Obj C bridging header does not seem to matter?

Question

I have a Swift / Parse iPhone project in Xcode. I have added Parse frameworks and as long as I import Bolts and import Parse in my swift file I am able to use all parse functions. I am now wondering, why do I need the Obj C bridging header at all? Currently there is nothing in it, yet everywhere it says that you need to properly setup your bridging header for Parse to work in Swift projects?

Answer 1

The difference is in your deployment target. For iOS8, you can use embedded frameworks, so you can import frameworks just with a simple import FrameworkName. If you use CocoaPods, you can add use_frameworks! directive to your podfile and you can then use all pods as Frameworks without a bridging header.

If you want to provide a support for iOS7, you have to still use a bridging header, because embedded frameworks are not supported with this version of iOS.