Cordova Can't build from CLI but build from XCode xcworkspace works perfectly

Question

I've recently added https://github.com/chemerisuk/cordova-plugin-firebase-messaging to my cordova project which has a framework dependency on

    <framework src="Firebase/Core" type="podspec" spec="~> 5.0"/>
    <framework src="Firebase/Messaging" type="podspec" spec="~> 5.2"/>

I was originally testing code and everything on Android and it works like a charm.

However, upon switching my efforts to test my changes on iOS I quickly ran into some issues when running cordova run android or any other build commands. They tend to fail with errors alluding to CocoaPods Linking issues. Such as:

platforms/ios/Pods/FirebaseCore/Firebase/Core/FIRNetwork.m:23:9: 
    fatal error: 'GoogleToolboxForMac/GTMNSData+zlib.h' file not found
#import <GoogleToolboxForMac/GTMNSData+zlib.h>

I have found various SO posts that mention to fix the Search Paths or to modify the .m files to reference the relative paths (which is a terrible idea and far too much work).

But here's the issue, I know the project is correct. If I open my .xcworkspace and run it from XCode it works perfectly! It only has issues when running from the commandline.

Installed platforms:
android 7.1.0
ios 4.5.5

$ cordova -version
8.0.0

Xcode 9.4.1
Build version 9F2000

$ pod --version
1.5.3

I am completely at a loss. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

My Podfile in case it helps

# DO NOT MODIFY -- auto-generated by Apache Cordova
platform :ios, '8.0'
target 'VeociSTAGE' do
        project 'VeociSTAGE.xcodeproj'
        pod 'Firebase/Core', '~> 5.0'
        pod 'Firebase/Messaging', '~> 5.2'
        pod 'GoogleToolboxForMac', '~> 2.1.4'
end

EDIT:

Podfile.lock

PODS:
  - Firebase/Core (5.2.0):
    - Firebase/CoreOnly
    - FirebaseAnalytics (= 5.0.1)
  - Firebase/CoreOnly (5.2.0):
    - FirebaseCore (= 5.0.3)
  - Firebase/Messaging (5.2.0):
    - Firebase/CoreOnly
    - FirebaseMessaging (= 3.0.2)
  - FirebaseAnalytics (5.0.1):
    - FirebaseCore (~> 5.0)
    - FirebaseInstanceID (~> 3.0)
    - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSData+zlib (~> 2.1)"
    - nanopb (~> 0.3)
  - FirebaseCore (5.0.3):
    - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSData+zlib (~> 2.1)"
  - FirebaseInstanceID (3.1.0):
    - FirebaseCore (~> 5.0)
  - FirebaseMessaging (3.0.2):
    - FirebaseCore (~> 5.0)
    - FirebaseInstanceID (~> 3.0)
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Logger (~> 2.1)
    - Protobuf (~> 3.1)
  - GoogleToolboxForMac (2.1.4):
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Core (= 2.1.4)
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Defines (= 2.1.4)
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/GeometryUtils (= 2.1.4)
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/KVO (= 2.1.4)
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Logger (= 2.1.4)
    - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSData+zlib (= 2.1.4)"
    - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSDictionary+URLArguments (= 2.1.4)"
    - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSFileHandle+UniqueName (= 2.1.4)"
    - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSScanner+JSON (= 2.1.4)"
    - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSString+HTML (= 2.1.4)"
    - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSString+URLArguments (= 2.1.4)"
    - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSString+XML (= 2.1.4)"
    - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSThread+Blocks (= 2.1.4)"
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Regex (= 2.1.4)
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/StringEncoding (= 2.1.4)
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/SystemVersion (= 2.1.4)
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/URLBuilder (= 2.1.4)
  - GoogleToolboxForMac/Core (2.1.4):
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Defines (= 2.1.4)
  - GoogleToolboxForMac/DebugUtils (2.1.4):
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Defines (= 2.1.4)
  - GoogleToolboxForMac/Defines (2.1.4)
  - GoogleToolboxForMac/GeometryUtils (2.1.4):
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Defines (= 2.1.4)
  - GoogleToolboxForMac/KVO (2.1.4):
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Core (= 2.1.4)
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/DebugUtils (= 2.1.4)
  - GoogleToolboxForMac/Logger (2.1.4):
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Defines (= 2.1.4)
  - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSData+zlib (2.1.4)":
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Defines (= 2.1.4)
  - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSDictionary+URLArguments (2.1.4)":
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/DebugUtils (= 2.1.4)
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Defines (= 2.1.4)
    - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSString+URLArguments (= 2.1.4)"
  - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSFileHandle+UniqueName (2.1.4)":
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Defines (= 2.1.4)
  - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSScanner+JSON (2.1.4)":
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Defines (= 2.1.4)
  - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSString+HTML (2.1.4)":
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Core (= 2.1.4)
  - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSString+URLArguments (2.1.4)"
  - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSString+XML (2.1.4)":
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Defines (= 2.1.4)
  - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSThread+Blocks (2.1.4)":
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Defines (= 2.1.4)
  - GoogleToolboxForMac/Regex (2.1.4):
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Defines (= 2.1.4)
  - GoogleToolboxForMac/StringEncoding (2.1.4):
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Defines (= 2.1.4)
  - GoogleToolboxForMac/SystemVersion (2.1.4):
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Defines (= 2.1.4)
  - GoogleToolboxForMac/URLBuilder (2.1.4):
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Core (= 2.1.4)
    - GoogleToolboxForMac/Defines (= 2.1.4)
    - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSDictionary+URLArguments (= 2.1.4)"
    - "GoogleToolboxForMac/NSString+URLArguments (= 2.1.4)"
  - nanopb (0.3.8):
    - nanopb/decode (= 0.3.8)
    - nanopb/encode (= 0.3.8)
  - nanopb/decode (0.3.8)
  - nanopb/encode (0.3.8)
  - Protobuf (3.6.0)

