ios-metadata-generator not picking up the Moodstocks Cocoapods library

[mattvot]

After seeing NativeScript at AngularConnect recently, I've been able to set aside a week to investigate how we can use it.

I am trying to get the Moodstocks iOS SDK working with NativeScript to bring image recognition into NS.

We believe the ios-metadata-generator is either not parsing the header files correctly or there is something that the library needs to. In both cases, it is frustrating that I cannot find any documentation relating to this issue.

Moodstocks is not an open-source project and is distributed as a .framework with a binary file and headers. With no practical knowledge of how native projects usually work, I have been discussing this with some native developers in our team to try and figure this out. This is what we have found:

Reproduction

1. We created a brand new iOS NativeScript project.

#shell
tns create ir && cd ir && tns platform add ios

2. Added these cocoapods:

#file ir/platform/ios/Podfile
platform :ios, '8.0'
use_frameworks!
pod 'AFNetworking'
pod 'Moodstocks-iOS-SDK', '~> 4.0'

#shell
pod install

3. Update app.js

#file: ir/app/app.js
catcher(function(){
    console.log(AFURLConnectionOperation);
});

catcher(function(){
    console.log(require("AFURLConnectionOperation"));
});

catcher(function(){
     // objc! syntax suggested in https://github.com/NativeScript/sample-iOS-StaticLibs/blob/master/README.md#add-module-map
    console.log(require("objc!AFURLConnectionOperation"));
});

catcher(function(){
      console.log(MSScanner);
});

catcher(function(){
      console.log(require("MSScanner"));
});

catcher(function(){
    // objc! syntax suggested in https://github.com/NativeScript/sample-iOS-StaticLibs/blob/master/README.md#add-module-map
    console.log(require("objc!MSScanner"));
});

function catcher(callback)
{
    try
    {
        callback()
    }
    catch(e)
    {
        console.log(e);
    }
}

var application = require("application");
application.mainModule = "main-page";
application.cssFile = "./app.css";
application.start();

4. Run emulation

#shell
tns run ios --emulator --device "iPhone 6"

Using tns version 1.5.0

The only statement that resolves without error is console.log(AFURLConnectionOperation);

I think this means that Moodstocks has not been picked up by the generator, whereas AFNetworking is.

We speculate it may have something to do with the structure of the frameworks. But this is pure speculation:

Any advice would be welcome, and we vastly appreciate the work so far! It would be good to have a document explaining how the ios-metadata-generator works, as android does.

[N3ll]

Hey @mattvot, we will investigate the problem with the CocoaPods and we will get back to you as soon as we have something.

You can find Information about the metadata generators in their GitHub repositories - ios and android.

[ivanbuhov]

Hi @mattvot,
I turns out that Moodstocks framework doesn't contain Modules/module.modulemap file which is needed for metadata generation process. To add the file manualy go to {your-app}/platforms/ios/Pods/Moodstocks-iOS-SDK/moodstocks-ios-sdk-4.1.6/Moodstocks.framework/, create Modules folder and create module.modulemap file in it with the following content:

framework module Moodstocks {
  umbrella header "Moodstocks.h"

  export *
  module * { export * }
}

This will do the trick, but the solution requires a manual changes in the platforms/ folder which is not recommended. Alternatively, I suggest wrapping the Modstocks framework in NativeScript plugin and using the plugin in your app. This way the module.modulemap file will be added only once in the plugin.

[mattvot]

Ah ha! Thanks @ivanbuhov. It works now after manually adding the module.modulemap.

If I have time in the future, I may start add some documentation relating to the module.modulemap.

I will also be contacting Moodstocks to see if they can add it to their framework as well.

[lock]

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