New: Sparrow.framework - drag & drop deployment

Daniel

Just a quick note to all forum users, because I'm so happy about it: Robert invested the time to add a real "iOS framework" build target to Sparrow!

That means that you're now able to use Sparrow without fumbling around with "Source Tree Variables" and the likes. Just drag & drop "Sparrow.framework" to your project, and you're done. =)

If you update the Sparrow project from GitHub and rebuild it, there will be a new "sparrow/build" folder containing the framework. With the release of Sparrow 2.1, you'll get such a framework ready to download from our web page, of course.

EDIT: The "sparrow/build/Sparrow.framework" folder is now only created when you "Archive" the "SparrowFramework" target.

TTStu

Hi,

this is causing me some confusion, I am unfamiliar with what is going on here, and the new source is giving me linker errors.

To update to the latest sparrow build, I download the master zip from github, and extract the src directory and replace the current src directory already on my system (under sparrow directory).

Then I load up any project that uses sparrow, it detects the change in the src tree, and indexes the newly found source, ready to build.

Then I build and it all takes care of itself.

Not this time, however,

How do I use this in existing projects?

I have replaced the old source with the new source, but now I am getting multiple build errors such as:

"Duplicate interface definition for class 'SPSprite'

"Property has a previous declaration'

"Duplicate interface definition for class 'SPDisplayObject'

"Apple LLVM 5.0 Error - Too many errors emitted, stopping..."

etc.

Do I need to completely remove the Sparrow project from existing projects and re-add it as a framework instead?

If so, where am I dragging the Sparrow.framework from? How do I build it as a framework?

Sorry, but I'm a bit lost here, thanks for any pointers anyone can offer 🙂

jbernabeu

Hi,

I am having the same problem as TTstu.

Any idea to solve it ?

BERNABEU

jbernabeu

I think that I founded the problem ... You must import only "Sparrow.h" instead of import "SPSrite.h" try to change all the imports you have to:

#import "Sparrow.h"

That should be enough.

BERNABEU

TTStu

Hooray it worked!

THANK YOU BERNABEU 🙂

I had two extensions hidden away, but not being used, that imported SPDisplayObject and SPSprite.

So, simply commenting out those imports (I already import Sparrow.h globally) worked!

Cheers 😃

Daniel

Thanks a lot for posting the solution, jbernabeu! Sorry, yes, I should have included more information about how this affects current games!

In any case, that's the right way to do it: just import Sparrow only once, that will give you all required includes.

And just in case you do need to import a specific file (though I don't know why you'd need that, you can now do it like this:

#import <Sparrow/SPRectangle.h>

epa_neto

This should be working already? Because I updated the repo, did rebuild the sparrow project but got no build folder, neither a framework file.

Anything else I might be missing?

Daniel

Are you sure you got the version from the "master" branch? (Call "git branch" to see which branch you are in.)

If that's correct, be sure to build the correct target. Xcode should show the "SparrowFramework" scheme as being active.

When you build that, the framework folder should end up in "sparrow/sparrow/build".

epa_neto

Hey Daniel,

Thanks 🙂
I got it working, dragged the framework to my project, imported the <Sparrow/Sparrow.h> on my .pch file, but some primitive things are giving errors when I try to create like:

_atlas = [SPTextureAtlas atlasWithContentsOfFile:@"assets.xml"];
error: stringByAppendingScaleSuffixToFilename:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x4b11c

SPQuad * quad = [[SPQuad alloc]initWithWidth:100 height:100];
quad.color = 0x000000;
[self addChild:quad];
error: [__NSCFString appendLine:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x9663200

Anything else but the import and framework dragging that scaffold project used to do?

EDIT: I changed this project setup to use sparrow folder instead of .framework file and everything worked.

All the best,
Epa

Daniel

Hi Epa,

thanks for the update! Could you elaborate a little about what exactly you had to change to get it working? Perhaps I can make that easier, or at least document it better when 2.1 is released.

Thanks in advance!

seriousGeorge

Just curious... is the current build with MRC or with ARC?

Daniel

MRC! That brought about 250% performance boost. 😎

However, you don't have to change your code: you can (and should!) still use ARC in your game code.

seriousGeorge

Hello again,

I tried to switch out my older Sparrow-S from racarone with your newest built but I'm getting errors all over the place too... the xcodeproject is correctly targeting "SparrowFramework, but I'm getting "duplicate interface definition" in SQquad, SPTextfield, SPButton and so on.

Am I supposed to still have the Sparrow_src variable in the build settings? I suppose so!?

Daniel

The problem might be that you have some imports like that one left:

#import "SPQuad.h"

Remove all those imports, and instead add only ONE to your precompiled header (e.g. "Project-Prefix.pch")

#import <Sparrow/Sparrow.h>

Since it's in the precompiled header, it will be picked up by all your source files automatically.

Furthermore, be sure to "clean" the project (but I'm sure you did that already).

Please let me know if that helps!

Shilo

@seriousGeorge

I had the same problem as you. As Daniel said, you will need to change all the #imports on Sparrow files. In my case, our project has hundreds of Sparrow import lines, so I manually changed them all, for example:

Before:

#import "SPQuad.h"

After:

#import <Sparrow/SPQuad.h>

Removing all the imports and just adding one Sparrow.h import to the precompiled header will work too, as Daniel suggested.

Daniel

Mhm, that's an unfortunate side effect of the new ".framework" deployment. :-/

seriousGeorge

@Shilo: Thanks for the clarification.

I did so and these erros went away, but I got loads of "Apple Mach-O-Linker Errors"
I guess I'm doing something wrong here, but I don't know what.

For example it's saying:

<br />
Undefined symbols for architecture i386:<br />
  "_OBJC_CLASS_$_SPAudioEngine", referenced from:<br />
      objc-class-ref in Game.o<br />
      objc-class-ref in Media.o<br />
"_OBJC_CLASS_$_SPBlendMode", referenced from:<br />
      objc-class-ref in SXParticleSystem.o<br />
  "_OBJC_CLASS_$_SPButton", referenced from:<br />
      objc-class-ref in Menu.o<br />
      l_OBJC_$_CATEGORY_SPButton_$_ColorComponents in SHAnimatableColor.o<br />

And so on...

EDIT:
Got it working now and feeling stupid 😉 I had to relink the libSparrow.a and every thing is fine.

So for everyone struggling with this. Here the steps I had to made:

Drag drop Sparrow project
Remove any former SP Class imports and just import <Sparrow/Sparrow.h> in the app-prefix.pch
Make sure "libSparrow.a" is linked BuildPhases -> "Link Binary with Libraries"

Eventually I also set a target dependency to "Sparrow" but this is not needed and I removed it.

Daniel

I added a tutorial to the Wiki that shows the complete process from scratch:
http://wiki.sparrow-framework.org/tutorials/creating_a_sparrow_project_from_scratch

And I just made another change: the "build/Sparrow.framework" folder is now only created when you run "Project/Archive". I must admit I don't understand it fully, but only archiving guaranteed that all necessary architectures (32 + 64 bit) are always built.

Daniel

W00t! I finally got rid of that damn "-ObjC" and "-all_load" linker flags required in all the projects. I didn't think that day would ever come! 😉

For those who are interested, the setting "GENERATE_MASTER_OBJECT_FILE" in the Sparrow project takes care of that.

Shilo

W00t! I finally got rid of that damn "-ObjC" and "-all_load" linker flags required in all the projects. I didn't think that day would ever come!

This is awesome news! I've had a few third-party libraries that don't run correctly with one of those flags, so this new update will be very handy. Thank you! 🙂