How to access Build Settings in Xcode 6?

Question

There seems to be a lot of variations of how to access the Build Settings variables (i.e. to define the base URL of a web service for different Debug vs. Release environments).

I created a User-Defined variable in Project -> Building Settings, one for each environment. Let's call it WEB_SERVICE_BASE_URL.

How do I access it in the code? I'm using XCode 6 and Swift.

I've tried this but it doesn't work

let api_key = ${WEB_SERVICE_BASE_URL} 

I've also tried this and it also doesn't work

let api_key = NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().stringForKey("WEB_SERVICE_BASE_URL") 

Any suggestions? This seems to be a often needed solution, it's so easy in Rails, but not so in iOS development.

Answer 1

Here's how to set it up:

1. Add a User-Defined setting to your target's Build Settings (which you did with WEB_SERVICE_BASE_URL)
2. Add a new row to your target's Info.plist file with key: WEB_SERVICE_BASE_URL, type: String, value: ${WEB_SERVICE_BASE_URL}

Here's how get the value:

let api_key = Bundle.main.object(forInfoDictionaryKey: "WEB_SERVICE_BASE_URL") as? String 

Note: These keys/values can be extracted from the package, so be sure to avoid storing sensitive data in there.