Ionic 3 iOS build error with firebasex plugin - module 'FirebaseFirestore' not found

Question

I have an Ionic 3 app which I build for Android & iOS platforms. Here are some info about it:

• ionic-angular: version 3.9.3
• cordova-android: version 8.1.0
• cordova-ios: version 5.1.1
• cordova-plugin-firebasex: version 9.0.1

I've been able to build the binaries (APK/IPA) using Ionic Appflow without any problem. Today I updated the Firebase plugin which is used in my app to the latest version (stated above). I was able to build an APK successfully without any problem. However, when I tried to build an IPA, it failed with the following error:

❌  /{project path}/Plugins/cordova-plugin-firebasex/FirebasePlugin.h:4:9: module 'FirebaseFirestore' not found

@import FirebaseFirestore;
                                               ^

[10:11:32]: Exit status: 65

+---------------+-------------------------+
|            Build environment            |
+---------------+-------------------------+
| xcode_path    | /Applications/Xcode.app |
| gym_version   | 2.131.0                 |
| export_method | ad-hoc                  |
| sdk           | iPhoneOS13.0.sdk        |
+---------------+-------------------------+

[10:11:32]: ▸ In file included from /{project path}/Plugins/cordova-plugin-firebasex/FirebasePlugin.m:1:
[10:11:32]: ▸ /{project path}/Plugins/cordova-plugin-firebasex/FirebasePlugin.h:4:9: fatal error: module 'FirebaseFirestore' not found
[10:11:32]: ▸ @import FirebaseFirestore;
[10:11:32]: ▸  ~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[10:11:32]: ▸ 1 error generated.

Anyone has this issue?

Answer 1

I found the culprit of the problem. It appears that the latest version of cordova-plugin-firebasex 9.0.1 is causing it. I downgraded this plugin (by removing and adding it to my Ionic project) to version 7.0.2 which is 2 months old at this time and tried to build the IPA again. And this time it doesn't complain the problem.

List of cordova-plugin-firebasex versions can be found here: cordova-plugin-firebasex