cordova-custom-config plugin   
============================

Table of Contents

- Overview
- Do I need it?
- Important notes
- Changes in cordova-custom-config@5
- Remote build environments
- Installation
- Usage
- Removable preferences via backup/restore
- Preferences
- Config blocks
- Android
- Android preferences
- Android config blocks
- Android example
- iOS
- iOS preferences
- iOS config blocks
- iOS image resources
- iOS example
- Plugin preferences
- Log output
- Example project
- TODO
- Credits
- License

Overview

The purpose of this plugin is to enable manipulation of native platform configuration files that are not supported out-of-the-box by Cordova/Phonegap CLI.

The plugin uses hook scripts to update iOS and Android platform configuration files based on custom data defined in config.xml.


I dedicate a considerable amount of my free time to developing and maintaining this Cordova plugin, along with my other Open Source software.
To help ensure this plugin is kept updated, new features are added and bugfixes are implemented quickly, please donate a couple of dollars (or a little more if you can stretch) as this will help me to afford to dedicate time to its maintenance. Please consider donating if you're using this plugin in an app that makes you money, if you're being paid to make the app, if you're asking for new features or priority bug fixes.

Do I need it?

Manual editing of the platform configuration files in the platforms/ directory is one solution to setting of custom platform configuration.
But this is not maintainable across multiple development machines or a CI environment where subsequent build operations may overwrite your changes.

This plugin reads custom preferences from config.xml, which can be committed to version control and therefore applied across multiple development machines, CI environments,
and maintained between builds, even if a platform is removed and re-added.

However: recent versions of the Cordova/Phonegap CLI have added official support for and blocks in the config.xml (previously they only worked in plugin.xml).

So if all you want to do is insert a block of native config or change a native preference, you probably don't need this plugin at all.

I hope that eventually the Cordova/Phonegap CLI will support all the functionality that this plugin provides and it can be retired.

Until then: there are still some operations that can be performed by this plugin which are not supported by the latest Cordova/Phonegap CLI versions. These include:

- Overriding default platform preferences set during the cordova prepare operation.
- Deletion of existing elements/attributes in AndroidManifest.xml
- Manipulation of build settings in the native iOS Xcode project file project.pbxproj via XCBuildConfiguration blocks.
- Manipulation of iOS Precompile header files via iOS Precompile Header config blocks
- Advanced manipulation of iOS Xcode project using xcodefunc.

Important notes

Changes in cordova-custom-config@5

The recent release of cordova@7.0.0 has introduced backwardly-incompatible breaking changes to the structure of Android projects generated by Cordova.

Therefore a new major version of this plugin (v5) has been released to support these changes. Here are things to be aware of:

- The location of AndroidManifest.xml has changed in cordova-android@7 but cordova-custom-config@5 should detect which version of cordova-android platform is present in the project and use the correct path.
- All custom config elements supported by this plugin in config.xml should now be prefixed with custom- for use with cordova-custom-config@5
- =>
- =>
- =>
- This is because cordova-android@7 now attempts to parse blocks in the config.xml, so blocks intended for this plugin to parse will be picked up by Cordova and can cause build errors (see #135) for an example.
- Plugin preferences should still however be specified as
- e.g.
- The plugin will detect if the platform project is cordova-android@7 or cordova-android@6 (or below)
- If cordova-android@6, by default the plugin will support non-prefixed custom config elements
- If cordova-android@7, by default the plugin will NOT support non-prefixed custom config elements
- This can be overridden by explicitly setting the parse_unprefixed preference
-

Remote build environments

This plugin is intended for the automated application of custom configuration to native platform projects in a local build environment.

This plugin WILL NOT WORK with remote ("Cloud") build environments that do not support the execution of this plugin's hook scripts. This includes:

- Phonegap Build
- Intel XDK
- Telerik Appbuilder
- Ionic Cloud

If you are using another cloud-based Cordova/Phonegap build service and find this plugin doesn't work, the reason is probably also the same.

FWIW: if you are professionally developing Cordova/Phonegap apps, you are eventually going to find it preferable to build locally.

Installation

The plugin is registered as cordova-custom-config on npm (requires Cordova CLI 5.0.0+)

cordova-custom-config@4+ requires the plugin to be installed via the cordova-fetch mechanism in order to satisfy its package dependencies by installing it via npm.

Therefore a Cordova CLI version of cordova@7+ is required to install the plugin:

$ cordova plugin add cordova-custom-config

Or cordova@6.2+ if the --fetch option is specified explicitly:

$ cordova plugin add cordova-custom-config --fetch

Usage

The hook scripts included in this plugin are run after each platform prepare operation and apply preferences dictated by custom keys in the project config.xml file to the relevant platform config files.
As such, all you need to do to "use" this plugin is include the relevant keys in your config.xml and the scripts will take care of the rest when you build your project.

