I am working on a project which includes other repositories from Git.
I would like to keep up to date with these repositories. Know what are the latest features, bug fixes etc. Qu 1) What is the best way to keep up to date with a repository on Git without receiving emails of all issues reported etc?
After this is complete I would like to know the best way to include these into your project. I understand you can copy the source code into the project, but what are cocoapods/sub modules used for? For example, what is the correct way to update your project with the latest changes to that included repository?
Are there any GUIs for either of these methods as opposed to terminal?
Cocoapods is a great way to include other projects in your Xcode project. The Cocoapods project maintains a list of pod spec files for a many open source libraries, which specify where to download the code and how to integrate them into an existing project. As you noted, you'd traditionally have to add a git submodule, manually add the source files to your project, update your build settings, and so forth. Cocoapods takes care of all of this for you.
I'm not sure of a way to track updates for Github projects without also being notified about issues, but Cocoapods can certainly tell you if any of your 'pods' have become outdated. It's then one command to update them to the latest versions. That said, it's generally best practice to 'lock' your external dependencies to a specific version that you know works correctly.
To get started, first install Cocoapods. You then simply need to create a file in your root project directory (the same directory that contains your .xcodeproj file) called Podfile. Inside, you can specify your target OS, and your dependencies:
platform :ios, '5.0'
pod 'AFNetworking', '0.9.1'
pod 'OHAttributedLabel', '0.1.1'
The example above is targeting iOS 5.0, and pulling in the AFNetworking and OHAttributedLabel projects.
Then, in the Terminal, change to your project directory:
> cd path/to/my/project
And run pod install.
> pod install
This will check out the latest version of your dependencies for you. It will also generate you a .xcworkspace file. From now on, when you work on your project, you must open the .xcworkspace, not the .xcodeproj file.
Inside your new workspace, you'll have your existing Xcode project and a new Pods project - this contains all of your third party libraries. Just build and run your app as normal, and the Pods project will also be built and included.
Some other useful Cocoapods commands:
> pod outdated
Will list all dependencies that have an update available.
> pod search query
Will search all known Pod specs for 'query'. Useful for finding new libraries!
I'm afraid I don't know of any GUIs for Cocoapods, but there really aren't many Terminal commands that you need to know. It's worth getting comfortable with the command line, as it's such a useful developer tool.
That said, as far as I know, Appcode (Jetbrains' alternative IDE for Objective-C) is planning on adding Cocoapods support in their next update.
Good luck!