Let's suppose that I want to create an Xcode static library.
I use the Xcode provided template for this kind of project "Cocoa Touch Static Library", i want this library in a separate project because:
I want be able to keep this project under git version control
I want to be able to import this static library under other project as a git submodule
Now let's suppose that this library depend on third-part library such as ASIHTTPRequest.
Maybe in my main project (the one that import my static library) i will also depend on the same library. What's the best way to handle this multi-dependecy?
PLUS: Now suppose that i want to create a second static library (this one is more specific for some kind of task and i don't want to mix this code with the code of the previous mentioned static library) but this second static library depend on the after mentioned static library. Again what the best way to handle this
Your question is not super clear, Luca, but let me see if I can help you out a bit.
In one of my own projects, I have a number of embedded (or "sub") projects which get built as libraries included in the main project. So if one file in the sub project changes, both the sub project and the main project pick up the changes.
With Xcode 3, it was a snap to simply drag and import one project into another project and if you have Xcode 3 installed, I highly recommend using Xcode 3 to embed one project into another.
Xcode 4 does handle projects already embedded within another project (like what you might have created using Xcode 3), but the ability to actually do the work on it's own is not fully implemented or baked yet (in other words: it does not work well or at all). Here's another question somebody else asked with more information that might help you.
Also, I noticed this other related question.
Does this information help you out?
Related
I am a android developer and I needed to create and IOS app. So I did and app is ready now. But now I want to make it a Library/Framework. I mean a same code base will be used in different projects per client and they will be able to change the text strings and colors of app. The rest of the business logic will be remain same.
So Simply I have two major question:
How to convert the Project into Framework? Do I need to create a separate framework elsewhere and then import the project into it as Coca touch Framework? Am I right??
How to make it customizable? What I meant from Customizable is simple two things.
1) Colors of Views. I have two many views. I want A separate file of colors so that I can change color in it and it reflects changes in whole application
2) String. I want to change the text string so that it can be changed in all over the projects.
Please tell me how can I achieve these things. Specially point number two is my main concern.
Note: The project that I want to convert in framework has two many viewControllers and all are built in one storyboard.
With regard to how to create a framework, here's how I'd do it:
Create a workspace:
Bring the project you want to turn into a library into that workspace by dragging it in from the Finder (make sure it's not open in XCode when you do this). Let's call that project FrameworkProj:
Create a target for FrameworkProj of type Cocoa Touch Framework:
Create a second project, which we'll call SampleProjWhichUsesFramework, and import the framework into it.
As for your question of IB elements being settable via the framework, simply make sure you have IBOutlets for those elements that are marked public, and they will be available to SampleProjWhichUsesFramework as properties of your framework.
I think you do not have good idea of the workspace in IOS Xcode. Since in Android the workspace is dealt in another way. But there is a slight difference.
Lets me just tell you about Android and how do you made the Library and add several projects in Android studio. let say you have a Project in Android App, say App1, now you can go to menu and you can add another module as Library. That is fine and easy for you.
Now you can create another project like this, GO to new menu, here you can select New Module and then from templates you can select Phone and Table Module. let's call it App2.
Similarly you can add as many projects/app in the same project (in IOS you can think of a Workspace), and in the end, All you need to do is adding Your library project as a module dependency in All App1, App2 projects you created.
So in IOS, workspace you create at first. And then You create App1, App2 in it. You add Library (Private Framework in IOS) in same project level (same directory) Then You can add the dependency of Library into Other App1, App2 and so on other projects you created.
In this way, your codebase will remain the same for others.
You can find the whole tutorial here. It is the best I have found just give it a try.
A while ago I developed an iOS application using Xcode that and created a bunch of classes that work together to communicate with a RESTful API. Now I'm creating a second app, totally separate but communicates with the same API. I want to reuse these classes, what is the best way to approach this? Should I be do the via some Version control system? Or should I use an Xcode workspace?
Thanks in advance for any help.
