When adding a folder to Xcode project there are two options - "Create groups for any added folders" and "Create folder references for any added folders."
My question is that if there is a way to change these settings once the folder is being added. I know we can remove the folder from the project and re-add them, but I wonder if there is some other way that is less idiotic to accomplish such task.
What you're asking for doesn't make much sense.
A group (yellow folder) in Xcode is just an abstract organizational concept. A group can contain one or more resources that actually get referenced/compiled/copied, but the group itself is just an placeholder that doesn't (necessarily) have any relation to the filesystem or target bundle.
A folder ref (blue folder), on the other hand, is the exact opposite. The folder itself is the only thing referenced/compiled/copied by Xcode and its contents are just blindly copied or whatever along with it. Xcode doesn't notice if you add, remove, or edit the contents. It only cares about the folder.
Because they are functionally opposite, converting from one to the other in-place would end you with a pile of conflicts at best and lost data at worst. So Xcode doesn't provide that as an option.
I'd like to move my web dev editing to Xcode 4 (currently using textmate). I have a couple of simple questions that are clearly a lack of experience on my end.
In Xcode's Project Navigator, how do I add a folder to the shown directory tree? Currently, I add via terminal and do File -> Add Files
Is there any way to tell Xcode to see the file system as the file system and not as references?
a less likely thing:
Is there any way to bring up a console within the context of a folder in project navigator (would like to be able to run grep again small portion or something)?
thx
I can answer the first question. Adding a folder of files to a project is the same as adding individual files. Choose File > Add Files in Xcode. When you add a folder of files to a project, you should see something like the following screenshot:
Create groups if you need to access the files in Xcode, such as adding a folder of source code files. Create folder references if you don't need to access the files in Xcode, such as adding a folder of audio files.
You can also add folders to the project navigator by selecting a file or folder in the project navigator, right-clicking, and choosing New Group.
As far as I know, Xcode won't mirror the filesystem as an Xcode tree (anyone correct me id I'm wrong). Wanting to have an identical structure is quite some work. I use to first place the files hierarchically in the file-system, then I mimic the same structure in Xcode.
This requires some attention since Xcode 4.1 not always writes new classes to the place you told him to - they may prefer to land in the highest level of the Xcode project.
I had similar thoughts and started a thread, might be helpful for further reading
Your second question: sorry, can't help you there.
This is probably a very easy question, but I'm having trouble deleting resources from my XCode project. I added them using "Create Folder References for any added folders" so that I could import a whole offline HTML site with its correct folder structure.
Unfortunately, now it has been added like this I don't seem to be able to delete individual files in the structure (it's not available from the Edit menu).
Can anyone help please? Thanks!
That isn't how folder references work. The idea is that its only a reference, you can open files within it and save it from those editors, you can delete or move the entire reference throughout the xcode project, but you can't actually edit it - its read only as far as xcode is concerned. Likewise, you cannot restructure it (move internal files around).
I'm not to sure why apple decided to make this the case, but apparently they have.
If you want to know how one might use the xcode folder system, here's how I tend to use them with my projects:
Whenever I subdivide code into folders, when I drag them into my project I click "recursively create groups for any added folders". If you do this, you any changes you make within xcode will not reflect the actual file itself. As far as I know, there is no way to do this. What does happen then is that when you add a new code file to it, the directory starts off in that file by default. ie, you don't need to navigate to it manually when you create a new file.
I use folder references whenever I'm working with content for an application I'm using. This way, I add all my images, folders, configuration files, whatever - and xcode immediately lists them. The reason I have it within xcode, I can I copy the files into the executables directory by dragging the folder reference into a "Copy Files" build phase.
Thats basically (to my knowledge) how one uses the folder types within xcode - sadly, I don't know how to achieve the functionality you want. You may have to manually delete the folders in finder, which if you do use folder references will update xcode to the change.
I ran into the same issue by using "Create Folder References for any added folders". I wanted to change some of the times but that's not possible. I had added a main folder that had other directories under it. I just had to select the main directory and deleted it and then just add the subdirectories that I needed. You can't make any location or removal changes to the directories that are added this way. -- Jeff
In the project browser, where you're looking at files, right click and choose "Delete". It'll prompt you to either remove the file from the project (leaving the underlying file on the filesystem) or to also move the underlying file to the trash.
