Question

I want to develop a program that relies on plugins (here: loadable bundles) to work. Multiple plugins are asked to use the same AFNetworking ressource to make network requests. However, I don’t know where to put AFNetworking and CustomPluginProtocol headers.

Here is how my program structure looks like for now:

MyApp.xcodeproj
  - AFNetworking
    - Header.h
  - Plugins
    - Plugin1.xcodeproj
      - PrincipalClass.m
    - Plugin2.xcodeproj
      - PrincipalClass.m
  - Classes
    - CustomPluginProtocol.h
    - MainClass.m

Of course, every principalClass from PluginN complies to the CustomPluginProtocol.

• Do the headers have to be copied in each bundle ?
• Can I just include the main program AFNetworking headers from my plugins ? If so (and that’s what I do for now), I don’t have any completion. How can I get it ?

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Edit

Ok, so maybe I wasn’t clear in my question.

I want my plugins to use sources from the main application, let’s say CommonClass.m and CommonClass.h. Do the plugins need CommonClass.h in their bundle, and if not, how do I enable completion when I’m in the plugin scope ?

Answer 1

You have 2 options:

1) Produce a framework which includes the headers in <Your Framework>/Headers/

2) Simply give out the headers to developers

I prefer option 1 as it’s easier to understand and keep track of everything, but apps like Photoshop use option 2 all the time, so it’s perfectly viable. With Option 1, developers would add the framework you make to their Xcode project, and the would #include <FrameworkName/HeaderName.h>. With option 2, you would give them a folder of headers and they would put it someplace that’s convenient for them and then would add that to their header search paths and #include "FolderName/HeaderName.h".