BCWoodard / DynamicBuildConfigurations

Developers often work in multiple environments at the same time or need to use different variables (URLs, Analytics codes, etc.) for the development, staging and production environments. How do you create a simple, effective way to quickly change your build configuration and all of the associated variables each configuration requires? Many iOS developers use a “constants” file to define the QA or PROD variables and then manually update their code to switch out these variables prior to distribution. While this works for smaller projects with a limited number of variables, the opportunity to overlook a change or variable is always there – not to mention trying to remember which variables need to be changed and when. This is a pain! This solution seeks to resolve this manual process by leveraging the ability to customize schemes and configurations in Xcode. Properly implemented, this approach allows you to change your build configuration by simply selecting the desired scheme from the drop-down list prior to running the application. Simple!