How should I manage dependencies across projects in an Xcode workspace?

Question

I\'m working on an iOS app project, and add the json-framework project to the workspace. The project navigator on the left shows both projects, and the build scheme selector

Answer 1

My bullet-proof solution to do this :

Create "Per Debug-Release / Per Architecture" settings in Build Settings in the Main project (not the lib), to include either ../MyLibProject/build/Debug-iphoneos or ../MyLibProject/build/Release-iphonesimulator or etc..
depending on the configuration (you can create those kind of configuration by clicking on the + next to Debug or Release and choose either "Any iOS Simulator SDK" or "any iOS SDK". You need to do that for both "Header Search Path" (in case your library copy some headers files, which is more than likely) AND for "Library Search Paths". Which means that for each setting, you'll probably end-up with 4 different paths (debug sim , debug ios, release sim, release ios). That would make sure the configuration of both projects match.

Now, to auto-compile the lib, that is to create the dependency, you can use the "Build Phase -> Link to Binary With Libraries -> + -> select the .a file" advice given above.

That's the only way I managed to have something that builds and link correctly for every environment on xcode 4.5

Note : I even added the -lmyLib flag in "other linker flags", but i'm not sure that's really necessary