Impossible to build for iOS

[sc00n]

It is impossible to build a flutter project on iOS when you include this package.

Way to reproduce:

• Create new empty flutter project
• add _carp_mobilesensing: 0.40.13 and do pub get
• try to run the app

In that case, this is my output:

Could not build the precompiled application for the device.
Swift Compiler Error (Xcode): Using bridging headers with module interfaces is unsupported

Uncategorized (Xcode): Command SwiftDriver emitted errors but did not return a nonzero exit code to indicate failure

Error (Xcode): no such module '__ObjC'
/Users/merijnmestdagh/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Runner-gvgebmsecfctmcftbygkytvpcngb/Build/Intermediates.noindex/Runner.bu
ild/Debug-iphoneos/Runner.build/Objects-normal/arm64/Runner.private.swiftinterface:9:18

Error (Xcode): failed to verify module interface of 'Runner' due to the errors above; the textual interface may be broken by
project issues or a compiler bug
/Users/merijnmestdagh/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Runner-gvgebmsecfctmcftbygkytvpcngb/Build/Intermediates.noindex/Runner.bu
ild/Debug-iphoneos/Runner.build/Objects-normal/arm64/Runner.private.swiftinterface:0:0

Error launching application on Merijn’s iPhone.

Obviously without the CARP package, the empty default Flutter app runs fine.

The problem also occurs with other CARP packages (e.g. _carp_connectivitypackage: ^0.40.1)

I currently have XCode Version 14.3. A colleague of mine said that the problem disappears when you roll back to XCode 14.2. A month ago, I didn't have this problem yet (same CARP versions). This also points in the direction that something on Apple/XCode has changed.

[bardram]

I very rarely work on iOS / XCode, so I have not encountered this problem. I will have @LarsRefsgaard look into this - he is our iOS guy around here.

[LarsRefsgaard]

So the release notes for XCode 14.3 mention that something was changed in terms of modules... might be that? I'll investigate further in the near future.

[LarsRefsgaard]

So as I was able to reproduce but unable to find a working fix, I suggest @bardram releases CAMS soon, maybe as a pre-release or beta or some sort and then you can use that instead @sc00n .

[bardram]

I was wondering if this has been solved with the new release of CAMS (currently on 1.2.0)?

[LarsRefsgaard]

It seems not. I tried making a new project and flutter pub add carp_mobile_sensing and I am still unable to build.

This is a new error though, that I will paste here for future reference:

Swift Compiler Error (Xcode): Using bridging headers with module interfaces is unsupported

Uncategorized (Xcode): Command SwiftDriver emitted errors but did not return a nonzero exit code to indicate failure

Error (Xcode): no such module '__ObjC'
/Users/larsrefsgaard/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Runner-fvkipatxndkoirhcdoppxxeubbkt/Build/Intermediates.noindex/Runner.build/Debug-iphonesimulator/Runner.build/Objects-normal/arm64/Runner.private.swiftinterface:9:18

Error (Xcode): failed to verify module interface of 'Runner' due to the errors above; the textual interface may be broken by project issues or a compiler bug
/Users/larsrefsgaard/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Runner-fvkipatxndkoirhcdoppxxeubbkt/Build/Intermediates.noindex/Runner.build/Debug-iphonesimulator/Runner.build/Objects-normal/arm64/Runner.private.swiftinterface:0:0

Could not build the application for the simulator.
Error launching application on iPhone 14 Pro Max.```

[majornuts]

my fork build android and ios now, but the ios app that gets build is stuck in eternal loading mode. 💩 the main take away was bumping the ios version, and disabling the distributed lib build setting.

[sc00n]

I also find that when I go to build settings, and set 'build libraries for distribution' to no, I can run an app that imports carp_mobile_sensing: ^1.2.0. I guess however that this means that I cannot distribute the app anymore on the app store? This would make this solution not so useful for me.

(probably related problem of which I don't understand everything as I don't know a lot about iOS: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/120352)

[majornuts]

Setting name: BUILD_LIBRARY_FOR_DISTRIBUTION

Ensures that your libraries are built for distribution. For Swift, this enables support for library evolution and generation of a module interface file

My gut feeling tells me it's a library that is non null safe that cascades, or a versioning problem with carp libraries.

[sc00n]

Ok, so I did some digging! I looked at all the packages that are imported in carp_mobile_sensing. The problem seems to be with awesome_notifications. When I add awesome_notifications: ^0.7.0 in an empty flutter project, I get the same error.

[sc00n]

awesome_notifications has indeed the following configuration steps:

... and set the following options:

In Runner Target:

Build libraries for distribution => NO
Only safe API extensions => NO
iOS Deployment Target => 11 or greater
In all other Targets:

Build libraries for distribution => NO
Only safe API extensions => YES

see https://pub.dev/packages/awesome_notifications

These settings look a bit dodgy... Is awesome_notifications necessary? I also see that they don't really work together well with firebase_messaging, which I certainly need for my app.

[LarsRefsgaard]

awesome_notifications has indeed the following configuration steps:

... and set the following options:

In Runner Target:

Build libraries for distribution => NO
Only safe API extensions => NO
iOS Deployment Target => 11 or greater
In all other Targets:

Build libraries for distribution => NO
Only safe API extensions => YES

see https://pub.dev/packages/awesome_notifications

These settings look a bit dodgy... Is awesome_notifications necessary? I also see that they don't really work together well with firebase_messaging, which I certainly need for my app.

That is a very interesting finding indeed. Have you tried dependency overriding awesome_notifications with their prerelease @sc00n ? We use it to send notifications for tasks. Maybe @bardram can comment on this? Would it be possible to refactor the NotificationController to a separate package or something?

[sc00n]

Their prerelease had the same 'problems'. I see that you also use flutter_local_notifications in your import? This seems to have

• no problems with firebase
• does not need weird settings in iOS

Additionally awesome_notifications also states that it cannot be used together with flutter_local_notifications. Would it be possible to just use flutter_local_notifications instead of awesome_notifications?

[LarsRefsgaard]

We initially used flutter_local_notifications but switched away from it in favour of awesome_notifications, but it seems that that might not have been the best idea. @bardram might be able to give some input on exactly why, and if it would be easy to revert back? The advantage of flutter_local_notifications seems to be that it is maintained by more than just one single person, who is not that active, looking at their respective repos: https://github.com/rafaelsetragni/awesome_notifications https://pub.dev/packages/flutter_local_notifications

Also flutter_local_notifications has a Flutter favourite badge, for what it's worth.

[majornuts]

Swiftin page link Known Issuesin page link If a module is built with BUILD_LIBRARIES_FOR_DISTRIBUTION and contains a public type with the same name as the module itself, clients will fail to import the module. (19481048) (FB5863238)

Workaround: Rename either the type or the module to remove the conflict.

[LarsRefsgaard]

@sc00n I have made a branch and a PR (#334 ) to remove awesome_notifications, so then I can discuss it with @bardram when he is home next week. For now you can do:

dependency_overrides:
  carp_mobile_sensing:
    git:
      url: https://github.com/cph-cachet/carp.sensing-flutter.git
      ref: LarsRefsgaard/issue321
      path: carp_mobile_sensing/

in your pubspec.yaml.

[LarsRefsgaard]

334 is merged into develop-1.1.0 and released as carp_mobile_sensing 1.3.2, closing issue.