AppBuilder build error with Cordova Plugin: use of '@import' when modules are disabled

[MoriartyX64]

I have a custom iOS plugin that is built with modules enabled, in order to use the native Photos Framework introduced in iOS 8.x:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Photos/Reference/Photos_Framework/

This works just fine in Xcode. But it does require a specific build setting in Xcode to Enable Modules (C and Objective-C). See also:
http://stackoverflow.com/a/25883210/1039247

Importing this custom plugin in AppBuilder (VisualStudio extension) also works just fine. The problem is, upon building it with AppBuilder, for example when trying to deploy it to a locally attached device, we get the following error:

Error: [xcode-build] Compile /tmp/builds/WVBfZ76xiIaDb97mpk/app/Cordova370/Plugins/com.acme.sandbox/SOSPicker.m: In file included from /tmp/builds/WVBfZ76xiIaDb97mpk/app/Cordova370/Plugins/com.acme.sandbox/SOSPicker.m:12:
/tmp/builds/WVBfZ76xiIaDb97mpk/app/Cordova370/Plugins/com.acme.sandbox/GMsandboxController.h:9:1: error: use of '@import' when modules are disabled
/tmp/builds/WVBfZ76xiIaDb97mpk/app/Cordova370/Plugins/com.acme.sandbox/GMsandboxController.h:10:1: error: use of '@import' when modules are disabled
In file included from /tmp/builds/WVBfZ76xiIaDb97mpk/app/Cordova370/Plugins/com.acme.sandbox/SOSPicker.m:12:
In file included from /tmp/builds/WVBfZ76xiIaDb97mpk/app/Cordova370/Plugins/com.acme.sandbox/GMsandboxController.h:12:
/tmp/builds/WVBfZ76xiIaDb97mpk/app/Cordova370/Plugins/com.acme.sandbox/GMFetchItem.h:11:1: error: use of '@import' when modules are disabled
In file included from /tmp/builds/WVBfZ76xiIaDb97mpk/app/Cordova370/Plugins/com.acme.sandbox/SOSPicker.m:12:
/tmp/builds/WVBfZ76xiIaDb97mpk/app/Cordova370/Plugins/com.acme.sandbox/GMsandboxController.h:84:22: error: expected a type
/tmp/builds/WVBfZ76xiIaDb97mpk/app/Cordova370/Plugins/com.acme.sandbox/GMsandboxController.h:85:24: error: expected a type
/tmp/builds/WVBfZ76xiIaDb97mpk/app/Cordova370/Plugins/com.acme.sandbox/GMsandboxController.h:138:83: error: expected a type
/tmp/builds/WVBfZ76xiIaDb97mpk/app/Cordova370/Plugins/com.acme.sandbox/GMsandboxController.h:148:85: error: expected a type
/tmp/builds/WVBfZ76xiIaDb97mpk/app/Cordova370/Plugins/com.acme.sandbox/GMsandboxController.h:164:85: error: expected a type
/tmp/builds/WVBfZ76xiIaDb97mpk/app/Cordova370/Plugins/com.acme.sandbox/GMsandboxController.h:173:82: error: expected a type
/tmp/builds/WVBfZ76xiIaDb97mpk/app/Cordova370/Plugins/com.acme.sandbox/GMsandboxController.h:184:87: error: expected a type
/tmp/builds/WVBfZ76xiIaDb97mpk/app/Cordova370/Plugins/com.acme.sandbox/GMsandboxController.h:193:84: error: expected a type
/tmp/builds/WVBfZ76xiIaDb97mpk/app/Cordova370/Plugins/com.acme.sandbox/GMsandboxController.h:209:88: error: expected a type
/tmp/builds/WVBfZ76xiIaDb97mpk/app/Cordova370/Plugins/com.acme.sandbox/GMsandboxController.h:218:85: error: expected a type
/tmp/builds/WVBfZ76xiIaDb97mpk/app/Cordova370/Plugins/com.acme.sandbox/GMsandboxController.h:228:87: error: expected a type
Error: 'Build failed with error code 2'

 

So, the main error seems to be: **error: use of '@import' when modules are disabled**

In short, is there any way to set AppBuilder to configure AppBuilder to build with this specific setting ('Enable Modules') for iOS upon a cloud build? If not, are there any workarounds regarding this?

Thanks in advance.

 

 

[Kaloyan]

Hi MoriartyX64,

As said in your support ticket on the same matter, at this stage it is not possible to enable the modules in XCode for AppBuilder cloud builds. Still, this is something that we will further investigate in order to decide if we can include them as an option.

Meanwhile, I can only suggest that you refactor the custom plugin's binaries to support the old import method in Objective C. For that purpose, you will need to change the @import to #import. For example:

@import UIKit
@import Foundation

// to

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

I hope this helps. If there are any further issues however, you can send us the custom Cordova plugin to us, so we can investigate it on our side. If you decide to do this, please use the already opened by you support ticket as it is strictly confidential.

Regards,
Kaloyan
Telerik

 

 

[MoriartyX64]

Thanks for the suggestion. The suggested refactoring seemed to do the trick. I'm looking forward to enabling modules as an option in the near future.

 For other people who come across issues with custom Cordova plugins and not being able to build: it did require a RELEASE build and kept on failing with unclear error messages in a DEBUG build. There was no specific error message (e.g. a log trace of over 1200 lines, but no clear "errors" in it other than 500 Internet Server Error + a lot of notices regarding `com.telerik.afnetworking/*`) so setting the build to RELEASE was a shot in the dark that worked out fine in the end.