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OS X 10.11 bitcode support for Dropbox Sync API?

Hi,

I know that the Dropbox Sync API is deprecated, but would you be able to make a build for OS X 10.11 which has the bitcode flag enabled?

I'm getting the following error (and lots of them) when I compile with Xcode 7 now:

ld: warning: URGENT: all bitcode will be dropped because '/Users/brendan/Projects/tapforms-ios/Pods/Dropbox-Sync-API-SDK/dropbox-ios-sync-sdk-3.1.2/Dropbox.framework/Dropbox(value.o)' was built without bitcode. You must rebuild it with bitcode enabled (Xcode setting ENABLE_BITCODE), obtain an updated library from the vendor, or disable bitcode for this target. Note: This will be an error in the future.

Thanks,

Brendan

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Comments

James H.88

Brendan, as of now, it seems that the Dropbox API does not support Bitcode. You can get rid of the error by removing the API from your Xcode project, but more preferably, you can switch off Bitcode as a Build Setting in the Project Navigator for your iOS app. If you're working with an OS X app, you'll be required to enable Bitcode, which just means that the Dropbox Sync API is currently unavailable to any OS X 10.11 projects, unfortunately. I came across this information from one of the engineers who wrote the Bitcode platform at Apple. I'm currently at WWDC in San Francisco.

Brendan D.

Oh that's a problem because I have both an iOS and OS X version of my app. So basically I have to rip out Dropbox from my app? Or will Dropbox eventually update to support bitcode? They did say that the Sync API was deprecated but they would still issue bug fixes for it. Hopefully that includes them compiling it for bitcode support.

Greg-DB

Thanks for the information! I can't make any promises right now one way or another, but we're taking a look at this.

Harald S.2

Any update on this item? I use the DropboxSDK.framework and get the same message now that I use Xcode7 (beta). It seems to be clear the Dropbox frameworks need an update soon?

Harry

Greg-DB

I'll check in with the team on this, but I don't have an update right now.

Nuno C.3

+1 on Dropbox SDK with bitcode enabled

Brendan D.

Hi Gregory,

Anymore progress on bitcode support? I'm pretty sure it's just a Build Settings flag you enable to support it.

It's getting closer and closer to iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 being released and I would very much like to have bitcode support for my app.

Thanks,

Brendan

Greg-DB

No update right now, but I'll check in on this with the team again.

Anthony B.15

Another +1 on Dropbox SDK with bitcode enabled. Needed for iOS 9 and Xcode 7.

Vincent C.5

WatchOS2 is mandatory to have Bitcode enabled, yes, we do need DropBox SDK with bitcode enabled. Thanks!

Brendan D.

If you guys aren't going to enable Bitcode support, could you perhaps open source the Dropbox Sync framework? Then we could at least compile it ourselves to add Bitcode support.

Thanks,

Brendan

Steve M.

Keep in mind this thread is about the deprecated Sync API, which won't be supported past October.

You can use the Core API (which is open source), and the new Swift SDK we're building for API v2 already has a sample running on the Watch.

Presumably the only people who need Bitcode support in the Sync API are developers who are maintaining existing apps and intend to keep using the API even after its support has ended.

Brendan D.

Yes but I still need to be able to support the existing Sync API while I work on a new version of my Mac and iOS apps. But in the meantime, I need a compiled Sync framework that has bitcode support. I can't rewrite my entire app overnight because you deprecated the Sync API. I'm trying, but I need more time.

Steve M.

Yes, Brendan, I think you're in the group I described.

Some others chiming in on the thread may not be in that group and are just confused about whether they need this.

Brendan D.

Yes that's correct. Sorry if I sounded a bit harsh there. I just don't know if you are going to re-compile with bitcode or not. All we've heard so far is "looking into it".

Steve M.

Yes, sorry about that. We are genuinely still looking into it. Part of the reason we deprecated this particular SDK is that it's complex and hard to build. (Most of the code is in C++.) Given that we haven't done a build in quite a while, it's more difficult than you'd expect to get this built again with Bitcode support.

Brendan D.

