Firebase Carthage

This page introduces and provides instructions for an experimental Firebase Carthage distribution. Based on feedback and usage, the Firebase team may decide to make the Carthage distribution official.

Please let us know if you have suggestions or questions.

Homebrew is one way to install Carthage.

$ brew update
$ brew install carthage

See the Carthage page for more details and additional installation methods.

• Create a Cartfile with a subset of the following components - choosing the Firebase components that you want to include in your app. Note that FirebaseAnalyticsBinary must always be included.

binary "https://dl.google.com/dl/firebase/ios/carthage/FirebaseABTestingBinary.json"
binary "https://dl.google.com/dl/firebase/ios/carthage/FirebaseAdMobBinary.json"
binary "https://dl.google.com/dl/firebase/ios/carthage/FirebaseAnalyticsBinary.json"
binary "https://dl.google.com/dl/firebase/ios/carthage/FirebaseAppCheckBinary.json"
binary "https://dl.google.com/dl/firebase/ios/carthage/FirebaseAppDistributionBinary.json"
binary "https://dl.google.com/dl/firebase/ios/carthage/FirebaseAuthBinary.json"
binary "https://dl.google.com/dl/firebase/ios/carthage/FirebaseCrashlyticsBinary.json"
binary "https://dl.google.com/dl/firebase/ios/carthage/FirebaseDatabaseBinary.json"
binary "https://dl.google.com/dl/firebase/ios/carthage/FirebaseDynamicLinksBinary.json"
binary "https://dl.google.com/dl/firebase/ios/carthage/FirebaseFirestoreBinary.json"
binary "https://dl.google.com/dl/firebase/ios/carthage/FirebaseFunctionsBinary.json"
binary "https://dl.google.com/dl/firebase/ios/carthage/FirebaseGoogleSignInBinary.json"
binary "https://dl.google.com/dl/firebase/ios/carthage/FirebaseInAppMessagingBinary.json"
binary "https://dl.google.com/dl/firebase/ios/carthage/FirebaseMLModelDownloaderBinary.json"
binary "https://dl.google.com/dl/firebase/ios/carthage/FirebaseMessagingBinary.json"
binary "https://dl.google.com/dl/firebase/ios/carthage/FirebasePerformanceBinary.json"
binary "https://dl.google.com/dl/firebase/ios/carthage/FirebaseRemoteConfigBinary.json"
binary "https://dl.google.com/dl/firebase/ios/carthage/FirebaseStorageBinary.json"

• Run carthage update
• Use Finder to open Carthage/Build.
• Copy the contents into the top level of your Xcode project and make sure they're added to the right build target(s).
  • To disable AdId support, do not copy GoogleAppMeasurementIdentitySupport.xcframework.
  • If the app does not use any Firebase Swift specific APIs, you do not need to copy any xcframeworks whose name includes "Swift".
• Add $(OTHER_LDFLAGS) -ObjC flag to "Other Linker Flags" in "Build Settings".
• Make sure that the build target(s) includes your project's GoogleService-Info.plist (how to download config file)
• Delete Firebase.framework from the Link Binary With Libraries Build Phase.

• If you're including a Firebase component that has resources, copy its bundles into the Xcode project and make sure they're added to the Copy Bundle Resources Build Phase.

• Please note that you shouldn't add any of the Firebase frameworks to the Carthage build phase (copy-frameworks). The frameworks contain static libraries that are linked at build time.

• Some additional libraries/frameworks may be needed depending on which Firebase frameworks you use, for example: libc++.tbd, sqlite3.tbd, StoreKit.framework, etc. For more information, go here.

• If you see Swift symbol linkage errors, you may need to add a dummy .swift file to the project to resolve.

• For Crashlytics, do the following steps to automatically upload your app's symbols so your app's crashes are symbolicated:

  • Download upload-symbols and run. Note: please see the discussion for details why it has to be done manually.
  • Put these in the directory where your .xcodeproj file lives, eg. scripts/run and scripts/upload-symbols
  • Make sure that the files are executable - chmod +x scripts/run scripts/upload-symbols
  • Open your project in Xcode, then select its project file in the left navigator.
  • From the Select a project or target dropdown, select your main build target.
  • Select the Build Phases tab, then click "+" add > New Run Script Phase.
  • Paste the following into your new Run Script, replacing "scripts" with whatever you named your folder: "${PROJECT_DIR}/scripts/run"
  • Add the following dependencies as Input Files to the Run Script:
    • ${DWARF_DSYM_FOLDER_PATH}/${DWARF_DSYM_FILE_NAME}/Contents/Resources/DWARF/${TARGET_NAME}
    • ${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/${INFOPLIST_PATH}

All Firebase components share the same version. Mixing and matching components with different versions may cause linker errors.

Note that the Firebase frameworks in the distribution include static libraries. While it is fine to link these into apps, it will generally not work to depend on them from wrapper dynamic frameworks.

Thanks to the Firebase community for encouraging this implementation including those who have made this the most updated firebase-ios-sdk issue.

Thanks also to those who have already done Firebase Carthage implementations, such as https://github.com/soheilbm/Firebase.