Removing linked Pods_framework in post_install Podfile hook

Question

I currently have the following situation in my flutter iOS/Android development process:

Every time flutter build runs it executes pod install which installs the regular Flutter Podfile

# Uncomment this line to define a global platform for your project
platform :ios, '10.0'

# CocoaPods analytics sends network stats synchronously affecting flutter build latency.
ENV['COCOAPODS_DISABLE_STATS'] = 'false'

project 'Runner', {
  'Debug' => :debug,
  'Profile' => :release,
  'Release' => :release,
}

def parse_KV_file(file, separator='=')
  file_abs_path = File.expand_path(file)
  if !File.exists? file_abs_path
    return [];
  end
  generated_key_values = {}
  skip_line_start_symbols = ["#", "/"]
  File.foreach(file_abs_path) do |line|
    next if skip_line_start_symbols.any? { |symbol| line =~ /^\s*#{symbol}/ }
    plugin = line.split(pattern=separator)
    if plugin.length == 2
      podname = plugin[0].strip()
      path = plugin[1].strip()
      podpath = File.expand_path("#{path}", file_abs_path)
      generated_key_values[podname] = podpath
    else
      puts "Invalid plugin specification: #{line}"
    end
  end
  generated_key_values
end

target 'Runner' do
  use_frameworks!
  use_modular_headers!

  # Flutter Pod

  copied_flutter_dir = File.join(__dir__, 'Flutter')
  copied_framework_path = File.join(copied_flutter_dir, 'Flutter.framework')
  copied_podspec_path = File.join(copied_flutter_dir, 'Flutter.podspec')
  unless File.exist?(copied_framework_path) && File.exist?(copied_podspec_path)
    # Copy Flutter.framework and Flutter.podspec to Flutter/ to have something to link against if the xcode backend script has not run yet.
    # That script will copy the correct debug/profile/release version of the framework based on the currently selected Xcode configuration.
    # CocoaPods will not embed the framework on pod install (before any build phases can generate) if the dylib does not exist.

    generated_xcode_build_settings_path = File.join(copied_flutter_dir, 'Generated.xcconfig')
    unless File.exist?(generated_xcode_build_settings_path)
      raise "Generated.xcconfig must exist. If you're running pod install manually, make sure flutter pub get is executed first"
    end
    generated_xcode_build_settings = parse_KV_file(generated_xcode_build_settings_path)
    cached_framework_dir = generated_xcode_build_settings['FLUTTER_FRAMEWORK_DIR'];

    unless File.exist?(copied_framework_path)
      FileUtils.cp_r(File.join(cached_framework_dir, 'Flutter.framework'), copied_flutter_dir)
    end
    unless File.exist?(copied_podspec_path)
      FileUtils.cp(File.join(cached_framework_dir, 'Flutter.podspec'), copied_flutter_dir)
    end
  end

  # Keep pod path relative so it can be checked into Podfile.lock.
  pod 'Flutter', :path => 'Flutter'

  # Plugin Pods

  # Prepare symlinks folder. We use symlinks to avoid having Podfile.lock
  # referring to absolute paths on developers' machines.
  system('rm -rf .symlinks')
  system('mkdir -p .symlinks/plugins')
  plugin_pods = parse_KV_file('../.flutter-plugins')
  plugin_pods.each do |name, path|
    symlink = File.join('.symlinks', 'plugins', name)
    File.symlink(path, symlink)
    pod name, :path => File.join(symlink, 'ios')
  end
end

target 'OneSignalNotificationServiceExtension' do
  use_frameworks!
  pod 'OneSignal', '>= 2.9.3', '< 3.0'
end

as seen at the end to enable OneSignal push notifications in my app, I've added the OneSignalNotificationServiceExtension. Since the Flutter Runner needs use_frameworks!, I have to add this line to the OneSignal Extension target as well.

This leads to the following file being included unter "General" > "Framework and Libraries" on my OneSignal Target ("Pods_OneSignalNotificationServiceExtension.framework"): wrongly linked file

But this file probably doesn't exist so the build fails.

If I manually remove this file from XCode, the build works.

But since running Flutter in debug mode from my IDE runs pod install again, I can't remove this link, so my idea was to automate the removing in the post_install hook inside the Podfile.

But since I'm neither really familiar with Ruby nor seem to be able to find good documentation for methods/properties in this callback, I'm not getting it to work.

