cordova-tutorial

A quick intro into cordova

1. What is it?

• Open source mobile development framework
• Uses standard web technologies: HTML, CSS & Javascript
• Relies on standards-compliant API bindings (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API). - [ ] Example: Geolocation - [ ] Example: Accelerometer

2. Why is it needed?

• Painful to maintain platform specific code
• Time consuming to write in native code

3. How does cordova work?

• Wraps a Web View within native app and provides an interface between javascript and the native layer

4. How to get started?

Pre-requisites

• Basic HTML, CSS and Javscript knowledge
• Install: node, cordova cli, platform sdk's (android, ios etc.), emulator/simulator

Example Hello Worlld App:

• cordova create foo com.example.foo Foo
• cordova platform add android --save
• cordova build android
• cordova run android
• Similarly above 3 steps for iOS
• Example showing a basic UI element and interaction?
• Directory structure? Open individual platform specific code to dive into the core implementation

5. Plugins?

• https://cordova.apache.org/plugins/
  • cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-x-toast
  • cordova prepare
• How to write a custom plugin?
• Check an existing plugin code to understand: Example 1: https://github.com/EddyVerbruggen/Toast-PhoneGap-Plugin (Clone url git@github.com:EddyVerbruggen/Toast-PhoneGap-Plugin.git)

6. Distributions

• Phone Gap
• Ionic - Has a lot of standard controls that mimics native controls and it comes with Angular

7. Advanced:

• Buid as a component within a larger, hybrid application that mixes the WebView with native application components