Now that iOS 9 is right around the corner, any chance of getting a version of the framework compiled with Bitcode support? I realize it might be hard to build, but you've done it before obviously :-)

Steve M.

I'm having trouble figuring out when bitcode is required. I know that it's required for watchOS apps, but it looks like it's optional for iOS apps. Is it actually required for OS X 10.11? I'd love a pointer to an official source saying that it will be required for OS X. Otherwise it's going to be hard to justify adding support.

Brendan D.

Steve, from Apple's docs on App Thinning:

"Note: For iOS apps, bitcode is the default, but optional. If you provide bitcode, all apps and frameworks in the app bundle need to include bitcode. For watchOS apps, bitcode is required."

https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/watchos/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/AppDistributionGuide/AppThinning/AppThinning.html

Yes, it's optional, but all frameworks have to support it if I want to support it in my app and Dropbox Sync is the only framework preventing me from supporting it.

Thanks,

Brendan

Steve M.

That's all I could find too. In that case, given that the Sync API is deprecated and there's a workaround (disabling bitcode support), I don't think we're going to add bitcode support to the Sync API.

Is there a reason your keen on supporting bitcode in your app? How important is it to you?

Brendan D.

Well at first it was because I thought it was required if you had also a WatchKit app and I didn't realize you could set that independently of the rest of the app. Plus when I first started using Xcode 7 at about the time I submitted the original post in this thread, I was receiving a ton of compile time errors because Dropbox Sync didn't support Bitcode. But I guess if it's optional then that's ok. I just didn't want Apple to reject my app update for not having it.

Steve M.

Definitely let us know if Apple rejects your app due to a lack of bitcode support. (If it turns out to be a requirement, we'll likely add bitcode support to the SDK.) Thanks for bearing with us through this!

Bob S.15

Hi I am having to recompile my app for iOS 9 and am getting this error. I didn't know you were stopping support for the Sync library. Ugh is it hard to replace the old with the new? I don't need any fancy capabilities just the basic functionality of what the old library provided.

stef m.

Greg-DB

Bob, I'm sorry the Sync SDK deprecation caught you off guard. We wanted to give developers as much warning as possible of course, so we ran an email campaign when it was announced, but it sounds like you never saw or got it (e.g., perhaps it got filtered from your inbox). In any case, you can find the full information here: https://blogs.dropbox.com/developers/2015/04/deprecating-the-sync-and-datastore-apis/

The specifics of migrating will depend heavily on how and to what extent your app uses the Sync SDK. If you run in to any issues of course, just let us know and we'll be happy to help.

Bob S.15

Hi Gregory,

Ha -- now that I look at the documentation, it is not the Sync API I am using but the original API from 2010! I figured that it would stop being supported eventually. For years I have gotten the warning that [[self restClient] uploadFile: toPath: fromPath:] was deprecated, but there didn't ever seem to be a simple replacement for it.

Is there anything special I should know if I am going to be updating from that old API?

Bob S.15

Hi Gregory,

Ha -- now that I look at the documentation, it is not the Sync API I am using but the original API from 2010! I figured that it would stop being supported eventually. For years I have gotten the warning that uploadFile: toPath: fromPath: was deprecated, but there didn't ever seem to be a simple replacement for it.

Is there anything special I should know if I am going to be updating from that old API?

Greg-DB

Oh, great! We haven't released an update to the iOS Core SDK with bitcode, but if you need bitcode support for the Core SDK, you can add the source directly, since it's open source. There's a thread about this for the Core SDK here:

https://www.dropboxforum.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/204352929-Need-Bitcode-Framework

Bob S.15

Was that a sarcastic 'great'? Isn't that sort of bad that I am still on the API from 2010?

For now I just turned Bitcode support off in my projects, my apps are super small anyway so it wouldn't make much difference. I've submitted my update using the still-working ancient API calls. But I guess I need to get to work on another update which incorporates the modern API.

Greg-DB

Sorry, no sarcasm intended. I just meant it was great that you won't have to do the work to migrate off of the Sync SDK.

To clarify though, both the Core SDK and Sync SDK are built on v1 of the Core API, which is still supported. It's just the client-side Sync SDK itself that is deprecated, so you don't have any migration work to do right now.