARC, and then somehow link that project into my iOS-app project, so that they will be built together using the same configuration.
Is this possible to do in a very simple way, or am i better of just turning off ARC for the individual files? (seems very tedious..)
Can I use a workspace? Where one project is my iOS app and the other just contains third party code?
I've played around a bit and googled a lot, but there just doesn't seem to be any simple soultion, or am I wrong?
So I figured it out myself, with a lot of help from different blogs. Something this basic should be more trivial and well documented... But here we go, this is what I did to get a library for AsiHttpRequest:
Create a new iOS project. Select the 'Cocoa Touch Static Library' template. Call it whatever you like. You don't want to tick 'Use automatic reference counting', since AsiHttpRequest does not support it.
Select a location for your library project (will matter later on).
Delete the default .h- and .m-file created by Xcode.
Drag and drop the AsiHttpRequest files into the project
You can add the frameworks that AsiHttpRequest is dependent of, but you will have to add them to your main project anyway, so it is not necessary.
Try to build the project, it should do so without errors.
Open your main project
From finder, drag your library .proj-file into your main project (in Xcode, so that it 'lands' onto the main project file)
The library project should now appear under your main project (still in XCode). It should be expandable and you should be able to see the library project files as well. If it doesn't, try closing all open projects and reopen the main project.
Select the main project, and select target. Under Build Phases - Link Binary With Libraries, click the +-sign.
In the list of frameworks you should see your library project (called something like libname.a). Select that file
The newly added file might appear red in the list of frameworks, don't worry, it works anyway. Guess it's a bug.
Still under target, go to Build Settings
Under Header Search Paths add the relative search path to where the library .h-files are. This is relative to your main projects .proj-file. (For example ../some folder/libproject/)
Hopefully your main project will build without errors and the library project will be built at the same time, using the same configuration as the main project.
I have no idea if this is a good approach or if there is some easier way to do it. However, I like this, since I can use the library project in several projects. And if I want to update the library project, I only have to do it in one place, and the other projects will be updated as well, since they all reference the same project.
Edit1:
I had some problems with library projects using objective c categories. I received unrecognized selector sent to instance errors in runtime when trying to call those methods. This problem was solved by following the answer given here.
Go to build settings of the target in the main project and add -ObjC to the entry called Other Linker Flags
Edit2:
I found this template for creating Universal frameworks. I haven't tried it, but I guess something like this would work as well.
I'm trying to pick up some better code organization practices. Over time, I've developed a collection of utility-type files that I import into all of my iOS projects. Rather than continuing to copy them in, I want to setup a separate "Library" project which builds these files to a static library. Then, I reference the static library in my app's project.
In Xcode 4.2 I created a new project "JTLibrary" with a static library as the target, added some files, and it builds as expected.
Now, I created a new project "LibraryTest" which should behave like any other app project I might be working on. My understanding was that I should be able to drag the JTLibrary project into this project to create a cross project reference. Once that was done, I would link LibraryTest's binary against the static library from JTLibrary.
However, when I drag the JTLibary project into the LibraryTest project, it does not appear expandable. I expected I should be able to see the files in it, etc. See screenshot below:
Can anyone offer some insight to why the project appears like this rather than expandable? Once it is expandable, I should be able to see the static library in the app's project.
Thanks!
EDIT 11/7
It's worth mentioning that I'm working with a VERY basic project now. From the new project window, select Framework & Library >> Cocoa Touch Static Library. Add one function to the default class and build.
I can copy the header and .a files into another project and use them successfully, but if I try to drag the project itself, it appears like the picture above.
To create a subproject simply drag a project node from Finder into Xcode.
DO NOT open two Xcode instances and drag the project node from one to the other (that's why the subproject is not expandable).