How to extend iOS app to tvOS

Question

I have an iOS app that I need to extend to tvOS. All the information that I found are explaining how to start from scratch! Is there any way to extend my app to tvOS or I sh

Answer 1

1. A new target has to be added for tvOS. There are two ways to do that

   • Add a new target through File > New > File...> tvOS Target.
   • Duplicate an existing iOS target and change TARGETED_DEVICE_FAMILY to 3 and "Supported Platforms" to tvOS in "Build Settings"

2. Pods need to be added to the tvOS target using pod install. There could be a different list of pods that you can/want to use in tvOS. Pods for different targets can be separated in Podfile using:

   target 'iOS TARGET NAME' do
   pod 'podname', :git => 'https://github.com/name.git'
   end
   
   target 'tvOS TARGET NAME' do
   pod 'podname', :git => 'https://github.com/name.git'
   end
   

3. Most Pods at the moment do not support tvOS. For those Pods, here are the steps to make them work in your project:

   • Clone the git repo on your local disk

   • If a version of the pod is being used in another target (iOS target), change the name, otherwise CocoaPods will complain: e.g. RestKit --> RestKitTV and use :path In Podfile to point to the location of the cloned repo:

     pod 'RestKitTV', :path => 'Other/RestKitTV'
     

   • Update the podspec file in the cloned repo:

     • Modify the name to be compatible with the new name

     • Change the platform to tvOS or add tvOS to the list of supported platforms

        Pod::Spec.new do |s|
        ..
        s.platform = :tvos
        ..
        end
       

       OR

        Pod::Spec.new do |s|
        ..
        s.tvos.deployment_target = '9.0'
        s.tvos.exclude_files = 'framework/Source/Mac', ....
        s.tvos.frameworks   = ['OpenGLES', 'CoreMedia', 'QuartzCore']
        ..
        end
       

4. Add files to the target:

   • Add source code (.m files) to "Compile Sources" of "Build Phases" for the target
   • Add images to "Copy Bundle Resources"
   • Add frameworks to "Link Binary with Libraries". Note that not all frameworks are compatible with tvOS

5. Use TARGET_OS_TV and TARGET_OS_IOS macros to separate tvOS non-compatible code

   #if !TARGET_OS_TV
       *iOS only code*
   #else
       *tvOS only code*
   #end