iOS-Framework Question: What else can be included, from other third-party libraries (.a, .framework, .dylib files) when making your own framework? about ios-framework HOT 4 CLOSED

I would say it's not recommended to embed other frameworks/libraries. You can cause issues and it bloats your framework. Look at what Apple does, when you need a library/framework you add it.

When you publish a framework, just include what it depends on (i.e. CoreLocation.framework, CoreGraphics.framework, etc). If open source, you might need to state a specific version that your framework works with.

I've had tons of headaches from 3rd party libraries/frameworks that had an embedded source code dependency (AWS did this with their iOS SDK).

NOTE If you do include 3rd party source in your build. (i.e. Facebook SDK, open source code, etc) You need to make sure you rename all the code files (i.e. SourceFile.h > PSSourceFile.h, etc). Otherwise people will not be able to integrate your .framework if they already have the Facebook SDK/source in their project. They'll get duplicate symbols, and their only solution is to either: not use your framework or rename their files to prevent duplicate symbols.

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I talked about this recently on StackOverflow:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11512291/prefix-static-library-ios/19341366#19341366

Short answer: don't do it.
Slightly-less-short answer: if you really need to*, make 100% sure that all of the third-party symbols have been prefixed or you risk introducing linker errors (duplicate symbols) to any project that uses your framework and a separately-linked version of the third-party library.

• One of the only cases I've really needed to thus far is when releasing an SDK framework that was built with a specific version of a third-party library. In this case it's preferential to fold that library into your framework to avoid any problems down the road when the third-party library inevitably changes.

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Thanks! This clears it up for me.

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Wicked, glad to hear :)

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