I'm trying to learn Obj-C but when I download sample projects, the .xcodeproj file seems to be missing on all the examples I download. Not quite sure why, but I'm stuck. A few questions (which overlap):
How do I open these projects to run them if the .xcodeproj file is missing?
How do I turn these downloaded examples into projects I can use?
Is there some fundamental reason why it seems to be standard practice NOT to include the .xcodeproj file?
It's not possible to open a project without an .xcodeproj. This directory contains several compulsory infos like :
list of files, resources of the project,
compilation options,
etc.
Where are you getting these samples from? Is it possible that xcodeproj files are hidden on your filesystem? If there really isn't an .xcodeproj file, then it's not too hard to make your own and drag in the source files.
I had the same issue when using git command lines to clone repositories.
However, if you use XCode's integrated source control features to work with existing projects you can open the project and you will find the xcodeproj in your source code directory.
To do this, launch XCode, choose "Connect to repository", specify the location (for example: https://github.com/insurgentgames/Alphabet-Blocks.git), hit 'Clone', then Open Project.
Related
Im auto-generating C/C++ source code from another IDE and would like to add/remove the source(s) files automatically to an open XCode project to be compiled.
What I would like to know is if it is possible to "link" to XCode a folder where it can find all the source files to compile?
Or I absolutely need to write and manually run an AppleScript each time?
After more research I found that basically parsing and editing the .xcodeproj package content is the easiest route.
Like many people, I would love to have Xcode use a folder structure that mirrors the folder-structure on disk. However, I cannot get the code in "folder references" (the cyan folders) to show up in my project targets under "Compile Sources." Is there any way to do this?
I have managed to even add a cyan folder to the "Compile Sources" build phase, but that does not result in the contents of that folder being added.
How can I use folder references for code?
The simple (and very unfortunate) answer is that Folder References under Xcode remain broken and buggy, they don't work. Tested 04-Mar-2017 in Xcode 8.2.1
Below is an example exploration so you do not have to waste your time replicating the Xcode failure.
(incidentally buggy Xcode crashed twice while I was producing this example)
Per the question, the overall desire is to use a folder reference in Xcode so Xcode picks up all the files in the folder and includes them in the project, and by proxy will update automatically based upon any Finder or Xcode changes of the folder. In this way 50 projects all leveraging the same set of common source code files do not have to be individually updated when those folders get changed. Below explores how this is broken in Xcode (tested in 8.2.1)
The example: ViewController.m includes NSError+Core.h so we want everything from the folder "NSError+Core" to be added to the project.
NSError+Core.h is in this centrally located development folder
Drag the source folder from the Finder into the Project under the "Support" group (nothing up my sleeves, simple drag)
Xcode dutifully offers to add the drag to the target, note the "Create folder references" is selected, not "Create group references". Note also it is clear that Xcode is offering and is told to add this folder and files to the targets.
Although everything looks like it should work, the compiler does not pick up the header file and a recompile yields the same results... can't find header. Ditching the DerivedData does not help either.
So doing a double check, we check the "Compile Sources" under the project and sure enough, the source file is not there either. Remember, Xcode 'added' it to the target...
So what if we drag it from the folder into the "Support" group...
It offers to add them to the project again?! Note that the settings are identical to the first time they were drug in by virtue of the parent folder drag instead of files...
And now the source file shows up in the "Compile Sources" list. Note the bizarre double listing of the files in the project.
(Xcode crashed shortly after snapping this screen shot)
And of course the compiler can now find the header file and the error clears on the import as it should have the first time we drug it in...
Did it just need a little help to "find" the file? If so, the "Create folder references" does exactly what?
So we try and tidy up and drag the files back from the parent "Supporting Files" group to their rightful folder. Without any confirmation, indication, notification, the files just vanish from the group and nothing happens in the NSError+Core folder.
Oh by the way, it really did delete them from the project too... The Compile Sources no longer has the NSError+Core.m reference.
SO to sum up, "Folder references" as implemented thus far do not seem to have any useful purpose... It would appear to be a 6+ year old dunsel on the USS Xcode.
