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Chris Scott edited this page Mar 28, 2016 · 3 revisions

#Installation instructions for PhoneGap Build.#

PGB with CLI-5 and gradle support

The last days, PGB has tried to include gradle support in its CLI-5 versions, and as of 2015-09-30 this seems to work, finally; see http://phonegap.com/blog/phonegap-build/ and check current status PGB tweets in http://status.build.phonegap.com/

This is what we at Logics Software did to use the master 0.6.1 version of the premium plugin in our apps with PGB - it is far easier than before, and technically better (hopefully):

Modify Plugin plugin.xml

  • Create a new branch based on #master, e.g. grdl
  • Set your unique plugin id and version (see below)
  • No more modifications required!

###Add Your Private PGB Plugin###

  • As usual (see below)
  • Note: PGB does not support "public PGB-plugins" anymore, but your private PGB-plugins are OK

Modify App config.xml

  • Since PGB has reverted default configurations several times the last days, we currently force cli-5.2.0 and gradle:
   <preference name="phonegap-version" value="cli-5.2.0" />
   <preference name="android-build-tool" value="gradle" />  

   <gap:plugin name="cordova-plugin-legacy-whitelist" source="npm" />
   <allow-navigation href="*" />
  • And in our HTML file, we include the "allow all" CSP (to get rid of the plugin logcat warnings):
   <meta http-equiv="Content-Security-Policy" content="default-src * 'unsafe-inline' 'unsafe-eval'" />

For us, this works - Good luck!

PGB without gradle support, e.g. 3.7.0

With PGB, using the premium version of this plugin in you app is more difficult than using the free version:

  • Due to license restrictions, a public PGB plugin "cordova-background-geolocation (premium)" is not allowed; you first must prepare and add your own private PGB plugin, and then add this to your apps as usual
  • For private PGB plugins you must have a paid PhonegapBuild account - the free account is not sufficient.
  • PGB does not support all the Cordova features used in the plugin, especially if you want to compile for Android

The following shows what we at Logics Software did to use the edge 0.5.4 version of the premium plugin in our apps with PGB.

###Github Setup###

  • Fork the transistorsoft repository to your own github account
  • Create a new branch based on edge 0.5.4, e.g. edge_pgb

###Make your plugin.xml PGB Compatible###

  • Since PGB uses a global namespace for all its plugins, you must make your own unique plugin id. Instead of id="com.transistorsoft.cordova.background-geolocation" use something like com.mycompany.cordova.background-geolocation
  • For our tests, we added a counter to the transistorsoft plugin version, something like version="0.5.40", version="0.5.41"
  • Since we do not use Cordova 5 with PGB, we uncommented / commented out the relevant portions

This is how our plugin.xml looks like now:

<plugin xmlns="http://www.phonegap.com/ns/plugins/1.0"
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    id="de.logics.cordova.background-geolocation"
    version="0.5.45">
    <name>BackgroundGeolocation</name>
    <description>Sophisticated, battery-efficient background-geolocation plugin for Cordova</description>
    <license>MIT</license>
    <keywords>cordova, phonegap, background geolocation</keywords>

    <engines>
        <engine name="cordova" version=">=3.0.0" />
    </engines>

    <!-- 
        Pre-Cordova 5, non-npm plugin reference.  Uncomment this if you're not using Cordova 5.
    -->
    <dependency id="org.apache.cordova.dialogs" />

    <!-- Cordova 5 npm-style plugin referernce.  Comment this out if you're not using Cordova 5
    <dependency id="cordova-plugin-dialogs" />
    -->

    <js-module ...

###Add Your Private PGB Plugin###

  • In the PGB menu bar, select Plugins
  • In the PGB Plugins page, select Submit Plugin. Note: this requires a paid PGB account.
  • Select Plugin Type Private - only I can use this plugin. Note: Due to license restrictions, public plugins are not allowed
  • Set the Plugin Git Repository URL to your private Github repo.
  • In Optional Tag or Branch, type your repo branch, e.g. edge_pgb
  • Click Submit Plugin

Selecting Your Plugins, you should now see your private plugin, showing the plugin version you specified in the plugin.xlm.

