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I am currently working on an iOS 6 project which will be ready soon. Since iOS 7 is now available for developers I am planning on making my app iOS 7 ready.

...but any nibs or Storyboards edited with Xcode 5 beta can't be opened with xcode 4 anymore and since apps can't be submitted to the app store with Xcode 5 beta, what's the best practice for this problem?

woz
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cloudnaut
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  • Check my answer here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17047409/just-installed-xcode-5-and-have-missing-storyboards/17072652#17072652 – Idan Jun 14 '13 at 11:07

3 Answers3

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Xcode 4 has a "development" setting inside of the file inspector on the right sidebar. This sets the earliest version of Xcode that can open the file. Such a setting in Xcode 5 would allow backward-compatibility.

Since developer previews of Xcode are under NDA I can't really answer that part of the question. I don't know if such a setting exists or if it would work if it would exist. ;-)

Using both the stable and the beta version of Xcode in parallel usually works quite well.

If you wait for the stable version of Xcode 5 and the SDK there is a high chance that your app won't be ready for iOS7 when iOS7 hits the shelves.
From what I can imagine from seeing the publicly available information it looks like a lot of work has to be done to make an iOS6 app shine in iOS7. Not just on the code side, but if your app should fully integrate into iOS7 there might be work necessary in rethinking the concept of your app.

Keep in mind that if you want to release before the SDK becomes publicly available you have to use Xcode 4 and the iOS 6 SDK to create your app. If you use code that is iOS 7 only your app won't compile.

I would start testing and adapting as early as possible. But if your "soon release" means within the next one or two months I would forget about adding code to support iOS 7 for now and finish the release.

Btw: A place were you can freely discuss technologies covered by apples NDA are the beta area of the Apple Developer Forums

Matthias Bauch
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  • Dear Matthias: are you saying if I write an iOS7 app in Xcode 5 then to try to make it backward compatible e.g., with iOS5/6 is a lot of work? –  Sep 02 '13 at 08:54
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The best practice is to wait for the official release, because until then things are subject to change. You should really only use beta versions of software to test things out. You can apply your observations in the latest released version of Xcode, or simply wait to submit until Xcode 5 is officially released.

borrrden
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  • thanks for your answer. When will it be ready (based on your experience). So, iOS 7 will be released in fall (say e.g. September). If you look back - how many months before the official iOS release the corresponding XCode version was available? – cloudnaut Jun 12 '13 at 07:13
  • From memory, I believe that when iOS 6 came out there were a couple of weeks between the gold master being released (and submissions being accepted onto the store) and going public. Bear in mind iOS 7 and XCode 5 are both currently under NDA, so the amount of help you can get here is somewhat limited. – lxt Jun 12 '13 at 07:14
  • That's how I remember it too. – borrrden Jun 12 '13 at 07:15
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With knowledge of the new UI expectations re: toolbars etc you should be able to design the app in Xcode 4, iOS6 in a way that it's easy to move it over to iOS7. If you use autolayout then you will have far fewer problems.

SundialSoft
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