IMPORTANT: As of cordova-custom-config@5, this plugin expects that custom configuration keys will be prefixed with in order to distinguish them from the Cordova configuration keys. For example, for a preference intended for this plugin to parse you should use but for a preference intended for Cordova to parse you should use

NOTE: There are no run-time source files included in this plugin - it is simply a convenient package of hook scripts.

Removable preferences via backup/restore

By default, any changes made by this plugin to platform config files are irreversible - i.e. if you want to undo changes made by the plugin, you'll need to remove then re-add the Cordova platform, for example:

cordova platform rm android && cordova platform add android

However, if you want the changes made to be reversible, you can enable auto-backup/restore functionality by adding the following preference inside the top-level element of your config.xml:



When the first prepare operation runs after the plugin is installed, it will make backup copies of the original configuration files before it makes any modifications.
These backup copies are stored in plugins/cordova-custom-config/backup/ and will be restored before each prepare operation, allowing Cordova to make modifications and then the plugin to make further modifications after the prepare.

This means changes made by the plugin are reversible, so removing a custom element from the config.xml will remove it from the platform configuration file on the next prepare operation and uninstalling the plugin will restore the configuration files to their original state (before the plugin made any modifications).

Consequently, any manual changes made to the platform configuration files in platforms/ after installing the plugin will be overwritten by the plugin on the next prepare operation.

To prevent auto-restoring of backups and make manual changes to platform configuration files persist, remove the autorestore preference from the config.xml

Preferences

Preferences are set by defining a element in the config.xml, e.g.

1. Preferences defined outside of the platform element will apply to all platforms
2. Preferences defined inside a platform element will apply only to the specified platform
3. Platform preferences take precedence over common preferences
4. Platform-specific preferences must be prefixed with the platform name (e.g. name="ios-somepref") and be defined inside a platform element.

Config blocks

blocks allow platform-specific chunks of config to be defined as an XML subtree in the config.xml, which is then applied to the appropriate platform configuration file by the plugin.

1. config-file elements MUST be defined inside a platform element, otherwise they will be ignored.
2. config-file target attributes specify the target file to update. (AndroidManifest.xml or *-Info.plist)
3. config-file parent attributes specify the parent element (AndroidManifest.xml) or parent key (*-Info.plist) that the child data will replace or be appended to.
4. config-file elements are uniquely indexed by target AND parent for each platform.
5. If there are multiple config-file's defined with the same target AND parent, the last config-file will be used
6. Elements defined WITHIN a config-file will replace or be appended to the same elements relative to the parent element
7. If a unique config-file contains multiples of the same elements (other than uses-permission elements which are selected by by the uses-permission name attribute), the last defined element will be retrieved.

Android

The plugin currently supports setting of custom config only in platforms/android/AndroidManifest.xml.
For a list of possible manifest values see http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/manifest-intro.html

$3

Note: cordova@6.4.0 adds support for blocks in config.xml, which enables you to achieve similar manipulation of Android preferences without needing this plugin.

- elements in config.xml are used to set set attributes on existing elements in the AndroidManifest.xml.
- e.g.
- will result in AndroidManifest.xml:
- Sometimes there plugins set some defaults in AndroidManifest.xml that you may not want.
It is also possible to delete nodes using the preferences and the delete="true" attribute.
- e.g.
- will delete the existing node

#### Android namespace attribute

__Important:__ In order to user the android: namespace in preferences within your config.xml, you must include the android namespace attribute on the root element.
The namespace attribute fragment is:

xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

so your element should look something like:

id="com.my.app"
version="0.0.1"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/ns/widgets"
xmlns:cdv="http://cordova.apache.org/ns/1.0"
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

#### XPath preferences

Android manifest preferences are set by using XPaths in the preference name to define which element attribute the value should be applied to.

The preference name should be prefixed with android-manifest then follow with an XPath which specifies the element and attribute to apple the value to.

For example:

This preference specifies that the launchMode attribute should be given a value of singleTask:

If your manifest contains other activities, you should specify the activity name in the XPath. Note that the activity name for Cordova 4.2.0 and below was "CordovaApp" whereas Cordova 4.3.0 and above is "MainActivity". For example:

If the attribute you are setting is on the root element, just omit the element name and specify the attribute. For example:

$3

- blocks are use to define chunks of config an XML subtree, to be inserted into AndroidManifest.xml
- the target attribute must be set to AndroidManifest.xml:
- the parent attribute defines an Xpath to the parent element in the AndroidManifest.xml under which the XML subtree block should be inserted
- to insert a block under the root element, use parent="/*"
- to insert a block under a descendant of , use an Xpath prefixed with ./
e.g parent="./application/activity" will insert the block under /manifest/application/activity
- the child elements inside the block will be inserted under the parent element.

