How To Create Your Own Pod

Pod is a dependency manager, which supports more than 3900 libraries, both in Swift and Objective-C. Many of developers building apps via MacOS or any of the Apple platforms are aware of CocoaPods. Pods help developers reduce the fuss of adding dynamic code manually, linking them to the current project, adding them as dependencies and various other tedious processes that each framework or a third-party library demands. However, if you stumble upon an idea that you might want to make into a library and have it available for the world via CocoaPods, this post will help you in getting the desired results. 

What are CocoaPods?

In simple terms, pods are libraries, which can be used in your project. It will simplify the library process of adding it to your project. If there is any new update for the library, updating a simple pod command will help in getting new updates. So, in effect, it handles:

• Installation/downloading of external code/libraries
• Linking those libraries to the current project
• Updating those library codes whenever they get upgraded

Create Your Own Pod

Creating your own pod helps in publishing the set of classes or the framework that you built and is available for others to use.

So, in order to create your own pod, follow the below mentioned five simple steps:

1. Create repository in GitHub
2. Clone repo to MAC
3. Add your project code
4. Create a pod-spec file
5. Register your POD
6. Install pod in your project

Create Repository in GitHub

To create a repository, all you need is a registered GitHub account.

• Login to your account
• Click on repositories and tap NEW to create a repository
• Enter repository name
• Choose public so that this repo will be available for all, If you want to make it private, you need to purchase account and publish your Podspec

• Upon creation, below page will appear where you can find the URL to clone the repository

Clone Repo to MAC

Clone created repo project into your Mac from terminal or source tree using clone URL

`git clone “URL”`  

and add your files into the project folder. Then, commit those files.
Now, come out of your project path and enter user folder
Our first step is to add repository to CocoaPods installation

pod repo add [REPO_NAME] [SOURCE_URL]

REPO_NAME: Refers to name of your Podspec
SOURCE_URL: It is the GitHub URL of repository you have created

This will create a repository in your CocoaPods folder

• Now, move to your project path
• Create a Podspec file in your current project folder path (and) use (the) below command to create

  touch podname.podspec

  Also, create swift version files, which is required for linting

  echo "3.0" >> .swift-version [Here 3.0 is the version of swift that you are using]

Add Your Project Code

Add your project files in this folder and then create Podspec

Create a Podspec File

A podspec file will be generated in your project folder so, open your podspec file from your project folder and add the below text to that file

sample path :- >.cocoapods>repos>yourptojectname

Pod::Spec.new do |s|
s.name             = 'customPod'  
s.version          = '0.0.1'  
s.summary          = 'Custom pod creation for iOS' 
s.description      = <<-DESC “Describe the use of pod file”
This highletbale view changes highlet text and makes your app look fantastic!
DESC

s.homepage         = 'https://github.com/username/customPod' // your repository url//
s.license          = { :type => 'MIT', :file => 'LICENSE' }
s.author           = { 'username' => 'dummyuser@abc.com' } //your git mailid
s.source           = { :git => 'https://github.com/username/customPod.git', :tag => s.version.to_s } //your git repository url//
s.ios.deployment_target = '10.0'
s.source_files = 'customPod/*'  //point the source file to which files you want to commit//
end

• Pod linting has to be done which will helps in validation of your pod-spec

Note : Remove comments with (//) and then use below command in terminal

pod lib lint // This will validate all specs in repo

The validation process shows whether build has succeeded or if there are any errors/warnings. We ignore warnings.

• Commit your code to git, now your repo will consist of complete code
• Now create a release version which should also match the pod file

  git tag '0.0.1' // version number
  git push --tags
  

Spec validation has to be done in order to register your pod file. Before linting check “git status” and commit if there are any files to commit. Later, use the below mentioned command

pod spec lint

Register Your POD

Register your pod with your email and name for confirmation

pod trunk register Your git Email your git name

Then push your pod

pod trunk push podname.podspec  //custom pod should be replaced by your podspecname

Your done and know you can use your own library in your project with few simple steps given below

Install Pod On Your Project

Open workspace and add your Podspec name in pod file and run pod update in terminal

pod custompod //name of your pod file which you specified in .spec

 pod init 
 pod install

If it is unable to find Podspec path, try placing git URL in pod file as
pod 'custompod', :git=> 'https://github.com/username/customPod.git'
and then use

pod update

Now, you are all set to use your own library in your project.

Conclusion

Whether it’s a commonly used library or your own private repository, CocoaPods makes it very easy to distribute your common code across the projects. It not only reduces development time, but also standardizes certain features, which eventually leads to better productivity and less bugs.

About Innominds

Innominds is a leading Digital Transformation and Product Engineering company headquartered in San Jose, CA.  With over two decades of experience in Enterprise Mobile Application Development , Innominds can help its clients optimize budget and get the best deal for the investment. Innominds offers comprehensive packaged Mobile Development Solutions for your organization’s digital workforce transformation.