How to install CocoaPods and Dependencies

If you need to add third party libraries in your XCode project, it will be very good decision to install Cocoapods because it is a dependency manager. It is built with Ruby. So it could be installed on any OS X, with default Ruby. The installation process is very easy. Just follow the given steps.


Step # 1 (Checking the CocoaPod version)
First you need to check whether  the cocoapod is already installed in your MAC or not. To check it open the terminal and write (like Image 1)

pod --version 

or

gem which cocoapods

01. Checking Pod version

The result should be the version number of installed cocoapods. If it is not you have to install it or the version is not latest you need to update it.  Otherwise you can jump to Step # 3

Step # 2 (Installing / Updating Cocoapods)
To install or update the cocoapods write in terminal (Image 02)

sudo gem install cocoapods

or  for Mac OSX 10.11 El Capitan

sudo gem install -n /usr/local/bin cocoapods

02. Installing Cooapods

Provide your password. It may take some time. Please wait until the response (Image 03). If you are installing the cocopods for first time there could be lot of messages. Just check those messages for any errors. If you get an error something like "activesupport requires Ruby version >= 2.2.2", that means your activesupport is outdated or need to install activesupport version 4. To install it just type in terminal (Image 04)

sudo gem install activesupport -v 4.2.6

03. Successfully installed cocoapods

04. Installing ActiveSupport v4

Step # 3 (Setting up CocoaPods)
Wait for the success message. So now your the cocopod is installed in your MAC. Your next work is to setup the cocoapods master repo. To do so write in terminal

pod setup

After running this command in the terminal you can see a response like "Setting up CocoaPods master repo". Just wait for another response says "Setup completed". (Image 5a and Image 5b) There is an alternative command for doing the same work. That is

pod setup --verbose

05.(a) Cocoa Pod Setup

05.(b)Cocoa Pod Setup Completion

Step # 4 (Creating PodFile)
Now you can create a podfile in your  XCode project's directory. Get the project's directory and cd to that directory in terminal. Suppose I have a XCode project named "TestProjectForCocopods" and its root directory is  "/Users/******/Documents/XCode_Project/TestProjectForCocopods". So in terminal cd this directory like (Image 06)

cd  /Users/******/Documents/XCode_Project/TestProjectForCocopods

Now type

pod init

06. cd to Project's directory

Just wait for the success message. But if you get an error like "LoadError - cannot load such file --nanamio" then you have to uninstall nanaimo. To do so, go to the home directory by typing only cd in your terminal
To uninstall nananimo, in terminal type (Image 07)

sudo gem uninstall nanaimo

Type your MAC's password there then select  uninstall all versions of nanaimo. It will uninstall all versions of nanaimo apart from version number 0.2.3

07. Uninstalling nanaimo

Now repeat this Step 4. After doing this, you can see a podfile in your XCode project's directory (Image 08).

08. New podfile created in the Project's folder

Step # 5 (Adding & Installing dependency)
Now you have to add the your project's dependencies in this podfile. So just this podfile and add your dependencies. To open this podfile by terminal type (Image 09)

open -a Xcode Podfile

09. Opening the podfile using terminal

Initially there will be some commands. Here you can add your project's dependencies. Suppose, you need to add "ASJOverflowButton" library in your project. So type pod 'ASJOverflowButton' in your podfile (Image 10).

10. Adding project's dependencies

Now come back to terminal. Then type (Image 11)

pod install

11. Installing projects dependencies

Wait for response saying "Pod installation complete! There is 1 dependency from the Podfile and 1 total pod installed." This dependency number could be varied with the number of dependency you have added in the podfile. Now go to the folder where you have your Xcode project. Here you can see a new file with extension .xcworkspace. Open this file in XCode and start writing code here.

12. A file with extension name .xcworkspace created