On a recent iOS project we wanted to integrate the Facebook iOS SDK. The integration went smoothy. We copied in the compiled library and the required headers and were able to focus on the login, authentication flow.

Problem

However, we later ran into trouble with the library working on the device but not in the simulator. We would fix it for the tests and the simulator but find out we had broken it again for the device. This back and forth continued until we had found out about Universal Frameworks.

Narrative

We needed to compile the library in a format that would work on both on the iPhone and the simulator. Google lead us to this invaluable post that outlined the arduous path of creating a universal framework. A journey indeed filled with peril as there are so many opportunities along the way to take a misstep and lose your way.

To the author’s credit, he does a good job of outlining the necessary steps to succeed. It is the shear overwhelming number of Xcode’s build settings that can get in the way with crossing the finish line.

As the project continued we came again to a similar crossroads as we needed to include Twitter authentication. We chose to use the MPOAuth library but again found the need to generate a universal framework to save us from the same particular annoyance (and others) that arose when it came time to integrate the library. We followed through the same treacherous steps.

Having to do this twice has taught me that I do not want to do it again. There is simply too many steps to get right. It was something that needed to be easier and involve a lot less mouse-driven-development.

Solution

Xcoder had the majority of the functionality to get started. However, it did not have the ability to create some core components like: Aggregate Targets, Copy Headers Build Phases, Run Script Build Phases. At least it did not until this weekend.

I have created a gist that will generate a universal framework with sources and header files. This should successfully boil the the multiple page instructions into roughly 100 lines of ruby code.

Perhaps the most valuable part is the ability to set the multitude of required build settings, previously requiring deft configuration hunter skills, simply with the following:

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target.create_configurations :release do |config|
  config.always_search_user_paths = false
  config.architectures = [ "$(ARCHS_STANDARD_32_BIT)", 'armv6' ]
  config.copy_phase_strip = true
  config.dead_code_stripping = false
  config.debug_information_format = "dwarf-with-dsym"
  config.c_language_standard = 'gnu99'
  config.enable_objc_exceptions = true
  config.generate_debugging_symbols = false
  config.precompile_prefix_headers = false
  config.gcc_version = 'com.apple.compilers.llvm.clang.1_0'
  config.warn_64_to_32_bit_conversion = true
  config.warn_about_missing_prototypes = true
  config.install_path = "$(LOCAL_LIBRARY_DIR)/Bundles"
  config.link_with_standard_libraries = false
  config.mach_o_type = 'mh_object'
  config.macosx_deployment_target = '10.7'
  config.product_name = '$(TARGET_NAME)'
  config.sdkroot = 'iphoneos'
  config.valid_architectures = '$(ARCHS_STANDARD_32_BIT)'
  config.wrapper_extension = 'framework'
  config.info_plist_location = ""
  config.prefix_header = ""
  config.save!
end