Including an embedded framework using a cross-project-reference: Header no such file or directory

Question

I'm trying to create a Cocoa framework by using a cross-project reference in Xcode.

I have 2 projects: one for the framework; one for the application that will use the framework.

This framework is not intended to be stored within the system; it is an embedded framework that lives within the application bundle.

I have successfully made the cross-project reference, marked the framework as being a dependency of my target, added a Copy Files build phase that puts the framework in Contents/Frameworks/ and added the framework to the linker phase (I checked the little "Target" checkbox; I've also done it manually by dragging the framework into the linker phase).

My framework's install directory is correctly set to @executable_path/../Frameworks.

However, when I try to build my app it:

a) Correctly builds the framework first b) Correctly copies the framework c) Errors because it cannot find the master header file in my framework

I have verified that the header is there. I can see it in the app product that is partially built.

ls build/Debug/CioccolataTest.webapp/Contents/Frameworks/Cioccolata.framework/Headers/Cioccolata.h build/Debug/CioccolataTest.webapp/Contents/Frameworks/Cioccolata.framework/Headers/Cioccolata.h

I have been able to successfully build the app by copying my framework into /Library/Frameworks (I can then delete it again after the successful build), but this is a workaround, I'm looking to find it out why Xcode doesn't find the framework's master header file without it being copied to a system directory. Is copying it to the app bundle during the build not sufficient?

Here's the full build transcript if it's any help (it's just a Hello World app right now, so not much going on here):

Build Cioccolata of project Cioccolata with configuration Debug

SymLink /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework/Versions/Current A cd /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata /bin/ln -sf A /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework/Versions/Current

SymLink /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework/Resources Versions/Current/Resources cd /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata /bin/ln -sf Versions/Current/Resources /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework/Resources

SymLink /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework/Headers Versions/Current/Headers cd /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata /bin/ln -sf Versions/Current/Headers /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework/Headers

SymLink /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework/Cioccolata Versions/Current/Cioccolata cd /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata /bin/ln -sf Versions/Current/Cioccolata /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework/Cioccolata

ProcessInfoPlistFile /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Info.plist Info.plist cd /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata builtin-infoPlistUtility Info.plist -expandbuildsettings -platform macosx -o /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Info.plist

CpHeader build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework/Versions/A/Headers/CWHelloWorld.h CWHelloWorld.h cd /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata /Developer/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DevToolsCore.framework/Resources/pbxcp -exclude .DS_Store -exclude CVS -exclude .svn -resolve-src-symlinks /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/CWHelloWorld.h /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework/Versions/A/Headers

CpHeader build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework/Versions/A/Headers/Cioccolata.h Cioccolata.h cd /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata /Developer/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DevToolsCore.framework/Resources/pbxcp -exclude .DS_Store -exclude CVS -exclude .svn -resolve-src-symlinks /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/Cioccolata.h /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework/Versions/A/Headers

CopyStringsFile /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework/Versions/A/Resources/English.lproj/InfoPlist.strings English.lproj/InfoPlist.strings cd /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata setenv ICONV /usr/bin/iconv /Developer/Library/Xcode/Plug-ins/CoreBuildTasks.xcplugin/Contents/Resources/copystrings --validate --inputencoding utf-8 --outputencoding UTF-16 English.lproj/InfoPlist.strings --outdir /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework/Versions/A/Resources/English.lproj

