Some thoughts on godot-iap

[Landeplage]

After running into many issues while trying to implement godot-iap in Godot 4.6.2, I think it needs some love in the UX department. My main reason for using it was that it supports StoreKit2 - while the officially supported plugin uses v1, afaik.

Here's my experience trying to use godot-iap.

• After importing it into the project, it'll give you errors on Windows. This can be worked around by generating an empty .dll, etc. As a result, updating has to be given extra care (in case changes were made to the .gdextension file).
• Despite the workaround above, I always got three "initialize failed" errors in the console upon opening the project in the editor and when hitting play. No effect on functionality - possibly related to the empty .dll.
• As the docs note, there is an export issue where Info.plist files aren't automatically copied into the frameworks folders. I wasn't able to get the suggested solution working, which admittedly might be due to my lack of experience with XCode. I ended up manually copying them every time.
• Another export issue is that you have to manually import the .framework folders every time. They appear in the frameworks list, but with a gray file icon. Only after manually adding them they appear with a yellow toolbox icon.

I'm not sure where to place the blame on these issues; Godot itself or the plugin implementation. Hopefully these issues can be ironed out over time either way.

[hyochan]

Thanks for the detailed notes.

The Windows editor/dummy library point is not something I want to treat as Windows IAP support, since godot-iap currently targets iOS and Android for native purchases. The iOS export points are valid though.

I am treating this as a godot-iap UX improvement:

• the export plugin should register GodotIap.framework and SwiftGodotRuntime.framework for iOS export so they are embedded by Xcode automatically
• the post-export fixer should work with any exported .xcodeproj, not only the example project
• the fixer should restore missing framework Info.plist files and normalize framework references so they show up as framework bundles instead of plain file references
• the setup docs should describe the automatic path first and keep the manual Xcode steps only as a fallback

[hyochan]

Opened PR #148 for the iOS export fixes: #148

This updates the Godot export plugin to register GodotIap.framework and SwiftGodotRuntime.framework automatically, ships the post-export fixer in the release artifact, restores missing framework Info.plist files, normalizes Xcode framework references, and updates the docs.

I also verified the path locally with a Godot iOS export/archive/IPA and an xcodebuild build after running the fallback fixer.

[hyochan]

PR #148 has been merged.

Once godot-iap 2.2.8 is released, please try again with that version. If the iOS export still misses GodotIap.framework or SwiftGodotRuntime.framework, please let me know and I will take another look.

[hyochan]

Following up on this — the iOS export fixes from #148 shipped and are still in place. Verified against the current release (godot-iap 3.0.2):

• The export plugin registers both GodotIap.framework and SwiftGodotRuntime.framework as embedded iOS frameworks, so Xcode picks them up automatically — no more manually adding them to get the toolbox icon instead of a gray file icon.
• The post-export fixer ships inside the release zip at addons/godot-iap/scripts/fix_ios_embed.sh (confirmed in the 3.0.2 artifact), so it is there as a fallback without cloning the repo. It restores missing framework Info.plist files and normalizes framework references.
• The setup docs describe the automatic path first and keep the manual Xcode steps as a fallback.

On the Windows editor errors: godot-iap targets iOS and Android for native purchases, so the desktop editor has no library to load there. That is why the dummy-.dll workaround was needed, and it is not something the plugin fixes today.

@Landeplage if you get a chance to try 3.0.2, a report either way would be useful — especially whether the frameworks now embed without manual steps. If anything still needs manual work, please open a new discussion and I will dig in.

Thanks again for taking the time to write up the whole experience; it turned into a real fix.