I ran into the same issue. Delete the files from the folder directly as opposed to from within Xcode. You'll see the entries turn red under your project. Restarting Xcode should make these red entries vanish.
I'm trying to wrap my head around Xcode's file organization - or lack there of. I can do all I want in project and it looks great with all the "fake" folders and structure. I go look at the file system and boom HUGE mess. I've tried importing files with the Create Folder Reference for any added folder option checked and that works, kinda. I get the structure I want both in Xcode and on the filesystem.
Issues: When I add a file to a folder on the filesystem that is a Folder Reference in Xcode, its not in Xcode when I go look, not even after reloading the project. Files/Subfolders in a Folder Reference can't be moved around in Xcode. When I move them on the filesystem I get red links (can't find the file?) in Xcode.
How do I keep a organized project and filesystem? How can I set up a project to just recognize a folder and show its (current and up-to-date) files and subfolders in my project?
Another issue I seem to run into, if I use a Folder Reference and change a file, the file is not updated in my application unless I do a full clean & rebuild. If I don't use a Folder Reference, all my files are dumped into the Resource folder of the application bundle, not in the nice structure I have in my project.
Should I care at all? Should I just use the fake folders and let everything go everywhere and not care? My application bundle will be a mess, the filesystem will be a mess, but it will all work... I would hope?
Edit:
My biggest reason for wanting an organized filesystem is that the resource files (images, sounds, other datafiles, etc.) are not edited in Xcode. I have to access them in 3rd party apps via the filesystem. If its a mess things are harder to find and maintain in the other 3rd party applications.
Also what happens if I want a structure like the following:
Images/Backgrounds/Name.png
Images/Icons/Name.png
Images/Titles/Name.png
Should I use long filenames rather than folders to organize?
Images_Backgrounds_Name.png
Images_Icons_Name.png
Images_Titles_Name.png
I also wish Xcode automatically kept itself and the file system in sync.
So much so, that I spent an hour doing so manually for a project called acani-iphone on GitHub. Basically, I just moved some of the files around using Finder, creating new folders as I pleased. Then, I switched back to Xcode and saw that the files I just moved were now red (because Xcode was thinking they're where I moved them from and so couldn't find them).
UPDATE: I just figured out that I could've then just clicked on the red group or file, pressed CMD+i (Get Info from the context menu, which you can open by right-clicking on the red file or group), and under the General tab, clicked Choose, then found where I moved the file to in the filesystem. But, I didn't do that, here's what I did instead, which also works:
Then, I just highlighted all the red files in Xcode and pressed command + delete to delete the broken (red) references. Then, I right-clicked on the Group I wanted to add the files to (usually the same group), and clicked Add > Existing Files.... Then, I found the same files in the new spot on the file system. I kept "Copy items into destination group's folder (if needed)" unchecked, I checked the radio button "Recursively create groups for any added folders," and I checked add to target acani if the files I was adding were being used to build the acani iPhone app.
I did the above with like a directory of files at a time. A few times I was more aggressive, adding multiple directories at a time, since I almost always selected the radio button "Recursively create groups for any added folders."
I found out that the files acani_Prefix.pch and acani-Info.plist had to stay in the root file system dir (although there may be settings you can set to allow these files to be elsewhere, like I think you can add a line to acani-Info.plist so that you can move/rename acani_Prefix.pch, but I'm fine with them in the root dir on the file system.
That was annoying to do, and perhaps not even worth the trouble, perhaps procrastination, but going forward, before adding existing files to Xcode, I'll first make sure they're in the place I want them to be on the file system.
OK, so here is how it works:
Xcode doesn't know about any files until you tell it about them. That is, even if you add a file manually in the finder (usually a bad idea) to a folder that contains files in an Xcode project, it doesn't know about them until you "add existing file to project".
The best practice (imo) for adding an existing file (or group of files) to a project (say, some code you just downloaded) is to choose "add existing files" and then "copy items to destination group's folder (if needed)" in the next dialog, if you want your project to have a copy of the files in question, rather than merely a reference to them (there are advantages and disadvantages of both).
Don't worry too much about the naming of folders in Xcode, or where you put things, but try to keep to a standard that makes sense in your environment. For example, I always put the classes I write in "Classes", and have separate folders for any library code i've downloaded for use in the project. I always put images/icons/audio etc in to "Resources".
In short, if you like what's in the project folder to be approximately the same as what's in your project, always add existing files by choosing the "copy items to destination group's folder"
The flexibility in XCode is intentional. It's up to you to decide how you like to organise things.