DEPENDENCIES:
  - Firebase/Core (~> 5.0)
  - Firebase/Messaging (~> 5.2)
  - GoogleToolboxForMac (~> 2.1.4)

SPEC REPOS:
  https://github.com/cocoapods/specs.git:
    - Firebase
    - FirebaseAnalytics
    - FirebaseCore
    - FirebaseInstanceID
    - FirebaseMessaging
    - GoogleToolboxForMac
    - nanopb
    - Protobuf

SPEC CHECKSUMS:
  Firebase: 25ed0412036d7d008568d1fb4d2e9d81ea8a0a2c
  FirebaseAnalytics: b3628aea54c50464c32c393fb2ea032566e7ecc2
  FirebaseCore: a3c87242451633fff8490183898075ce77d168d2
  FirebaseInstanceID: 05d779cbb97bd5bd5c51a38a903fc9cfe1b2454a
  FirebaseMessaging: 6894b8fe0a0cf26c3b13dad729f1131654ae0bdb
  GoogleToolboxForMac: 91c824d21e85b31c2aae9bb011c5027c9b4e738f
  nanopb: 5601e6bca2dbf1ed831b519092ec110f66982ca3
  Protobuf: 0fc0ad8bec688b2a3017a139953e01374fedbd5f

PODFILE CHECKSUM: 6a610b85e4adb104d20d7784dc2566b45be5418c

COCOAPODS: 1.5.3

EDIT

Here's the interesting thing I just ran xcodebuild -workspace Project.xcworkspace -scheme Project and it built successfully. I have a feeling that cordova is targeting the .xcodeproj as opposed to .xcworkspace. More investigation to come...

EDIT It's not targeting the xcodeproj and it is targeting the xcworkspace but there seems to be an issue with the .xcconfig that is specified in platforms/ios/cordova/lib/build.js

Some of the dependency changes in Firebase 5.5.0 may be causing trouble with the cordova packaging. What's in your Podfile.lock? — Paul Beusterien, Aug 09 '18 at 18:18
@PaulBeusterien just added it... it's weird looks like there's multiple references... although I know very little about Cocoapods... so I'm not sure if it's right or wrong. — James Gilchrist, Aug 09 '18 at 19:46
Hmm, looks like all versions are before 5.5.0, so it's something else. Make sure you clear DerivedData and other Xcode state. — Paul Beusterien, Aug 09 '18 at 21:12
Possible duplicate of [Framework not found GoogleToolboxForMac](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40358719/framework-not-found-googletoolboxformac) — Martin Zeitler, Aug 09 '18 at 23:39

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 16 '18 at 09:19

1

This is a known issue.

The problem seems to be related to cordova build command using -xcconfig flag and that flag is causing the problems for some unknown reason. It's being investigated at the moment.

answered Aug 16 '18 at 09:19

jcesarmobile

51,328
11
132
176

Yes that's what I was finding... I have a GitHub issue open and never found the link/ticket you shared. – James Gilchrist Aug 19 '18 at 03:11

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 13 '18 at 04:26

If I were you, I would try the following -

Do you think the pods are installing as expected? I would create a after_prepare hook with pod install --project-directory=platforms/ios/ or pod install --project-directory=platforms/android/ based on platform.
I observed that the Xcode fails though the pods are installed and everything in place. so, I would try a clean state.
- Remove node modules
- Remove plugins folder
- Remove platform folders: ios and android
- install node modules/ bower dependencies
- Add platform folders back.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 11 '21 at 05:52

I found that the lib/build.js will run this command behind the sense:

xcodebuild -workspace <app_name>.xcworkspace -scheme <app_name> -configuration Debug -sdk iphonesimulator -destination "platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 12 Pro Max" build CONFIGURATION_BUILD_DIR=/path/to/project/platforms/ios/build/emulator SHARED_PRECOMPS_DIR=/path/to/project/platforms/ios/build/sharedpch

If I remove the bold code line build CONFIGURATION_BUILD_DIR=/path/to/project/platforms/ios/build/emulator SHARED_PRECOMPS_DIR=/path/to/project/platforms/ios/build/sharedpch, it builds succeed. Not sure why?

Cordova Can't build from CLI but build from XCode xcworkspace works perfectly

3 Answers3