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author | Sander van der Burg <svanderburg@gmail.com> | 2018-11-27 20:48:48 +0100 |
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committer | Sander van der Burg <svanderburg@gmail.com> | 2018-12-18 21:16:06 +0100 |
commit | 56e112e8746fd365858af8b5a7957b82b8ff47ae (patch) | |
tree | d4527dc9a1b44e395b7f102bb9a07b5f0f4069ee /doc/languages-frameworks/ios.section.md | |
parent | 676d07af3f92c84e9556bad00f4cdc55350c6866 (diff) |
Add documentation for building iOS apps
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/languages-frameworks/ios.section.md')
-rw-r--r-- | doc/languages-frameworks/ios.section.md | 219 |
1 files changed, 219 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/languages-frameworks/ios.section.md b/doc/languages-frameworks/ios.section.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..6684b809ffe6 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/languages-frameworks/ios.section.md @@ -0,0 +1,219 @@ +--- +title: iOS +author: Sander van der Burg +date: 2018-11-18 +--- +# iOS + +This component is basically a wrapper/workaround that makes it possible to +expose an Xcode installation as a Nix package by means of symlinking to the +relevant executables on the host system. + +Since Xcode can't be packaged with Nix, nor we can publish it as a Nix package +(because of its license) this is basically the only integration strategy +making it possible to do iOS application builds that integrate with other +components of the Nix ecosystem + +The primary objective of this project is to use the Nix expression language to +specify how iOS apps can be built from source code, and to automatically spawn +iOS simulator instances for testing. + +This component also makes it possible to use [Hydra](http://nixos.org/hydra), +the Nix-based continuous integration server to regularly build iOS apps and to +do wireless ad-hoc installations of enterprise IPAs on iOS devices through +Hydra. + +The Xcode build environment implements a number of features. + +Deploying a proxy component wrapper exposing Xcode +-------------------------------------------------- +The first use case is deploying a Nix package that provides symlinks to the Xcode +installation on the host system. This package can be used as a build input to +any build function implemented in the Nix expression language that requires +Xcode. + +```nix +let + pkgs = import <nixpkgs> {}; + + xcodeenv = import ./xcodeenv { + inherit (pkgs) stdenv; + }; +in +xcodeenv.composeXcodeWrapper { + version = "9.2"; + xcodeBaseDir = "/Applications/Xcode.app"; +} +``` + +By deploying the above expression with `nix-build` and inspecting its content +you will notice that several Xcode-related executables are exposed as a Nix +package: + +```bash +$ ls result/bin +lrwxr-xr-x 1 sander staff 94 1 jan 1970 Simulator -> /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/Simulator.app/Contents/MacOS/Simulator +lrwxr-xr-x 1 sander staff 17 1 jan 1970 codesign -> /usr/bin/codesign +lrwxr-xr-x 1 sander staff 17 1 jan 1970 security -> /usr/bin/security +lrwxr-xr-x 1 sander staff 21 1 jan 1970 xcode-select -> /usr/bin/xcode-select +lrwxr-xr-x 1 sander staff 61 1 jan 1970 xcodebuild -> /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/xcodebuild +lrwxr-xr-x 1 sander staff 14 1 jan 1970 xcrun -> /usr/bin/xcrun +``` + +Building an iOS application +--------------------------- +We can build an iOS app executable for the simulator, or an IPA/xcarchive file +for release purposes, e.g. ad-hoc, enterprise or store installations, by +executing the `xcodeenv.buildApp {}` function: + +```nix +let + pkgs = import <nixpkgs> {}; + + xcodeenv = import ./xcodeenv { + inherit (pkgs) stdenv; + }; +in +xcodeenv.buildApp { + name = "MyApp"; + src = ./myappsources; + sdkVersion = "11.2"; + + target = null; # Corresponds to the name of the app by default + configuration = null; # Release for release builds, Debug for debug builds + scheme = null; # -scheme will correspond to the app name by default + sdk = null; # null will set it to 'iphonesimulator` for simulator builds or `iphoneos` to real builds + xcodeFlags = ""; + + release = true; + certificateFile = ./mycertificate.p12; + certificatePassword = "secret"; + provisioningProfile = ./myprovisioning.profile; + signMethod = "ad-hoc"; # 'enterprise' or 'store' + generateIPA = true; + generateXCArchive = false; + + enableWirelessDistribution = true; + installURL = "/installipa.php"; + bundleId = "mycompany.myapp"; + appVersion = "1.0"; + + # Supports all xcodewrapper parameters as well + xcodeBaseDir = "/Applications/Xcode.app"; +} +``` + +The above function takes a variety of parameters: +* The `name` and `src` parameters are mandatory and specify the name of the app + and the location where the source code resides +* `sdkVersion` specifies which version of the iOS SDK to use. + +It also possile to adjust the `xcodebuild` parameters. This is only needed in +rare circumstances. In most cases the default values should suffice: + +* Specifies which `xcodebuild` target to build. By default it takes the target + that has the same name as the app. +* The `configuration` parameter can be overridden if desired. By default, it + will do a debug build for the simulator and a release build for real devices. +* The `scheme` parameter specifies which `-scheme` parameter to propagate to + `xcodebuild`. By default, it corresponds to the app name. +* The `sdk` parameter specifies which SDK to use. By default, it picks + `iphonesimulator` for simulator builds and `iphoneos` for release builds. +* The `xcodeFlags` parameter specifies arbitrary command line parameters that + should be propagated to `xcodebuild`. + +By default, builds are carried out for the iOS simulator. To do release builds +(builds for real iOS devices), you must set the `release` parameter to `true`. +In addition, you need to set the following parameters: + +* `certificateFile` refers to a P12 certificate file. +* `certificatePassword` specifies the password of the P12 certificate. +* `provisioningProfile` refers to the provision profile needed to sign the app +* `signMethod` should refer to `ad-hoc` for signing the app with an ad-hoc + certificate, `enterprise` for enterprise certificates and `app-store` for App + store certificates. +* `generateIPA` specifies that we want to produce an IPA file (this is probably + what you want) +* `generateXCArchive` specifies thet we want to produce an xcarchive file. + +When building IPA files on Hydra and when it is desired to allow iOS devices to +install IPAs by browsing to the Hydra build products page, you can enable the +`enableWirelessDistribution` parameter. + +When enabled, you need to configure the following options: + +* The `installURL` parameter refers to the URL of a PHP script that composes the + `itms-services://` URL allowing iOS devices to install the IPA file. +* `bundleId` refers to the bundle ID value of the app +* `appVersion` refers to the app's version number + +To use wireless adhoc distributions, you must also install the corresponding +PHP script on a web server (see section: 'Installing the PHP script for wireless +ad hoc installations from Hydra' for more information). + +In addition to the build parameters, you can also specify any parameters that +the `xcodeenv.composeXcodeWrapper {}` function takes. For example, the +`xcodeBaseDir` parameter can be overridden to refer to a different Xcode +version. + +Spawning simulator instances +---------------------------- +In addition to building iOS apps, we can also automatically spawn simulator +instances: + +```nix +let + pkgs = import <nixpkgs> {}; + + xcodeenv = import ./xcodeenv { + inherit (pkgs) stdenv; + }; +in +xcode.simulateApp { + name = "simulate"; + + # Supports all xcodewrapper parameters as well + xcodeBaseDir = "/Applications/Xcode.app"; +} +``` + +The above expression produces a script that starts the simulator from the +provided Xcode installation. The script can be started as follows: + +```bash +./result/bin/run-test-simulator +``` + +By default, the script will show an overview of UDID for all available simulator +instances and asks you to pick one. You can also provide a UDID as a +command-line parameter to launch an instance automatically: + +```bash +./result/bin/run-test-simulator 5C93129D-CF39-4B1A-955F-15180C3BD4B8 +``` + +You can also extend the simulator script to automatically deploy and launch an +app in the requested simulator instance: + +```nix +let + pkgs = import <nixpkgs> {}; + + xcodeenv = import ./xcodeenv { + inherit (pkgs) stdenv; + }; +in +xcode.simulateApp { + name = "simulate"; + bundleId = "mycompany.myapp"; + app = xcode.buildApp { + # ... + }; + + # Supports all xcodewrapper parameters as well + xcodeBaseDir = "/Applications/Xcode.app"; +} +``` + +By providing the result of an `xcode.buildApp {}` function and configuring the +app bundle id, the app gets deployed automatically and started. |