Difficulty in using SDL_LoadBMP with relative path in Xcode - c++

Question

Firstly, I know this question has been asked many, many times; I have read at least five or ten variations, but none of the answers given worked in my case. I have the line:
helloWorld = SDL_LoadBMP("helloworld.bmp");
in the main.cpp file of my Xcode 5 project. The directory structure is as follows:
TestProject1
main.cpp
Resources
helloworld.bmp
TestProject1.1
TestProject1.xcodeproj
Of course, I have tried different paths, i.e. Resources/helloworld.bmp, and yes, the Resources folder is imported into the project. However, the statement returns NULL because (according to SDL_Error) it cannot find the file. Now, the line:
helloWorld = SDL_LoadBMP("/fully/qualified/path/to/helloworld.bmp");
works fine, so it is not a problem with my code. What is the generally accepted way to get Xcode to work with relative paths for resources? I am looking for a method that will be portable (to the platforms that SDL supports, ofc on different computers/devices) when I make a larger project, and am open to using a different IDE if Xcode cannot make portable C++ projects. Miscellaneous other things I have tried after reading other questions:
Adding helloworld.bmp to Build Phases > Copy Files.
Adding the code:
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// This makes relative paths work in C++ in Xcode by changing directory to the Resources folder inside the .app bundle
#ifdef __APPLE__
CFBundleRef mainBundle = CFBundleGetMainBundle();
CFURLRef resourcesURL = CFBundleCopyResourcesDirectoryURL(mainBundle);
char path[PATH_MAX];
if (!CFURLGetFileSystemRepresentation(resourcesURL, TRUE, (UInt8 *)path, PATH_MAX))
{
// error!
}
CFRelease(resourcesURL);
chdir(path);
std::cout << "Current Path: " << path << std::endl;
#endif
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
to the beginning of main.cpp (returns "Expected unqualified-id" compiler error on the if (!CFURL...) line).
Using an absolute path - as I said, this works, but I want portability.
Calling getcwd: this is C++ code. Is there something I am missing here? It doesn't seem like getcwd is a C++ function.

Answer 1

In your Build Phases you need to create a new build phase of type Copy Files.
Set Destination to be 'Resources' and leave Subpath blank unless you want to have a subfolder in your resources (can be useful when you have a lot and want to separate eg fonts, textures, sounds etc)
Leave Copy only when installing unticked
Then just add the resources to that build phase, in your case helloworld.bmp
You should then be able to load by doing:
helloWorld = SDL_LoadBMP("helloworld.bmp");
or if you used a Subpath:
helloWorld = SDL_LoadBMP("textures/helloworld.bmp");
This is the same sort of way you could bundle the SDL2.framework with your application. There is a tutorial here - http://zamma.co.uk/setup-sdl2-in-xcode-osx/ and in Part 3 it describes how to bundle the frameworks if you are interested.
Overal though the best way to do fully portable builds is going to be something like CMake or Gradle.