Here's something I've tried so far:

post_install do |installer|
  installer.pods_project.targets.each do |target|
    target.build_configurations.each do |config|
      config.build_settings['ENABLE_BITCODE'] = 'NO'
    end
    
    if target.name == 'Pods-OneSignalNotificationServiceExtension'
      all_filerefs = installer.pods_project.files
      all_filerefs.each do |fileref|
        #puts(fileref.path)
        if fileref.path.end_with? "Pods_OneSignalNotificationServiceExtension.framework"
         puts("Found Pods_OneSignalNotificationServiceExtension.framework fileref.")
         build_phase = target.frameworks_build_phase
         #puts("Determining if build phase needs correction.")
         
         #all_filerefs.delete(fileref)
         build_phase.remove_file_reference(fileref)
         puts("Removing Pods_OneSignalNotificationServiceExtension.framework from OneSignalNotificationServiceExtension target")
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

But neither removing it from all_filerefs nor build_phase.remove_file_reference is quite working. Does anybody know how I can access the linked files from the "Framework and Libraries" section in XCode and how to remove said .framework-file?

Thanks a lot!

Solution

With the right google search I've managed to find a single result regarding this topic: https://titanwolf.org/Network/Articles/Article?AID=18711f19-4d55-49b9-a49e-8c4652dc0262#gsc.tab=0

I've took his function from "Fourth, add or remove framework to target"

def updateCustomFramework(project,target,path,name,command)

    # Get useful variables
    frameworks_group = project.groups.find { |group| group.display_name == 'Frameworks' }
    frameworks_build_phase = target.build_phases.find { |build_phase| build_phase.to_s == 'FrameworksBuildPhase' }
    embed_frameworks_build_phase = nil
    target.build_phases.each do |phase|
        if phase.display_name == 'Embed Frameworks'
            embed_frameworks_build_phase = phase
        end
        # puts phase
    end

    if command == :add
        # Add new "Embed Frameworks" build phase to target
        if embed_frameworks_build_phase.nil?
            embed_frameworks_build_phase = project.new(Xcodeproj::Project::Object::PBXCopyFilesBuildPhase)
            embed_frameworks_build_phase.name = 'Embed Frameworks'
            embed_frameworks_build_phase.symbol_dst_subfolder_spec = :frameworks
            target.build_phases << embed_frameworks_build_phase
        end

        # Add framework search path to target
        ['Debug', 'Release'].each do |config|
            paths = ['$(inherited)', path]
            orgpath = target.build_settings(config)['FRAMEWORK_SEARCH_PATHS']
            if orgpath.nil?
                puts "path is empty----------"
                target.build_settings(config)['FRAMEWORK_SEARCH_PATHS'] = paths
        else
                puts "path is not empty----------"
                paths.each do |p|
                    if !orgpath.include?(p)
                        orgpath << p
                    end
                end
            end
        end

        # Add framework to target as "Embedded Frameworks"
        framework_ref = frameworks_group.new_file("#{path}#{name}")
        exsit = false
        embed_frameworks_build_phase.files_references.each do |ref|
            if ref.name = name
                exsit = true
            end
        end
        if !exsit
            build_file = embed_frameworks_build_phase.add_file_reference(framework_ref)
            frameworks_build_phase.add_file_reference(framework_ref)
            build_file.settings = { 'ATTRIBUTES' => ['CodeSignOnCopy'] }
        end
    else
        frameworks_build_phase.files_references.each do |ref|
            #puts(ref.path)
            if ref.path == "#{name}"
                puts "delete #{name}"
                frameworks_build_phase.remove_file_reference(ref)
                #embed_frameworks_build_phase.remove_file_reference(ref)
                break
            end
        end
        
    end

end

And only changed if ref.name == "#{name}" to if ref.path == "#{name}". I also realized that I can't use the pods_projects from the installer but need to open the xcodeproj-file myself. Here is my final post_install script:

post_install do |installer|
  installer.pods_project.targets.each do |target|
    target.build_configurations.each do |config|
      config.build_settings['ENABLE_BITCODE'] = 'NO'
    end
  end
  
  project_path = 'Runner.xcodeproj'
  project = Xcodeproj::Project.open(project_path) # Opening the Runner.xcodeproj in the same folder as the Podfile
  project.targets.each do |target|
    if target.name == "OneSignalNotificationServiceExtension" # Find the OneSignal Target
      updateCustomFramework(project, target, '', 'Pods_OneSignalNotificationServiceExtension.framework', ':remove') # Run the function on the target with the framework name
    end
  end
  project.save() # Don't forget to save the project, or the changes won't stay
end

after that a flutter clean was necessary and afterwards the flutter build works like a charm. Hopefully in the future this will save someone 6 hours of time.