Setting up Xcode for developing Plug-ins

I've never worked in XCode before but I am designing a plugin (objective-c) for an open source radiology program called OsiriX. I can get the thing to compile and I can even get the plugin to run in OsiriX. But, I'm not sure how to run/debug it from XCode. Run/Debug is grayed out on my xcode. Is it because there开发者_如何学Python's no main program?

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(1) "Clean all" your projects so that there isn't detritus left around when you do this.

(2) Set Xcode to use a common build products directory (I stick mine in /tmp/ so that it periodically gets nuked). The preference is under the "Building" section.

(3) Re-build OsiriX (so that it'll be built in the shared location).

(4) Make sure the active configuration in your plug-in project has the exact same name as the configuration in OsiriX that you built in (3). (It should probably be "Debug" or "Release", depending on which you build). The configurations can be edited in the build settings editor.

(5) Build your plug-in.

(6) Add a custom executable to your plug-in project and set the path to OsiriX (Project -> New Custom Executable...).

You should now be able to build-and-run or build-and-debug your project. It will launch OsiriX from the build products directory. You might also want to set OsiriX to look for bundles in your build products directory, if it doesn't already. Or you could create a symbolic link from one of OsiriX's plug-in directories to the bundle in your build products directory.

cd /path/to/OsiriX's/bundle/directory
ln -s /path/to/build/products/YourPlugin.bundle

This is a very standard way of ocnfiguring Xcode for development of plug-ins. For example, preference pane developers will set up a custom executable for SystemPreferences.app (even in /Applications -- there is no need to point to a "debug" build of the application).

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In order to debug your plugin, you have to be running Osirix in Xcode as well. Download the Osirix source code from Github and compile and run it. You'll have to add the plugin to its plugin list and then when you run in Xcode your NSLog statements from the plugin source will print out in the Xcode console screen for the main Osirix program. I believe breakpoints work as well.

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My experience with Xcode is also somewhat limited, but I've found that using the latest version (6.1.1) I can debug my plugin simply by attaching to a running OsiriX process via the Debug -> Attach Process menu. This does not require you to build OsiriX from source - I'm currently using the standard (non-MD) version as downloaded from their website.

Note that you still need to restart OsiriX to pick up any changes to your plugin.