Kevin - linked source folders, folder references, etc, are super useful for when you have a common code base shared across different IDEs, like I do for my games that I compile on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, etc. I have 3 different IDEs all building the same shared codebase, so it's very helpful when one automatically picks up on a new file and adds it right into the project after I merely run svn update, and I svn commit from one IDE (say XCode) and my Eclipse in Windows project picks up the change. I have a different project for each because each IDE likes the project files in a certain configuration so it's easier for me to have multiple SVN directories (base-project, project-ios, project-android) that all share code in base-project than to have one mega project directory with the different IDE bits unhappily all shoved into subdirectories (which is what I tried the first time around).
Furthermore - it used to work fine in XCode 3. They seemed to not like that useful of a feature so it is no longer working in XCode 4 as I've just found out.
I just tried doing this to share code across multiple Xcode projects, and our team came to the conclusion that it's better to create an Xcode project that contains all of your shared classes, compiles them into a static/dynamic library, and then add that as a subproject to those that need the shared code. Then you can set up target dependencies and link your shared library. This will get you the "automatic updating" every time you add a new class to the shared library project.
This approach also works well with submodules or even cocoapods/carthage.
You can't. Why are you even trying? A folder reference's job is to embody a folder, without having entries for all the individual files in the folder. It's primary use is for copying an entire folder of resources verbatim into a project. If you want to compile the sources though, then those sources must be referenced in the Compile Sources build phase of the target, which requires having individual entries for each file.
Depending on what's in the folder, it might make more sense to have a Makefile or some other external build process that builds the content in the folder into a static library. This way you can invoke that build process from a Shell Script Phase, and then just link in the resulting static library. Alternatively if you're using this folder as a way to have a shared bit of code (e.g. an svn:externals or git submodule), you could give that folder its own Xcode project and then embed that project into any of your other projects which share this folder.
Goodday!
ToDo: compile the files from a directory that is outside of my Xcode project.
How to tell Xcode the path to look for source codes to compile (like the VPATH in a makefile)?
Note1: Right-click the target and it is easy to add the search path for header files or lib, but there I havent found any option to add a new source code directory.
Note2: I havnt found an answer in the xcode build documentation for this issue.
P.S.: I hope that I can do it without copying all the files to the xcode explicitly.
Thank you!
Drag the directory containing the files into your Xcode project. The only way Xcode knows it needs to compile the files is if they are contained in the project and a part of the target.
You indicated that you wanted to use at least some of the source files in a project and intend on using some set of the same source files for other future projects.
Create a new static or dynamic library using the external collection of source files and then just link this project to it and future projects to it
The design of most build environments encourages the use of code in reusable libraries.
Davidli
By the way (for those who are still searching and have problems with this issue), i have Xcode 4.5.2 and when i drag the items they are not linked! It seems that xcode's getting worse with each new version.
In case of xcode 4.5.2 if i copied class files into the separate folder i had to do right click to the group and choose 'add files to ""'
I know this might sound a bit strange but I'd need to generate a xcodeproj automatically.
Basically scanning the filesystem and adding certain files to the project and to a specific target.
The main reason behind this, is that I work in an zero IDE environment. Thus, we have our own build system and source files are added and removed all the time.
I could use "create folder references for any added folders". However, xcode won't ever parse source files if they aren't part of any target. So, no symbols, no code completion...
To me, my only option would be to "auto-update" my xcodeproj with a script...
Thanks in advance for your inputs!
Cmake is one option (see this related question) and there's also Scons which I think can generate Xcode projects. There's also Qt's qmake which can generate the project files, but this is probably overkill unless you're using full Qt.
You can either user AppleScript (or anything OSA-compatible) to automate the process of creating the project in Xcode itself, or you could look at CMake, which is able to generate Xcode project files.
I have copied a project to a new directory, and now the workspace will not load into the vc++6 ide. There is no error, just no workspace. I have diff'ed the dsw and dsp files, and they are the same.
Well, this is really annoying. The problem turned out to be a CRLF->LF problem in the dsw workspace file. Git had removed CR's and the diff inside of notepad++ showed identical files. Add back the CR's and the workspace now loads into VC6.
Check in the project and solution files with a text editor for any paths that point to files that cannot be found - maybe there is a relative or absolute path that cannot be found?
This problem came up when moving from ide-based development to command-line builds and then back to ide. The dsw and dsp files need to be newer than the source, or else the workspace will refuse to load. Just open the files in a text editor and save them without changes, or use touch.exe, which can be had in UnxUtils from sourceforge.