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I have a Phonegap iOS app. My app is distributed privately, hence there is and there will be no usage of the app store. The app communicates with a homebrew middleware. In order to manage the app updates, I thought about doing something like:

-> On app start, check if a more recent version is available.

-> If yes then call a home-made Javascript module that will leverage the HTML5 file I/O API in order to update/create/delete files based on the output of the middleware.

  • In your opinion; is this solution reliable?

  • Are there any alternatives? (app store is completely out of the picture)

dda
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CoolStraw
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  • Have a look at this approach: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12865316/phonegap-updating-javascript-and-css-without-submitting-the-app-to-appstore][1] [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12865316/phonegap-updating-javascript-and-css-without-submitting-the-app-to-appstore – Ravindranath Akila Feb 05 '14 at 03:13

5 Answers5

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With a PhoneGap/Cordova app you normally load files from your local www folder. The problem with updating files at runtime is that you cannot write to the www location - you can only write to your app's 'documents' folder.

I assume you are using an Enterprise distribution since you are distributing without the app store. You could look at using something like TestFlight to distribute updates if you are happy for the users to have to go and check for updates.

You could also eliminate TestFlight and host the ipa files yourself, check for updates and then ask the user to download and install the update.

EDIT

It is not possible to write to the www folder with or without a plugin. This is due to iOS restrictions rather than PhoneGap/Cordova restrictions.

These links talk about distributing Enterprise apps over-the-air http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#featuredarticles/FA_Wireless_Enterprise_App_Distribution/Introduction/Introduction.html

IOS Enterprise Distribution Through OTA

Enterprise In-House App distribution

Community
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codemonkey
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  • Thanks codemonkey !. Two questions arise there: (1) Is it possible to write to the www/ directory using a custom phonegap plugin? (2) Could you develop further the last point that is hosting the "ipa files" myself and using itms:// links ? I don't quite get it... Thanks so much – CoolStraw Jul 27 '12 at 08:43
  • Sorry, not itms links. I was confusing two things :-). You can have a simple link to the ipa. Answer updated. – codemonkey Jul 27 '12 at 09:10
  • I have developed a solution that circumvents the problem of writing to the www folder. Try it out, I've gotten two apps accepted with it already (Apple is allowing this now, I didnt have to hide it): https://github.com/ben-ng/phonegap-air – Ben Nov 17 '14 at 12:23
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I was considering using the www folder as a bootstrap to download the actual app in a www folder in the document directory, and loading the index.html page from there (and the rest of the app)

I'm wondering if that would be an option

Of course the ObjectiveC UIWebView would point to the downloaded version if it exists

Alexander Casassovici
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I know this is an old question, but the accepted answer is no longer correct. Here's a complete project showing how it can be done: https://github.com/ben-ng/phonegap-air

In short, the trick is to not write to the app bundle, but to the Documents directory.

Ben
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There's an alternate service called Trigger.io. It is a lot like phonegap, but one of its' key features is that it lets you "reload" the app on the device, which is essentially what you're looking for, AFAICT.

zvikico
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So it seems that cordava can only load files that are in the app bundle. You cannot simply alter the webroot parameter to take the documents folder.

What you could do is use the FileReader API to read from the persistent store. This would mean you would have to create some sort of bootstrap html / javascript that is in the app bundle and create code that loads the content from the persistent store (which you can update yourself anytime you like)

This is a great place to start looking: Cordava File API docs

Zimmen
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