For example:

will result in AndroidManifest.xml with:

NOTE: By default, if the specified parent element contains an existing child element of the same name as that defined in the XML subtree, the existing element will be overwritten.
For example:

will replace the existing element(s).

To force the preservation (rather than replacement) of existing child elements, you can use the mode="add" attribute.
So for the example above:

will preserve the existing element(s).

$3

config.xml:




android:xlargeScreens="false"
android:largeScreens="false"
android:smallScreens="false" />

iOS

- The plugin currently supports custom configuration of:
- the project plist (*-Info.plist) using blocks
- build settings using elements
- image asset catalogs using elements
- All iOS-specific config should be placed inside the in config.xml.

$3

- Preferences for iOS can be used to define build configuration settings
- The plugin currently supports:
- setting of XCBuildConfiguration block keys in the project.pbxproj file
- xcodefunc as an interface to apply functions from node-xcode

#### XCBuildConfiguration

- XCBuildConfiguration elements are used to set preferences in the project settings file platforms/ios/{PROJECT_NAME}/{PROJECT_NAME}.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj
- Currently, XCBuildConfiguration is the only supported block type.
- However, there is no constraint on the list of keys for which values may be set.
- If an entry already exists in an XCBuildConfiguration block for the specified key, the existing value will be overwritten with the specified value.
- If no entry exists in any XCBuildConfiguration block for the specified key, a new key entry will be created in each XCBuildConfiguration block with the specified value.
- By default, values will be applied to both "Release" and "Debug" XCBuildConfiguration blocks.
- However, the block type can be specified by adding a buildType attribute to the element in the config.xml: value is either debug or release
- e.g
- By default, both the key (preference name) and value will be quote-escaped when inserted into the XCBuildConfiguration block.
- e.g.
- will appear in project.pbxproj as: "IPHONEOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET" = "7.0";
- The default quoting can be override by setting the quote attribute on the element.
- Valid values are:
- "none" - don't quote key or value
- "key" - quote key but not value
- "value" - quote value but not key
- "both" - quote both key and value
- e.g.
- will appear in project.pbxproj as: IPHONEOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET = 7.0;

- Preferences should be defined in the format
- Therefore, the preference name should be prefixed with ios-XCBuildConfiguration, for example:

##### .xcconfig files

- Cordova uses .xcconfig files in /platforms/ios/cordova/ to override Xcode project settings in project.pbxproj with build-type specific values.
- build.xcconfig is overriden by settings in build-debug.xcconfig and build-release.xcconfig for the corresponding build type.
- When applying a custom preference, the plugin will look for an existing entry in the .xcconfig file that corresponds to the buildType attribute.
- If buildType attribute is "debug" or "release", the plugin will look in build-debug.xcconfig or build-release.xcconfig respectively.
- If buildType is not specified or set to "none", the plugin will look in build.xcconfig.
- By default, if an entry is found in the .xcconfig file which corresponds to the custom preference name in the config.xml, the value in the .xcconfig file will be overwritten with the value in the config.xml.
- To prevent the plugin from overwriting the value of a specific preference in the corresponding .xcconfig file, set the preference attribute xcconfigEnforce="false".
- e.g
- If a preference value doesn't already exist in the corresponding .xcconfig file, you can force its addition by setting the preference attribute xcconfigEnforce="true".
This will append it to the corresponding .xcconfig file.
- e.g
- Dependencies on additional .xcconfig files be added to a project by using #include statements. Note, the buildType attribute applies as stated above, however, xcconfigEnforce has no effect on #include statements as it is possible to have multiple #include statemnets in a single .xcconfig file.
- e.g. .
- A backup copy of any modified .xcconfig file will be made in 'plugins/cordova-custom-config/backup/ios'. By default, these backups will be restored prior to the next prepare operation.
- Auto-restore of the backups can be disabled by setting in the config.xml.
- Preference names and values will not be quote-escaped in .xcconfig files, so the quote attribute has no effect on them.

##### CODE\_SIGN\_IDENTITY preferences

- Cordova places its default CODE\_SIGN\_IDENTITY for Release builds in build-release.xcconfig but for Debug builds in build.xcconfig.
- If you set a CODE\_SIGN\_IDENTITY preference in the config.xml with buildType="release", the plugin will overwrite the defaults in build-release.xcconfig.
- e.g.
- If you set a CODE\_SIGN\_IDENTITY preference in the config.xml with buildType="debug", the plugin will overwrite the defaults in build.xcconfig.
- e.g.
- You can prevent the CODE\_SIGN\_IDENTITY preferences being overwritten by setting xcconfigEnforce="false".
- e.g.
- You can force the plugin to add a new entry for CODE\_SIGN\_IDENTITY preference with buildType="debug" to build-debug.xcconfig, rather than overwriting the defaults in build.xcconfig by setting xcconfigEnforce="true".
This will still override the defaults in build.xcconfig, because build-debug.xcconfig overrides build.xcconfig.
- e.g.