Should I care at all? Should I just use the fake folders and let
everything go everywhere and not care? My application bundle will be a
mess, the filesystem will be a mess, but it will all work... I would
hope?
IMO no... :) basically. The whole point is that XCode has been designed to give you the best experience of programming. If Apple wanted you to physically organise all your files and folders within the actual filesystem then they would have made it that way.
I don't really understand why you would want to organise all the files and folders in this way anyway? It makes no difference to the running of the application and the "fake" folders (groups) in XCode adequately provide the necessary visual aid for yourself (and others) to navigate through your classes and other resources. Organising it correctly in your filesystem (as you have found) surely just makes things more difficult?
Use Synx.
It rearranges your files on disk to match your Xcode groups. I try to run it before committing any code that changes the Xcode groups, and it keeps the project nice and tidy.
It would be great if Xcode could keep itself and the file system in sync. Unfortunately it doesn't. One reason for wanting it to is so the hierarchy in your SCCS matches the one in Xcode.
I fall back to keeping things organized in Xcode, and leaving the file system separated into not much more than "Classes" and "Resources".
This changed with Xcode 9. From the release notes:
Groups in the Project Navigator are now more closely associated with
directories in the file system. (28612132)
Dragging files between groups in the Project Navigator moves the files in the filesystem and updates any associated SCM working copies.
When a group is connected to folder in the filesystem, creating, renaming, and deleting groups updates the corresponding files and
folders in the the filesystem.
To remove a connection between a group and a folder in the filesystem, select the group, and then open the File inspector and
click on the on the Clear path button (X).
To add or update an association from a file or a folder in the filesystem to a file or a group in the project, select the file or
group, open the File inspector, and drag the corresponding file or
folder onto the Location section in the File inspector.
The new behaviour is available from the 'New Group with Folder' command (which may appear as just 'New Group'), while the old behaviour is available from the 'New Group without Folder' command (which may also appear as just 'New Group'!) The dominant usage amongst any existing groups in the target folder seems to determine which command gets labelled 'New Group'. It's more than a little confusing, but if you are in the habit of choosing one or the other, the idea seems to be that you can just stick with the default 'New Group' command. (See rob mayoff's far more thorough explanation.)
What I do is create a group to represent each folder and then, before adding files to it, in the right panel, first tab, immediately below "Path", there is an icon that allows you to choose the folder. In that folder dialog, I create a folder that matches the group and choose it.
In xcode3, this resulted in new and add files dialogs starting in this path. That made it worth the effort. Xcode4, however, does not respect this setting. Therefore, its questionable whether there is any real value in it. I also wish XCOde would support better file system organization.
Considering that file names must be unique within a project, regardless of groups and folders, there is justification for accepting the flat folder structure default and using groups for IDE convenience. Its difficult to come from other platforms where this is frowned upon.
i feel you and personally cannot NOT care about the actual structure and just rely on workspaces.
what would be really great is a tool that will go over the workspace structure and re-organize the file system accordingly, taking care of any re-naming of folders etc. this would be a classic solution and IMHO should be implemented as an option as we re-organize our project as we move about it.
some issues could be source control though xcode4 works with both git and SVN.
I have read all the suggested StackOverflow posts on this question. It bothers me that Xcode will not organize my files in the finder the same way it does in the editor view...it will only do that if I copy files in from an external source and specifically tell it how I want things organized. Is there a way to make Xcode have the Finder respect the same organization as a default? I'd love to create a directory and then a file in that directory, and see the changes in both places.
I hate opening a project and seeing ALL my files in one place.
If you want your Groups structure in Xcode to mirror your Directories structure in the file system (which is also the Folders structure in the Finder), you have to take the following steps when adding files that you want to go into Groups/Subdirectories:
Create the folder in the Finder (or the directory from the command line)
Drag that folder into your Xcode project. Import it as a Group. Make sure its reference style is Relative to Enclosing Group, and that you drop it into the Group that represents its parent directory.
To add new files, select the Group and choose Add Files. The files will be stored in the directory that that Group represents, and they will be within that Group in the Xcode UI.
If your files are not yet under SCM control, one thing you can do is just delete them all from the Xcode project, rearrange them on disk however you want, then drag all the folders and files back in, making sure to not make copies, to create groups, and to set the reference style to Relative to Enclosing Group.