Cordova / Phonegap: Live update codebase

Question

We are using Cordova along with AngularJS for iOS and Android applications.

One big disadvantage of iOS are the long review times from Apple. In Google's Playstore, your app is available nearly immediately, or within a few hours. But Apple takes ages to review your app, even when it's only a small change.

So I was thinking, if there is a way to support some kind of live update.
That means, I could provide a ZIP file or something else with a new codebase, my app checks for updates and then installs the new files.

I've read something from appmobi, but are there any open source solutions?

Answer 1

cordova-app-loader is an easy to use plugin to update app files via 3 simple steps:

1. check() for a new manifest
2. download() files
3. update() your app!

It supports android and iOS

Answer 2

I don't know of any ready made solutions for that, but it should be easy enough to program something like this on your own. Here are some points to get you started and to consider:

• If you want to distribute updates via zip, you need a nativ plugin which handles the extraction
• You might not be able to override files in the default location of your app (depending on OS). So, all files you want to update in the future have to sit in a folder your app has read/write access to (iOS: e.g. Library or Documents folder)
• Now you simply need to download the zip-package, unpack the zip to your chosen directory, and restart/reload your app.
• you will not be able to update native plugins!
• Apple probably doesn't like that, since you are able to change the whole application without passing their review process

Answer 3

I'm doing this inside my cordova app and haven't had any issues with ios app store review.

I'm using Jquery's ajax function to download both a javascript and a css file from a server that I can change without an app store approval and then I can inject those scripts once they downloaded on app startup.

I tried using the cordova File api and I'd then save the file locally, but offline support ins't the important to me at the moment and Jquery's ajax is much simpler.

Here is the jquery code I use. I have a bundle id that I use to detect if a new javascript file is available, otherwise jquery's ajax caches the previous requests to speed up download time.

This solution lets you have a subset of your code be dynamic. I still have a base set of code that is bundled with the app, along with native plugin js and native code which would need to go through the app store. But this atleast lets me push bug fixes without going through the app store.

Otherwise, I'd look at a solution like this: http://docs.build.phonegap.com/en_US/tools_hydration.md.html

function insertScript(version) {
    var scriptUrl = "";
    try {
        // get javascript file...
        scriptUrl = mobileWebServiceUrl + "/DynamicContent/Bundles/Scripts/dynamic";

        scriptUrl += "_" + bundleVersion.replace(/\./g, "_") + ".js?v=" + version;

        console.log("downloading script: " + scriptUrl);

        // Allow user to set any option except for dataType, cache, and url
        options = {
            dataType: "script",
            cache: true,
            url: scriptUrl
        };

        // Use $.ajax() since it is more flexible than $.getScript
        // Return the jqXHR object so we can chain callbacks
        return $.ajax(options).success(function(response) {
            console.log("insertScript success");
            dynamicContentScriptLoaded = true;
        });


    } catch (e) {
        //console.error(e);
        ReportError("problem downloading javscript: " + scriptUrl);
    }

}


function insertCSS(version) {
    try {
        // get css file...
        var cssUrl = mobileWebServiceUrl + "/DynamicContent/Bundles/Css/dynamic";

        cssUrl += "_" + bundleVersion.replace(/\./g, "_") + ".css?v=" + version;

        console.log("downloading dynamic css: " + cssUrl);

        $.ajax(cssUrl)
            .success(function (response) {
                console.log("successfully downloaded dynamic css");
                var script = document.createElement("style");
                script.type = "text/css";
                script.innerHTML = response;

                $('head link').each(function () {
                    if ($(this).attr('href').search('MobileFrame') > -1) {
                        $("#MobileFrameCSS").before(script);
                    }
                });

                dynamicContentCssLoaded = true;

                // TODO: implement caching at a later date
                //if (isPhoneGap())
                //    saveFile("DynamicStyles", response);

            });
    } catch (e) {
        ReportError("problem downloading css");
    }

}

Answer 4

I think the best choice would be to not try to do this with Phonegap, but rather identify your dynamic parts and implement these in Javascript.

Yes, I mean you should indeed use Javascript yourself without Phonegap, for example via JavaScriptBridge: https://github.com/kishikawakatsumi/JavaScriptBridge

It may require more work initially to redesign your app into a "static" part (your PhoneGap app) and dynamic part (dynamic created views via JavascriptBirdge), and interacte seemlessly between them. But in my opinion, that will be ultimately the best software design.

However, also make sure you still meet Apples AppStore requirements.

Answer 5

Well, Adobe offers exactly that service in their Phonegap Build service. It's called Hydration.

The example shows using it with Android and iOS platforms, so I guess they made it compatible with the iOS Dev Program License Agreement.

If you are using Cordova, you probably will have to switch to the Phonegap CLI if you want to use their build cloud services, which is basically the same as Cordova's with some extra commands to upload to their cloud, etc.

I think there are some plugin like Splashscreen wich also have some minor changes (using <gap>for params into config.xml instead of <preference>). Again, if Hydration solves the problem for you, the changes are minor and you get a really nice feature.

Answer 6

The Meteor framework provides exactly this functionality when combined with PhoneGap. It's even sanctioned by Apple in the latest Developer Agreement. Here are some technical details and then some about Apple's view on it.

Answer 7

I think there is no such solution is available, but you can do it by programmatic way.you can update your cardova app by fetching files from server and updating it.

Answer 8

Check out CodePush from Microsoft. Works with Cordova and React Native.

Appears to be very similar to the "live update" feature from Ionic Cloud.

Answer 9

If you migrate to capacitor, the successor of Cordova there open source solution now.

Capacitor-updater, is the only alternative to ionic AppFlow.

The updater allows you to manage update by yourself, store your zip update where you want and use the download method.

How to start

npm install @capgo/capacitor-updater
npx cap sync

Then in your main JS, this is required to let the updater know the update is valid

  import { CapacitorUpdater } from '@capgo/capacitor-updater'
  CapacitorUpdater.notifyAppReady()
And lately after checking yourself the current version need update:

  const version = await CapacitorUpdater.download({
    url: 'https://github.com/Cap-go/demo-app/releases/download/0.0.4/dist.zip',
  })
  await CapacitorUpdater.set(version); // sets the new version, and reloads the app

After many request of people didn't want to do that themselves, I started Capgo a business to manage all the update process.

All is open source and can be replicate on your own as well.

Doing things for Capacitor is now my main activity, I produce open-source plugin as my main channel of Marketing, I'm solo founder and bootstrapped.

Hope my tool will help you !