WWDC gave us many causes to each migrate libraries to SwiftPM and to develop new ones to help our work. The combination between Xcode improvement and SwiftPM dependencies retains rising stronger and extra vital.
Apple’s Enhancing a Package deal Dependency as a Native Package deal assumes you’ll drag in your package deal to an Xcode mission as an area package deal overrides one which’s imported by way of a traditional package deal dependency.
In Creating a Swift Package deal in Tandem with an App, Apple writes, “To develop a Swift package deal in tandem with an app, you’ll be able to leverage the habits whereby an area package deal overrides a package deal dependency with the identical identify…if you happen to launch a brand new model of your Swift package deal or wish to cease utilizing the native package deal, take away it from the mission to make use of the package deal dependency once more.”
I don’t use this strategy. It’s not unhealthy or mistaken, it simply doesn’t match my fashion.
However, opening the Package deal.swift file on to develop has drawbacks in that it doesn’t absolutely supply Xcode’s suite of IDE help options but.
So I’ve been engaged on a private resolution that greatest works for me. I need my package deal improvement and its checks to dwell individually from any particular shopper app outdoors a testbed. I would like to make sure that my code will swift construct and swift take a look at correctly however I additionally wish to use Xcode’s built-in compilation and unit testing with my joyful inexperienced checks.
I set out to determine how greatest, at the very least for me, to develop Swift packages below the xcodeproj umbrella.
I first explored swift package deal generate-xcodeproj. This builds an Xcode library mission full with checks and a package deal goal. You need to use the --type flag to set the package deal to executable, system-module, or manifest as a substitute of the default (library) throughout swift package deal init:
Generate% swift package deal init Creating library package deal: Generate Creating Package deal.swift Creating README.md Creating .gitignore Creating Sources/ Creating Sources/Generate/Generate.swift Creating Assessments/ Creating Assessments/LinuxMain.swift Creating Assessments/GenerateTests/ Creating Assessments/GenerateTests/GenerateTests.swift Creating Assessments/GenerateTests/XCTestManifests.swift Generate% swift package deal generate-xcodeproj generated: ./Generate.xcodeproj
Though SwiftPM creates a .gitignore file for you as you see, it doesn’t initialize a git repository. Additionally, I all the time find yourself deleting the .gitignore as I exploit a personalized international ignore file. That is what the ensuing mission appears like:
As you see, the generated Xcode mission has the whole lot however a testbed for you. I actually like having an on-hand testbed, whether or not a easy SwiftUI app or a command line utility to play with concepts. I seemed into utilizing a playground however let’s face it: too sluggish, too glitchy, too unreliable.
It’s a ache so as to add a testbed to this set-up, so I got here up with a distinct option to construct my base package deal surroundings. It’s hacky however I a lot desire the result. As a substitute of producing the mission, I begin with a testbed mission after which create my package deal. This strategy naturally packs a pattern with the package deal however none of that pattern leaks into the package deal itself:
I find yourself with three targets: the pattern app, a library constructed from my Sources, and my checks. The library folder you see right here incorporates solely an Information.plist and a bridging header. It in any other case builds from no matter Sources I’ve added.
I a lot desire this set-up to the generate-xcodeproj strategy, though it takes barely longer to set-up. The explanation for that is that SwiftPM and Xcode use completely different philosophies for the way a mission folder is structured. SwiftPM has its Sources and Assessments. Xcode makes use of a supply folder named after the mission.
So I take away that folder, add a Sources group to the mission, and be certain that my construct phases sees and compiles these recordsdata. The Assessments want comparable tweaks, plus I’ve so as to add a symbolic hyperlink from Xcode’s checks identify (e.g. “ProjectNameAssessments”) to my SwiftPM Assessments folder on the prime degree of my mission to get it to all grasp collectively. As soon as I’ve accomplished so my inexperienced checks are prepared and ready simply as if I had opened the Package deal.swift file straight. However this time, I’ve all the fitting instruments at hand.
Since I’m speaking about set-up, let me add that my duties additionally embrace establishing the README, including a license and creating the preliminary change log. These are SwiftPM setup duties that swift package deal init doesn’t cowl the way in which I like. I trash .gitignore however since I’ve Xcode set-up to routinely initialize model management, I don’t must git init by hand.
I believe this can be a short-term workaround as I anticipate the combination of SwiftPM and Xcode to proceed rising over the following couple of years. Since WWDC, I’ve been notably enthusiastic about creating, deploying, and integrating SwiftPM packages. I believed I’d share this in case it’d assist others. Let me know.