InDesign SDK Plug-in development on Mac OS X Sierra (10.12)

[brucek48235161]

I have been developing InDesign plug-ins for many years using XCode 5.0.2 as recommended, but had stopped upgrading at CC2014, leaving my Mac at OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5).  We have now decided to push forward with CC2015 and CC2017.  I understand that XCode 5.0.2 is still the recommended development platform, but I cannot get it to run on new Macs running either Sierra or El Capitan (10.11).

What is the current modern set of software to use with newer Macs? 

Has anyone discovered a solution to use either XCode 5.0.2 on OS X 10.11 or 10.12?

How about using XCode 8.3 to compile plug-ins?

If none of those ideas work, has anyone discovered a solution to use some other version of XCode which is compatible with OS X 10.11 or 10.12?

Thanks for your help.

[Test Screen Name]

Trying to run xcode on an unsupported OS is asking for trouble. Use Parallels to run the old OS.

[Norio_Kawamura]

On macOS 10.12 Sierra, I can build my plug-ins for InDesign CC 2017.x using XCode 8.x.

On OS X 10.11 El Capitan, I can build my plug-ins for InDesign CC 2015.x using Xcode 6.4, and for InDesign CC 2017.x using XCode 7.2.1.

On OS X 10.10 Yosemite, I can build my plug-ins for InDesign CC - CC 2015.x using Xcode 5.0.2, and for InDesign CC 2017.x using XCode 7.2.1.

[RJ9191]

Hi Norio,

My plugin compiles on OS 10.11 with xcode 7.1. But when I switch to OS 10.12 with xcode 8.1 (on separate machine), I get a link error:

clang: error: no such file or directory: '/Users/apple/SDKs/CS12.1SDK/build/mac/prj/build/x-changer.build/Default/Release_Cocoa64.build/Objects-normal/x86_64/x-changer.CC17.v1.1_lto.o'

Can you advise what is needed to compile/build on Xcode 8.1 ? It seems you have solved the issue.

Thanks in advance.

[Norio_Kawamura]

Hi RJ9191,

Yes I am using Xcode 8.2.1 on macOS Sierra to build plug-ins for InDesign CC 2017.

Copy MacOSX10.11.sdk from Xcode 7.x to Xcode 8.x.

It is placed at Xcode/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs folder.

[Eric DWKJ]

I'm using Xcode 5.0.2 and Xcode 8.2.1 on OS X 10.11.

Xcode 5.0.2 is used for InDesign CC 2014/5 plug-in building. Command line works well. To run Xcode 5.0.2 UI, use command

/Applications/Xcode5.app/Contents/MacOS/Xcode </dev/null &>/dev/null &

[Test Screen Name]

My advice is to install and use the version of XCode which the SDK was created for. It MIGHT be possible to adapt, but you are making needless problems for yourself. If this does not run in your OS, use Parallels to do so.