A couple of years ago I posted my scripts for tagging and building. The build script doesn’t work so well for the App Stores and the Build and Archive-based submission process, so here’s an updated approach that works inside Xcode. (Same as my last article, I’m still using git, the tag.sh script, and Apple Generic Versioning (agv).)

1. In your Xcode project, create a Shell Script target called GenGitVersion.
2. Insert the following script in GenGitVersion’s Run Script phase, replacing the path to your git executable if need be:

   git=/usr/local/git/bin/git
   version=`$git describe`
   echo "#define GIT_VERSION $version" > InfoPlist.h
   touch Info.plist

3. Make GenGitVersion a dependency of your main target.
4. Add “InfoPlist.h” to your .gitignore file.
5. In your main target’s build settings:
1. Turn on Preprocess Info.plist File
2. Set Info.plist Preprocessor Prefix File to InfoPlist.h
6. In your app’s Info.plist set the Bundle versions string, short to GIT_VERSION

Now each time you build the main target, the version will be populated in the build’s Info.plist.

Examples

• If you tag a commit, the version returned by git describe is the tag name.
If the current commit isn’t tagged, you’ll get the most recent tag plus the number of additional commits and an abbreviated commit name. Here’s a 1.0b1 tag with 2 additional commits: 1.0b1-2-g3925f3b. This can be a good way to identify a private developer build.
• You can optionally add --dirty to git describe and the version will have -dirty appended if there are uncommitted changes to your working tree.
• git describe will fail if there are no tags in the current working tree.

It’s common practice for any software project with multiple coders to use some version control mechanism. CVS or Subversion used to be popular. These days distributed systems like git and Mercurial are the quickly replacing the old standards. But what about the cases when you’re the only coder?
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It is important to develop a consistent build process for your applications. I have written a couple of bash scripts to help me with this process.

I use git for version control and also the services of github. Now in another post on this site Marcus covered how to put git commit checksums in your Info.plist’s CFBundleVersion. I have opted to use Apple Generic Versioning (or agv for short) instead as it has an easy to read incrementing build number and is super easy to script. It’s also great for use with Sparkle since Sparkle uses the CFBundleVersion to see if the appcast has a newer version.
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This is the first in a short series on my adventures getting my software out the door. Rather than this first lesson be a lesson in what to do, here’s what not to do.
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Every once in a while I run across a situation that just amazes me. While this topic is not strictly about software development it is about the subject of the business of software.

Our customers give us money for something we have already written.

This is an important point to grasp. We write software once and sell it many times over with no production costs other than initial development. Unlike almost every other industry in the world we only have to write the software once! We do not have to produce something new every time a customer wants to purchase something from us.

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In this continuing series on my own transition from a Mac application hacker to microISV (Independent Software Vendor), I am going to demonstrate how to create your own file format for your application. You’ve probably seen these types of files in popular applications such as iMovie HD (06′) or GarageBand or even xcode in which the actual files used are, behind the scenes, folders that the operating system treats as regular files. These folders/files have a special bit set on them that tell OS X how to deal with them. The goal of this post is to demonstrate how you can do the following:

• Create your own file format with your own file extension
• Register your file format with the operating system
• Provide application loading of your file that’s been double clicked in the Finder
• Write data and preferences back out to your application file
• Add resources such as media files to your application file

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In this post I continue to address topics of relevance to Macintosh programmers who are, like me, moving from being hackers to becoming independent software vendors (micro ISV). Today I am going to address adding copyright and version information to your about dialog and show you how you can update these dynamically. I also cover a few tips on formatting the text in your about dialog. There is more than one way to achieve these things, but my hope is to help others out there who need to accomplish these things and have no prior experience doing them on the Mac.
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For the past five or six months, I have been developing an application for the Mac that I intend to release for sale in the near future. Though you could probably call me a switcher, to my credit I was a Mac user all through college and would have remained so had the job market been a bit more supportive of that desire when I finished school, but all along I’ve wanted to become a Macintosh developer. That time has finally come.
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