Adding a Framework on iOS in runtime

Question

At first, I will describe my use-case on why I need to add the framework at runtime on iOS.

Let's say I have an app on iOS device. The app requires some 3rd party frameworks to add some external features to it. Now, the features are many. So, the required number of frameworks will be many too. An user may not need lots of features. Just a small set of features. Plus, lots of framework will require a lot of space. The application will be huge in size.

For an example, an user needs only 1 feature. The application provides 100. So, all the other frameworks will definitely be unnecessary.

So, the solution would be to download the frameworks and the necessary files on demand from an online repository, link them on runtime and use them. This would mean the application size would be very small and not bulky with unnecessary stuff.

But does iOS provide that? I have to add an external framework and the necessary files that is not on the app use them on runtime.

Is this possible? Can anyone provide me with some resources on how I can do that?

I have seen some resources on SO and some other sites. The results are not so helpful.

Answer 1

"But does iOS provide that?" - no
"Is this possible?" - partially
"Can anyone provide me with some resources on how I can do that" - unfortunately no

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More details: That is certainly not possible out of the box. And it will be firstly a pain in the ass to do achieve what you are trying and (far more important) secondly it will probably not be allowed by Apple. You are not allowed to load new "program code" into the app at runtime. For the simple reason that Apple cannot review what you are about to load. And it would a huge security risk for your users if your backend gets compromised.

What you can do is load resources like images, videos etc. on demand.

You might even be able to come up with some scripting behavior of your app. The server could theoretically deliver code to your app and then your app interprets that code. But that code would not be Swift but some other language that you have to define first. You see where this is going? That is possible while not really doable. And still it might get you rejected anyway.

In particular if you are talking about actual frameworks that include actual binary code is is not possible.