Notes on "updating" your PGB plugin:

  • Whenever you update the Github repo of your plugin branch, you must submit the repo as a new PGB plugin version as well: On submit, PGB forks your repo and then uses this cached version
  • For this to work, you must update the version (or the id) of your plugin in the 'plugin.xml`. That is why we we added a counter to the transistorsoft plugin version
  • Seems you must update your current app source code as well after submitting a new plugin version: This prevents PGB from using the previous plugin version for the untouched app (just upload same app source code again)..

###Add Android Support 0.5.4### This step is only required if you want to compile your app for Android.

For Android, gradle is used to compile the plugin before compiling your app, as specified in file src/android/build.gradle:

    compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:7.5.0'
    compile 'de.greenrobot:eventbus:3.0.0-beta1'
    compile(name:'tslocationmanager', ext:'aar')

Since gradle is not supported in PGB, you must "hand-code" these gradle steps:

  • The plugin requires the Google Play-Services, version 7.5.0. Since PGB does not support the Framework tag, you must include a suitable plugin via the dependency tag instead. For this, we use our version of the ubiquitous but outdated com.google.play plugin.
  • The plugin requires the eventbus lib, version 3.0.0-beta1. You can download the respective eventbus-3.0.0-beta1.jar from http://maven.org, and copy this JAR to src/android in your repo.
  • The plugin requires the transistorsoft background geolocation lib. You can find the respective classes.jar file in src/android/libs/tslocationmanager.aar: Open this ZIP file, and copy classes.jar to src/android as well.

In your repo, src/android now contains the two addional jars eventbus-3.0.0-beta1.jar and classes.jar, and you can update the plugin.xml accordingly:

  • Out-comment the not supported framework and resource-file tags
  • Add the dependency tag for your Google play services plugin
  • Add the two source-file tags for the two additional jars

The Android part of out plugin.xml now starts like this:

    <platform name="android">
      <!-- removed for PGB: default versions 3.7.0 / 3.7.0 / 3.7.0 - no cli-5.1.1 -->
      <!--
        <framework src="src/android/build.gradle" custom="true" type="gradleReference" />
        <resource-file src="src/android/libs/tslocationmanager.aar" target="src/android/libs/tslocationmanager.aar" />
      -->
			
        <source-file src="src/android/CDVBackgroundGeolocation.java" target-dir="src/com/transistorsoft/cordova/bggeo" />
        <source-file src="src/android/BootReceiver.java" target-dir="src/com/transistorsoft/cordova/bggeo" />
		
      <!-- added for PGB: default versions 3.7.0 / 3.7.0 / 3.7.0 - no cli-5.1.1 -->
      <dependency id="com.google.playservices" url="https://github.com/LogicsSoftware/google-play-services.git" /><!-- V24, instead of framework -->
      <source-file src="src/android/eventbus-3.0.0-beta1.jar" target-dir="libs" />
      <source-file src="src/android/classes.jar" target-dir="libs" /> <!-- transistor-locationmanager.jar, extracted from  libs/tslocationmanager.aar -->

        <config-file target="AndroidManifest.xml" ...

Do not forget to increment the plugin version before resubmitting your plugin to PGB!

###Add Android Support 0.5.5+### This step is only required if you want to compile your app for Android.

Starting with Android 0.5.5, you find one more entry in file src/android/build.gradle:

    compile 'com.mcxiaoke.volley:library:1.0.18'

Starting with 0.5.5, the plugin requires the volley lib, version 1.0.18. Proceed as with the eventbus lib for 0.5.4:

  • Download the respective library-1.0.18.jar from http://maven.org and copy this JAR to src/android in your repo.
  • Add the respective source-file tag to your plugin.xml:
      <source-file src="src/android/library-1.0.18.jar" target-dir="libs" />

Notes when merging an updated transistorsoft base into your repository

  • In your plugin.xml, care for correct plugin id and version (append your incremented sequence number)
  • Extract the current classes.jar from the src/android/libs/tslocationmanager.aar to src/android/
  • Check the current src/android/build.gradle for new or updated entries.
  • Download the required JARs to your src/android/ dir and care for the corresponding <source-file src="src/android/XXX.jar" target-dir="libs" /> tag in your plugin.xml
  • Submit your updated repo as private plugin to PGB
  • Updload (probably same) app source code to PGB and build the app

Good Luck! For plugin 0.5.8 this worked for us..

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