How to manually add a .xcframework to a Flutter iOS Plugin?

Issue

I’m trying to create a Flutter Plugin to use a native library.
This library I’m trying to use is stored in a private repository and can be used with Swift Dependency Manager.

This is causing me a headache, cause I can’t add a private repository dependency in my plugin (I couldn’t find a way to do this in .podspec file), so what I’ve done:

1. I’ve added the plugin to the Example project with Swift Package Manager
2. Manually copied MyDependency.xcframework folder to MyPlugin/ios folder
3. Referenced it in podspec file, like this:

s.preserve_paths = 'MyDependency.xcframework'
s.xcconfig = { 'OTHER_LDFLAGS' => '-framework MyDependency' }
s.vendored_frameworks = 'MyDependency.xcframework'

Doing this I’m able to use MyDependency inside plugin’s sources.

My current problem is: This is only working in Simulator.

Before doing this, the project was running without any problem in real devices.

This is the error message I’m receiving every time I tried to run in a real device:

Also, I’ve made a test using the dependency directly from Swift Dependency Manager and is working fine. I think the problem is the way I’m adding the framework to my plugin.

Solution

After doing some research, I’ve found some links giving me an ideia about the real problem…

To solve this, I’ve added a simple script to my main project’s build process.

This script adds the code signing to inner .framework files.

cd "${CODESIGNING_FOLDER_PATH}/Frameworks/"

# flatten nested frameworks by copying to APP.app/Frameworks
for framework in *; do
    if [ -d "$framework" ]; then
        if [ -d "${framework}/Frameworks" ]; then
            echo "Moving embedded frameworks from ${framework} to ${PRODUCT_NAME}.app/Frameworks"
            cp -R "${framework}/Frameworks/" .
            rm -rf "${framework}/Frameworks"
        fi
    fi
done

# remove any leftover nested frameworks (i.e. 'PackageName_359AFEED79E48935_PackageProduct.framework')
for framework in *; do
    if [ -d "$framework" ]; then
        if [ -d "${framework}/Frameworks" ]; then
            echo "Removing embedded frameworks from ${framework} to ${PRODUCT_NAME}.app/Frameworks"
            rm -rf "${framework}/Frameworks"
        fi
    fi
done

# codesign for Debugging on device
if [ "${CONFIGURATION}" == "Debug" ] & [ "${SDKROOT}" != *Simulator* ] ; then

    echo "Code signing frameworks..."
    find "${CODESIGNING_FOLDER_PATH}/Frameworks" -maxdepth 1 -name '*.framework' -print0 | while read -d $'\0' framework
    do
        # only sign frameworks without a signature
        if ! codesign -v "${framework}"; then
            codesign --force --sign "${EXPANDED_CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY}" --preserve-metadata=identifier,entitlements --timestamp=none "${framework}"
            echo "Added missing signature to '${framework}'"
        fi
    done
fi

Answered By – siega

Answer Checked By – Marie Seifert (FlutterFixes Admin)