longbow

Problem

One codebase. Multiple App Store submission targets with different icons, launch images, info.plist keys, screenshots, etc.

Solution

$ longbow install
$ longbow shoot
$ longbow aim

About

Longbow is a command-line run ruby gem that duplicates the main target in your .xcworkspace or .xcodeproj file, then reads from a JSON file to fill out the rest of your new target. It looks for certain keys and does things like taking an icon image and resizing it for the various icons you'll need, and adding keys to the info.plist file for that target. The goal was to be practically autonomous in creating new targets and apps.

Additionally, it can create screenshots for each target app store submission. You write a simple UIAutomation script (it's just JavaScript) and Longbow takes care of taking the screenshots for each combination of target, device, and language.

Requirements

Longbow requires Xcode 5+, and your app must use the new .xcassets paradigm for icons, launch screens, etc.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Set Up
• Formatting longbow.json
• Create a Target
• Global Options
• The Future
• Contributing

Installation

Longbow is officially hosted on RubyGems, so installation is a breeze:

$ gem install longbow

Set Up

Run longbow install in the directory where your .xcworkspace or .xcodeproj file lives. This will create a file, longbow.json, where they will be used to build out from here. You are almost ready to start creating new targets

Formatting longbow.json

Here's a basic gist of how to format your longbow.json file:

{
	"targets":[
		{
			"name":"TargetName",
			"icon_url":"https://somewhere.net/img.png",
			"launch_phone_p_url":"https://somewhere.net/img2.png",
			"info_plist": {
        		"CFBundleIdentifier":"com.company.target1",
            	"ProprietaryKey":"Value"
      		}
		},
		{
			"name":"TargetName2",
			"icon_path":"/relative/path/to/file.png",
			"launch_phone_p_path":"/relative/path/to/file2.png",
			"info_plist": {
        		"CFBundleIdentifier":"com.company.target2",
            	"ProprietaryKey":"Value2"
      		}
		}
	],
 	"global_info_keys":{
 		"somekey":"somevalue"
 	},
    "devices":["iPhone","iPad"]
}

In the top-level of the JSON file, we have 3 key/value pairs:

• targets
• devices
• global_info_keys

The targets section contains nested key/value pairs for each specific target. Devices holds an array of "iPhone" and/or "iPad". "global_info_keys" contains key/value pairs that you'd like to add to the info.plist file for all targets in this JSON file. Each target can contain the following keys:

• icon_url or icon_path
• launch_phone_p_url or launch_phone_p_path
• launch_phone_l_url or launch_phone_l_path
• launch_tablet_p_url or launch_tablet_p_path
• launch_tablet_l_url or launch_tablet_l_path
• info_plist
• name

The icon_url and icon_path key corresponds to the location of the icon image. It will be downloaded from the web if necessary, then resized depending on your device setting and added to the Images.xcassets file for that target. The same goes for the launch image keys. The p and l parts correspond to portrait and landscape orientation. The info_plist key corresponds to another set of key/value pairs that will be added or updated in the info.plist file specifically for this target.

Note: info_plist takes precedence over global_info_keys for two of the same keys in both places.

Creating/Updating a Target

Now that you're set up - it's time to add a target. Make sure that you have updated your longbow.json file with the correct information for your target, and then run the following command inside the project directory.

longbow shoot -n NameOfTarget

What this does is goes to your longbow.json file and looks for the correct target dictionary, and tries to create a new Target in your app. It then handles the various icons/info_plist additions specifically for this target. If your target already exists, it will just update the icon images and plist settings.

If you leave off the -n option, it will run for all targets in the longbow.json file.

Other Options

• -d, --directory - if not in the current directory, specify a new path
• -u, --url - the url of a longbow formatted JSON file
• -i, --images - set this flag to not recreate images in the longbow file
• -l, --launchscreenimages - set this flag to create images for the launch screen in the longbow file

longbow shoot -n NameOfTarget -d ~/Path/To/App -u http://someurl.com/longbow.json

Global Options

--dontlog will not log the status/operations to the console.

--help will fill you in on what you need to do for an action.

Taking Screenshots

So you've created all your targets and finished the first version of the app - now you need the screen shots to submit it to the App Store.

First you'll need to write a single UIAutomation script to take the screenshots. You can see Apple's Documentation for more information on writing the script. The part we're primarily concerned with is the captureLocalizedScreenshot() method provided by Longbow. This method will take the screenshot with a consistent naming scheme and place it in a folder for each target.

captureLocalizedScreenshot("homeScreen"); will create ~/Desktop/screenshots/TargetName/en-US/iOS-4-in___portrait___homeScreen.png

Once you've created your automation script, you can run it by calling longbow aim. This command will generate a variation of your UIAutomation script for each target, then handle running it for each target. Grab a drink, depending on your script and your number of targets, this may take a while.

Options

Similar to the shoot command, there are flags you can use with this feature.

• -n - name of the target to capture
• -d - directory the project lives in
• -u - url of the longbow.json file

The Future

• Unit Tests
• App Store deployment of Targets

Contributing

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create new Pull Request