I prefer to create separate Git repository for selected files, and embed this repository as submodule in both projects (old and new one)
In similar situation I done it using XCode Workspace and Static Library.
I added the common classes to a Static Library project and added that to the XCode Workspace.
In my second project I added that Static Library Project.
I have two options there:
Adding that Static Library project to the new project workspace
Adding the static library (.a) project to the new project
I chose the first option because, I can add the other common files to that Static Library and also modify the existing files if needed.
As Midhun and yourself mentioned, the best way to do it us by making a workspace and adding your projects to that.
Your shared code can go into a new project that's basically empty and dragged/linked from there into any projects in your workspace.
Changes made to that code from any project will also update the shared code base, which I think is what your ultimate goal was.
First of all I'd like to say that I'm pretty new to this topic so I'm a bit confused on some general aspects of how it works.
Basically I'm working on an iOS project which has two targets, one is the app itself which I'm developing and it is a front-end iOS client, one is a static library which the former developer used to define classes belonging to a back-end framework.
Both the files of the app itself (the client I'm working on) and the static library (the back-end framework) are in the same xcode project bundle.
Even If I've never done the "setup procedure" of the static library anything seems to be working just fine on compilation.
Now the question is: I'm setting up unit tests because I'd like to start developing new features adopting a Test Driven Development approach, so one of the things I was struggling on was if I had to generate or not two separate test targets, one for the iOS app and one for the static library (since they're two separate targets), ore use one single test target for both the static library and the iOS App.
So, reading on the internet to find a solution I discovered that, as even Apple suggests here , a common approach is to add the static library as a "sub-project" of the app project.
I'm just asking myself why and what is the difference with my current situation (one project, to targets, one of it is the static library). Are there any drawbacks? Should I reorganize the whole project?
My experience agrees with Apple and the common approach. I'd suggest making the framework a subproject. (I've had some issues finding headers, but that's my lack of mastery over Xcode, not a flaw in the process.)
Set up unit tests on each project, independently. This way, your tests are true to your objective with a framework: You've successfully decoupled the framework from the parent project entirely.
If you write the all of the unit tests in the parent project, what happens when the framework is needed in another project? You've got two choices. You can not test the framework, or string along the original parent. Do the right thing and split up your tests.
I've got an open source framework that I built, called SpiffyKit, that has a parent project called SpiffyTester. (I admittedly didn't unit test much, because it's all UI and no logic.) It may serve as a good example of a starting point.
Depending on your needs you can use Pods, static or adding it to the project. If you add a library as a "subproject" is useful when you are working on the 2 projects at once. For example if you add something new to the library you just compile the library and voila you have access to the new library in your project. However if you just link the static library you will have to open the project for the library then build then replace it in the library and add the new headers witch is a lot of setup work.
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'd like to separate reusable code in Xcode 4 as a separate project/library/something else. The reusable code in this case is a game engine, and the main project is a game itself. Idea is to make the game engine code easy to use in the future projects.
Xcode 4 lets me create a blank project or a static library for iOS. Which one would be preferred (or would something else work better?) under KISS principle? I just want to separate two logical set of files into two projects (it's ok if one is a child of another), and to be able to compile them at the same time. I don't have a need for obfuscation and I've heard that with a static library one has to worry for which architecture it was built for, which sounds like an overkill.
I feel that a blank project might be better way to go than the static library, but I don't have any practical experience with this. Any preferences and why?
I ended up going with the static library since that seems to be preferred way of doing this in Xcode 4. When it works, it works great, but took me a while to set it up properly - these two links were invaluable:
http://blog.carbonfive.com/2011/04/04/using-open-source-static-libraries-in-xcode-4/
and
Compile, Build or Archive problems with Xcode 4 (and dependencies)
Just create two projects. Add the dependent project into the main project. The Click on the Main XCode Project, Go to the Build Phases Tab, Under the "Target Dependencies" section click + sign and add the second project.