ProcessPCH /var/folders/Xy/Xy-bvnxtFpiYBQPED0dK1++++TI/-Caches-/com.apple.Xcode.501/SharedPrecompiledHeaders/Cioccolata_Prefix-dololiigmwjzkgenggebqtpvbauu/Cioccolata_Prefix.pch.gch Cioccolata_Prefix.pch normal i386 objective-c com.apple.compilers.gcc.4_2 cd /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata setenv LANG en_US.US-ASCII /Developer/usr/bin/gcc-4.2 -x objective-c-header -arch i386 -fmessage-length=0 -pipe -std=gnu99 -Wno-trigraphs -fpascal-strings -fasm-blocks -O0 -Wreturn-type -Wunused-variable -isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk -mfix-and-continue -mmacosx-version-min=10.5 -gdwarf-2 -iquote /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Cioccolata.build/Debug/Cioccolata.build/Cioccolata-generated-files.hmap -I/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Cioccolata.build/Debug/Cioccolata.build/Cioccolata-own-target-headers.hmap -I/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Cioccolata.build/Debug/Cioccolata.build/Cioccolata-all-target-headers.hmap -iquote /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Cioccolata.build/Debug/Cioccolata.build/Cioccolata-project-headers.hmap -F/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug -I/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/include -I/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Cioccolata.build/Debug/Cioccolata.build/DerivedSources/i386 -I/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Cioccolata.build/Debug/Cioccolata.build/DerivedSources -c /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/Cioccolata_Prefix.pch -o /var/folders/Xy/Xy-bvnxtFpiYBQPED0dK1++++TI/-Caches-/com.apple.Xcode.501/SharedPrecompiledHeaders/Cioccolata_Prefix-dololiigmwjzkgenggebqtpvbauu/Cioccolata_Prefix.pch.gch

CompileC build/Cioccolata.build/Debug/Cioccolata.build/Objects-normal/i386/CWHelloWorld.o /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/CWHelloWorld.m normal i386 objective-c com.apple.compilers.gcc.4_2 cd /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata setenv LANG en_US.US-ASCII /Developer/usr/bin/gcc-4.2 -x objective-c -arch i386 -fmessage-length=0 -pipe -std=gnu99 -Wno-trigraphs -fpascal-strings -fasm-blocks -O0 -Wreturn-type -Wunused-variable -isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk -mfix-and-continue -mmacosx-version-min=10.5 -gdwarf-2 -iquote /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Cioccolata.build/Debug/Cioccolata.build/Cioccolata-generated-files.hmap -I/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Cioccolata.build/Debug/Cioccolata.build/Cioccolata-own-target-headers.hmap -I/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Cioccolata.build/Debug/Cioccolata.build/Cioccolata-all-target-headers.hmap -iquote /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Cioccolata.build/Debug/Cioccolata.build/Cioccolata-project-headers.hmap -F/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug -I/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/include -I/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Cioccolata.build/Debug/Cioccolata.build/DerivedSources/i386 -I/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Cioccolata.build/Debug/Cioccolata.build/DerivedSources -include /var/folders/Xy/Xy-bvnxtFpiYBQPED0dK1++++TI/-Caches-/com.apple.Xcode.501/SharedPrecompiledHeaders/Cioccolata_Prefix-dololiigmwjzkgenggebqtpvbauu/Cioccolata_Prefix.pch -c /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/CWHelloWorld.m -o /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Cioccolata.build/Debug/Cioccolata.build/Objects-normal/i386/CWHelloWorld.o

Ld /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework/Versions/A/Cioccolata normal i386 cd /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata setenv MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET 10.5 /Developer/usr/bin/gcc-4.2 -arch i386 -dynamiclib -isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk -L/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug -F/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug -filelist /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Cioccolata.build/Debug/Cioccolata.build/Objects-normal/i386/Cioccolata.LinkFileList -install_name @executable_path/../Frameworks/Cioccolata.framework/Versions/A/Cioccolata -mmacosx-version-min=10.5 -framework Foundation -single_module -compatibility_version 1 -current_version 1 -o /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework/Versions/A/Cioccolata

Touch /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework cd /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata /usr/bin/touch -c /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework

Build CioccolataTest of project CioccolataTest with configuration Debug

ProcessInfoPlistFile /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/build/Debug/CioccolataTest.webapp/Contents/Info.plist Info.plist cd /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest builtin-infoPlistUtility Info.plist -expandbuildsettings -platform macosx -o /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/build/Debug/CioccolataTest.webapp/Contents/Info.plist

PBXCp build/Debug/CioccolataTest.webapp/Contents/Frameworks/Cioccolata.framework /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework cd /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest /Developer/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DevToolsCore.framework/Resources/pbxcp -exclude .DS_Store -exclude CVS -exclude .svn -resolve-src-symlinks /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/Cioccolata/build/Debug/Cioccolata.framework /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/build/Debug/CioccolataTest.webapp/Contents/Frameworks

