Introduction

An Xcode project is a repository for all the information required to build one or more software products. It contains all the elements used to build your products and maintains the relationships between those elements. You can think of it as a kit that contains all the parts to build one or more products, plus the instructions on how to build them. A project gives you a convenient place to find every file and piece of information associated with your work.

This document introduces the various parts of a project, shows you how to create projects, and describes how to organize the contents of a project. This document also describes the project window, Xcode’s interface for performing project management tasks, and shows how to use that interface to find and discover information in Xcode.

You should read this document if you plan on developing software products for iPhone OS or Mac OS X. To get the best out of this document, you should be familiar with basic software development concepts, such as object-oriented programming, compilation, and debugging. You should also be familiar with Objective-C, the main programming language used in Apple platforms.

Organization of This Document

This document contains the following chapters:

“Overview of an Xcode Project” describes the contents of an Xcode project and gives an overview of the information required to develop software with Xcode.
“Using the Organizer” describes the Organizer and shows how you can use it to organize and work on multiple projects on one window, including non–Xcode projects.
“Creating Projects” shows you how to create a project or import CodeWarrior projects and describes the available project templates.
“Files in Projects” discusses the files in a project, describes how Xcode references project files, shows you how to add files, frameworks, and folders to your project, and describes how to use source trees and cross-project references.
“Finding Information in a Project” describes how to use Xcode to find information about your project’s contents.
“Localizing Files” describes the process of internationalizing your product by localizing some of its files.
“Building Products” shows how to build products in Xcode and how to take advantage of multiple CPUs during a build. It also describes how to target releases of a platform different from the one for which you’re developing your product.
“Defining Executable Environments” describes how to view the executables in your project and how to configure an executable environment.
“Running Programs” shows how to run your programs after you’ve built them in Xcode.

Introduction

Contents:

Organization of This Document

See Also