将复杂的Xcode项目集成到另一个项目的最佳方法

Question

I would like to integrate an existing Xcode project A into another project B so the second one could reuse some features.

Project A :

• quite complex, manage authenfication + session, a lot of dependencies betweens classes (notably UIViewController)
• relies on a dozen of Cocoapods dependencies
• the project lives on its own : it's a sale channel/ticket shop that is already deployed on the store as it
• constant evolution

Project B :

• Project customer side that would love to integrate some parts of the sale channel

• Complexity might be very variable (using Cocoapods or not, etc)

Basically we can either deliver and package the e-commerce shop for one of our customer if he does not already have an iOS application, or we have to integrate it in their existing one.

Expectation :

• ideally we could pursue the evolution and iteration on the core Project A without having a lot of work to make it available for integration (it would be more cost efficient for us to work on a single project than on the core one and separate SDK/Library made from scratch)
• we want to make it easy to integrate for the customer on its own

The approach we have been thinking to are :

• build a .a library file. But it does not seem really practical considering the size of the project

• dropping the .xcodeproj from A into B (à la ZXing), but it was a pain because of Cocoapods dependencies

  • Simply adding all the classes from A into B (with a proper packaging into folders first), manage Cocoapods for B (add dependencies from A if Cocopoads already used or set it up), and make all imports easier by editing .pch accordingly.

What would be your suggestion ?

Answer 1

Since you are already using cocoapods I would try to do a private pod(s) with the shared characteristics. That way you can easily track versions across projects and use the same tool to manage all the dependencies.

This approach also would make easier for the customer to integrate as he will see the shared code from the pod as long he has access to the repository but not the complete main project.