Create a package for IOS
Note :
Currently, packages for iOS can only be generated with Python 2.7. Python 3.4+ support is on the
way.
The overall process for creating a package for IOS can be explained in 3 steps:
1. Compile python + modules for IOS
2. Create an Xcode project and link your source code
3. Customize
Prerequisites
You need to install some dependencies, like Cython, autotools, etc. We encourage
you to use Homebrew to install those dependencies:
brew install autoconf automake libtool pkg-config
brew link libtool
sudo easy_install pip
sudo pip install Cython==0.28.3
For more detail, see IOS Prerequisites. Just ensure that everything is ok before
starting the second step!
Compile the distribution
Open a terminal, and type:
$ git clone git://github.com/kivy/kivy-ios
$ cd kivy-ios
$ ./toolchain.py build kivy
Most of the python distribution is packed into python27.zip. If you experience any
issues, please refer to our user group or the kivy-ios project page.
Create an Xcode project
Before proceeding to the next step, ensure your application entry point is a file
named main.py.
We provide a script that creates an initial Xcode project to start with. In the
command line below, replace test with your project name. It must be a name
without any spaces or illegal characters:
$ ./toolchain.py create <title> <app_directory>
$ ./toolchain.py create Touchtracer ~/code/kivy/examples/demo/touchtracer
Note
You must use a fully qualified path to your application directory.
A directory named <title>-ios will be created, with an Xcode project in it. You can
open the Xcode project:
$ open touchtracer-ios/touchtracer.xcodeproj
Then click on Play, and enjoy.
Note
Everytime you press Play, your application directory will be synced to the <title>-
ios/YourApp directory. Don’t make changes in the -ios directory directly.
Updating an Xcode project
Let’s say you want to add numpy to your project but you did not compile it prior to
creating your XCode project. First, ensure it is built:
$ ./toolchain.py build numpy
Then, update your Xcode project:
$ ./toolchain.py update touchtracer-ios
All the libraries / frameworks necessary to run all the compiled recipes will be added
to your Xcode project.
Customize
There are various ways to customize and configure your app. Please refer to
the kivy-ios documentation for more information.
Known issues
All known issues with packaging for iOS are currently tracked on our issues page. If
you encounter an issue specific to packaging for iOS that isn’t listed there, please
feel free to file a new issue, and we will get back to you on it.
While most are too technical to be written here, one important known issue is that
removing some libraries (e.g. SDL_Mixer for audio) is currently not possible because
the kivy project requires it. We will fix this and others in future versions.
FAQ
Application quit abnormally!
By default, all the print statements to the console and files are ignored. If you have
an issue when running your application, you can activate the log by commenting out
this line in main.m:
putenv("KIVY_NO_CONSOLELOG=1");
Then you should see all the Kivy logging on the Xcode console.
How can Apple accept a python app ?
We managed to merge the app binary with all the libraries into a single binary,
called libpython. This means all binary modules are loaded beforehand, so nothing is
dynamically loaded.
Have you already submited a Kivy application to the App store ?
Yes, check:
Defletouch on iTunes,
ProcessCraft on iTunes
For a more complete list, visit the Kivy wiki.
