Why doesn't Xcode have an ios framework option?

Question

I've seen project such as ios-universal-framework, but I want to know why XCode iOS does not natively support having a framework. Is it some kind of legal issue. The static library option is not good enough because I want to be able to use .dylib files in my framework.

A little background on what I want to do with a framework. I have a project that is generated from Unity3D, and when we update, we have to manually add back all of our project changes.

What I want is to use a framework that can store most of those external libraries and resources to make it easier to upgrade our project when updates are released.

Answer 1

From a security perspective no code is allowed to be dynamically loaded, thus only static libraries are allowed.

It is possible to create static psudo-frameworks. Take a look at GitHub iOS-Universal-Framework.

Answer 2

What you need is a PosprocessBuilder as described in the build pipeline described in the Unity3d Documentation.

You can manage the Xcode configurations in this pipeline using scripts like the Xcode Zerg.

I've used one python script written by a guy called Calvin Rien that worked really well, if you want to know more about this script this blog post should give you a hint.

What you really need to look for to you automate the these steps is to look for posts of Continuous Integration using Unity 3d and iOS like this one:

Unity3d: from commit to deployment onto tester devices in 20 min using Jenkins