You may have wondered if you can run the whole app inside the playground!, say you want to experiment a little faster.
Here we will go through the steps needed to achieve that.
Add the playground
Click file ->new->Playground and create a single view playground , give it a name e.g. playground and save it somewhere, then go to the directory where you saved it and copy it to your project.
Create a Cocoa Touch Framework
We need to create a framework that can be exposed to the playground later on.
To do that select the project file and under the targets section and click on the + button then choose Cocoa touch framework and name it something like playground.
Update the target membership of the source files
For the playground framework to be useful we need to add files to it, and since we are trying to run the whole project we need to add all the project files to it , and you can do that by going to the files and bundles and from the file inspector -> target membership check the playground box.
Import the project in the playground
This is where we get to see some results finally ,
@testable import playground
@testable is needed here so that the internal methods would be accessible from the playground, otherwise you need to go to each class and mark any function, property or type as public.
Cocoa pods
If you are using cocoa pods you need to add these lines to the podfile , which will add the frameworks to the playground framework target, and remove the need to code sign it. add these lines to your pod file.
given your target name is myapp
target 'myapp' do
use_frameworks!
target 'playground' do
inherit! :search_paths
end
end and after that add these
post_install do |installer|
installer.pods_project.build_configurations.each do |config|
config.build_settings.delete('CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED')
config.build_settings.delete('CODE_SIGNING_REQUIRED')
end
installer.pods_project.targets.each do |target|
target.build_configurations.each do |config|
config.build_settings['CONFIGURATION_BUILD_DIR'] = '$PODS_CONFIGURATION_BUILD_DIR'
end
end
endSame goes for any other framework, where you need to update the target membership of it and include the playground framework target.
Separate the playground framework from production
Since you don’t want the playground framework you just created to be shipped with the app, which will add extra space to the app binaries, you can create a development target instead and un-link the playground framework from the production target.
Notes
- Whenever you change something in your project, you need to build it first to be able to see it on the playground.
- Playground is not that smooth most of the time, so I won’t rely on this technique for heavy testing , but it can be nice to try out part of your project logic directly.
DEMO
That should be it , you can find a working example in the demo repo, feel free to download it and try it yourself.
We need you to register first in the app which will allow you to Post Puzzles, like puzzles , follow other users, and to be identified when you solve a puzzle, and give you Points.
LATEST
When you tap on the Solve button under a puzzle of your choice you get the SOLVER Screen, which is a very simple screen , where you will see a shuffled image and try to solve it within the time limit.
The Maker Screen is where you create your own puzzle and it’s dead simple with a nice design.
