Can you easily deploy your Cordova/PhoneGap apps?
99 problems #
Houston, we have a problem! It’s failing, our app is constantly breaking UAT - but nothing has changed. Apart from we now build from JS and generate our iOS platform project on the fly. Could that be it? Why would that be it???
Damn Cordova, we should’ve just gone native. At least we could’ve relied on more solid documentation!!
After a day of frustration and digging it turns out the culprit is our base SDK set up. Previously, we were configured to run on iOS7+. This gave us the latest and greatest from Safari. Bizarrely, we’re now on a base of iOS5+.
Wat! and with dynamic builds how in the name of Steve Jobs can we make sure we’re always configured correctly!
The leaky abstraction #
This scenario happens all the time. With Cordova and PhoneGap apps your constantly tweaking something or other in the underlying native platform. Its a very leaky abstraction. Some settings you actually understand while others are pure copy and paste. No idea why they’re there.
The problem quadruples when you start adding more native platforms. Each one is evolving allowing for newer config/functionality and deprecating older setups. Not to mention the ever so important issue of testing on an actual device.
There are no hybrid bullets #
You just have to understand what you’re building for. Yes, in hybrid land you’re mostly drinking the Html5/JS Kool Aid but at some point you have to get down and dirty with iOS/Android/Blackberry etc…
It really isn’t that hard especially with a few fundamentals to get us going. Also, the new Cordova CLI has some awesome tooling to help!
A book of recipes for iOS & Android #
Since a book doesn’t yet exist, I’ve decided to bite the proverbial bullet and write it. A simple guide with recipes to help Cordova/PhoneGap devs around topics like,
- Provisioning
- Project set up
- Device testing
- Automated builds/deployments/CI
- How to deploy to an app store
In the first iteration my main focus will be iOS and Android but I might look to add recipes for more native platforms in the future.
That is, if you want to get better at understanding your app’s setup, its provisioning, building/deploying as a team and what to automate.
No spam ever just book announcements, general deployment tips and sneak peeks.