Question

I’m new to iPhone development and I’m still getting familiar with the Mac dev environment, including Xcode. I want to add some 3rd party code to my iPhone project, but when I add the “existing files” to my Xcode project, I’m presented with a dialog box that has far too many options that I don’t understand and, as such, my project isn’t working. When I #import headerfilename.h, I get a build error that reads headerfilename.h: No such file or directory.

alt text http://joecrotchett.com/images/misc/fileadd.jpg

1. Can anyone explain to me what all these options mean or give me a link to some documentation that can? I’m having a hard time finding anything in Apple’s docs.
2. Which options do I want to choose to add existing source code files to my Xcode project? I should note that the source code files that I’m trying to add are located in my project/Classes/frameworkname/ directory.
3. After they’re added, do I need to reference this new code directory in my project settings anywhere (i.e. some kind of header file directory variable)?

Thanks so much!

Update: I found the following answers/responses on the apple dev forums that were very useful and helped me fix my issue…

To make it simple :
– if you do not check the copy option, the file stay where it is.
– if you check it, it is copied in your project folders In the first case
(what it seems you are doing) you need
to tell the compiler that the header
files are in another directory :
– project info -> build -> search paths -> User Header Search Path : add
the directory from where you took the
header file Hope this will help

---

You have discovered the most confusing
dialog box that ever came out of
Cupertino. Six years of Xcode, and
this thing still is partly a mystery
to me. To even get that far, I had to
make many test projects to try and
reverse-engineer what this thing does.
The “Copy” box means that it will copy
the files as they are right now, into
the project. If this box is not
checked, then it just references those
files during a build and copies them
as they are at THAT time. For source
code, you want the Copy box checked.
The “relative to” is a total mystery
to me and I can’t help you with that.
I usually leave it however it is
already set. Does it mean relative to
where they are on disk, or the
arrangement in Xcode, or in the
bundle? Who knows. The last 2 radio
buttons SEEM to mean that it will
either re-create the folder structure
of the folder you are adding, or just
put “fake” folders in Xcode that point
to the real folders. This is probably
your problem – you are adding source
code that is not all at the top level,
and when it goes to find it, it does
not re-create the hierarchy. Others
can supply a better way, hopefully,
but what I would do is put all of the
source in one folder and add that,
using the Copy box. Then in Xcode you
can make whatever bogus folders you
want and put the source file names in
those fake folders.

Answer 1

Copy items into destination group’s
folder (if needed)

Well, only if you want it to copy the files. If you are happy with their existing location and don’t want it to copy them, don’t select it (that’s what I do).

Reference Type:

A total mystery to me

Text Encoding

Self explanatory

Recursively create groups for any
added folders Create Folder References
for any added folders

Leave this as the default and then organize the folders in your Xcode project any way you want.

Add to targets

If you add an additional target to your project, e.g. for iPhone vs. iPad versions, then not noticing that it has by default added the files to just one of them (at random?) can cause headaches.

Also, make sure you add the new header directory to your search paths in Project Settings > Build > Search paths. I think that’s what’s causing your problem.

Hope this helps, I remember how confusing this was to me at first.