Before creating a project of your own, you have to make some preparations in Xcode.

Sparrow is linked to your application via Xcode project references. This has the advantage that it’s easy to update Sparrow (just download a new release and overwrite the old one in the same directory) and that you can easily step into Sparrow source code, in case you want to do so.

Add a “Source Tree” variable that Xcode can use to dynamically find Sparrow. This has to be done only once.

• In Xcode Preferences > “Locations” button > “Source Trees” tab > create a new Source Tree variable.
• Use SPARROW_SRC as “Setting”- and “Display Name” and let it point to /path_to_sparrow/sparrow/src/
• Be careful: Xcode does not allow the path to contain any spaces!

Xcode allows to integrate third party API reference documentation. That way, you will get information about Sparrow's classes, methods and properties directly while you write your code.

The steps required to get access to the docset depend on your Xcode version. The Sparrow docset can be found here:

http://doc.sparrow-framework.org/core/feed/docset.atom

To install this docset,

• Xcode 4: open up the Xcode preferences and enter the Documentation tab. Add the link provided above as a “publisher”.
• Xcode 5: use the free Docs for Xcode application to manage your docsets. When installed, add the link from above as a feed.

Next section: Project Setup