CopyStringsFile /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/build/Debug/CioccolataTest.webapp/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/InfoPlist.strings English.lproj/InfoPlist.strings cd /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest setenv ICONV /usr/bin/iconv /Developer/Library/Xcode/Plug-ins/CoreBuildTasks.xcplugin/Contents/Resources/copystrings --validate --inputencoding utf-8 --outputencoding UTF-16 English.lproj/InfoPlist.strings --outdir /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/build/Debug/CioccolataTest.webapp/Contents/Resources/English.lproj

CompileC build/CioccolataTest.build/Debug/CioccolataTest.build/Objects-normal/i386/main.o main.m normal i386 objective-c com.apple.compilers.gcc.4_2 cd /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest setenv LANG en_US.US-ASCII /Developer/usr/bin/gcc-4.2 -x objective-c -arch i386 -fmessage-length=0 -pipe -std=gnu99 -Wno-trigraphs -fpascal-strings -fasm-blocks -O0 -Wreturn-type -Wunused-variable -isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk -mfix-and-continue -mmacosx-version-min=10.5 -gdwarf-2 -iquote /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/build/CioccolataTest.build/Debug/CioccolataTest.build/CioccolataTest-generated-files.hmap -I/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/build/CioccolataTest.build/Debug/CioccolataTest.build/CioccolataTest-own-target-headers.hmap -I/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/build/CioccolataTest.build/Debug/CioccolataTest.build/CioccolataTest-all-target-headers.hmap -iquote /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/build/CioccolataTest.build/Debug/CioccolataTest.build/CioccolataTest-project-headers.hmap -F/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/build/Debug -I/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/build/Debug/include -I/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/build/CioccolataTest.build/Debug/CioccolataTest.build/DerivedSources/i386 -I/Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/build/CioccolataTest.build/Debug/CioccolataTest.build/DerivedSources -include /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/prefix.pch -c /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/main.m -o /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/build/CioccolataTest.build/Debug/CioccolataTest.build/Objects-normal/i386/main.o

In file included from <command-line>:0: /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/prefix.pch:13:35: error: Cioccolata/Cioccolata.h: No such file or directory /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/main.m: In function 'main': /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/main.m:13: error: 'CWHelloWorld' undeclared (first use in this function) /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/main.m:13: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/main.m:13: error: for each function it appears in.) /Users/chris/Projects/Mac/CioccolataTest/main.m:13: error: 'hello' undeclared (first use in this function)

Answer 1

Does your 'Framework Search Paths' build setting include the path to the framework?

Answer 2

I know this post is old now, but I'm working on another project and have just had the displeasure of setting up another cross-project reference for an embedded framework that must be built from a separate project before building this project.

I came up with a much more elegant fix (and probably the "correct" fix) this time, basically because what I did last time wasn't working (Xcode kept complaining that it couldn't find the framework's main header file).

The solution. I've just tested it on a number of projects from scratch just to be sure...

1. Add the other (dependency) project to your main project by doing "Project -> Add to project"
2. Double click on your target that requires products from the other project.
3. In the general tab, add the required products as direct dependencies (top panel). Close this settings panel.
4. Drag the product from the cross-project reference into the Link Binary with Libraries build phase of your target.
5. Add a new "Copy Files" build phase, selecting "Products" as the destination directory (!!!). Rename this build phase to "Copy Cross-Project Products".
6. Drag your cross-project product(s) into this new build phase and make sure that it's the first build phase in your target.
7. Add one final "Copy Files" build phase to your target, selecting "Frameworks" as the destination.
8. Drag your cross-project product(s) into this new build phase.

While it looks long-winded, most of it is pretty normal and exactly what you'd do if the dependency target was in the same project. The crucial first build phase however needs to copy the built products from the other project into the current project's build directory.

Obviously Xcode is smart enough to get the other project to perform the build, but not smart enough to think to look there when it starts compiling your sources that depend on it.