#### xcodefunc

- xcode-func preferences enable functions within node-xcode to be called to edit different block types (such as Sources, Resources or Frameworks) in the project.pbxproj.
- The preference name should be ios-xcodefunc, i.e. name="ios-xcodefunc"
- The function to call in node-xcode should be specified using the func attribute, e.g. func="addResourceFile"
- Function arguments should be specified using child elements. It supports the following attributes:
- value- the value of the argument, e.g. value="src/content/image.png"
- type - the type of the value, e.g. type="String".
- Supported types are:
- Null - evaluates to null
- Undefined - evaluates to undefined
- Object - a stringified JSON object that will be parsed back into its object form
- Number - a Javascript Number
- String - a Javascript String
- Symbol - a Javascript Symbol
- If type is not specified, the argument value will be passed exactly as defined in the value attribute
- flag - a modifier for specific types of argument, e.g. flag="path"
- Currently, the only supported value is path which forces the path to be resolved either as an absolute path or relative to the project root.

For example:

will add resource image.png from ./src/content (i.e. ../../src/content/image.png relative to ./platforms/ios/)

$3

- elements are currently used to:
- set preferences in the project .plist file (platforms/ios/{PROJECT_NAME}/{PROJECT_NAME}-Info.plist).
- add to Precompiled Headers file (platforms/ios/{PROJECT_NAME}/{PROJECT_NAME}-Prefix.pch).
- all elements should have the platform attribute set to ios:

#### iOS project plist config blocks

- the target attribute of the should be set to -Info.plist:
- the parent attribute is used to determine which key name to use for the custom preference
- e.g.
- will appear in {PROJECT_NAME}-Info.plist as NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription under /plist/dict
- the value of the preference is set by the child elements of the element. These will appear directly below the preference in the .plist file.
- For example:


This app requires constant access to your location in order to track your position, even when the screen is off.


- will appear in the plist file as:

NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription
This app requires constant access to your location in order to track your position, even when the screen is off.
- if the .plist value type is an array, by default the values in the block will be merged with any existing values.
- For example, if the plist already contains:

LSApplicationQueriesSchemes

fbapi
fb-messenger-api


- Then adding the block:



myapp
myapp2



- will result in the plist file as:

LSApplicationQueriesSchemes

fbapi
fb-messenger-api
myapp
myapp2


- this behaviour can also be explicitly specified by adding mode="merge" to the block:
- For example, the block:



myapp
myapp2



- will also result in the plist file as:

LSApplicationQueriesSchemes

fbapi
fb-messenger-api
myapp
myapp2


- to replace existing values with those in the block, use the attribute mode="replace":
- For example, if the plist already contains:

LSApplicationQueriesSchemes

fbapi
fb-messenger-api


- Then adding the block:



myapp
myapp2



- will result in the plist file as:

LSApplicationQueriesSchemes

myapp
myapp2


- to delete existing values in the plist, specify the key to delete as the parent and use the attribute mode="delete":
- For example, if the plist already contains:

LSApplicationQueriesSchemes

fbapi
fb-messenger-api


- Then adding the block:

- will result in the existing block being removed from the plist


#### iOS Precompile Header config blocks

- the target attribute of the should be set to -Prefix.pch:

$3

Purpose:
- Sometimes it can be necessary to create custom iOS image asset catalogs in Cordova-based iOS apps.
- For example, some plugins require that custom images be present in a custom asset catalog in order to make use of them:
- cordova-plugin-themeablebrowser
- cordova-plugin-3dtouch
- This could be done manually by editing the platform project in XCode, but this is fragile since platform projects are volatile.
- i.e. can be removed when removing/updating the platform via Cordova CLI.
- So this plugin provides a mechanism to automate the generation custom asset catalogs.

Usage:
- Image asset catalogs can be defined using elements
- The elements must be places inside of the element
- The elements must have the attribute type="image":
- The src attribute (required) should specify the relative local path to the image file.
- The relative root is the Cordova project root
- e.g.
- where the image file is location in /path/to/project/root/resources/custom-catalog/back@1x.png
- The catalog attribute (required) specifies the name of the catalog to add the image to
- e.g.
- The scale attribute (required) specifies the scale factor of the image
- Valid values are: 1x, 2x, 3x
- e.g.
- The idiom attribute (optional) specifies the target device family
- Valid values are:
- universal - all devices
- iphone - iPhones only
- ipad - iPads only
- watch - Apple Watch only
- If not specified, defaults to universal
- e.g.
- Full example:

$3

config.xml:




myapp
myapp2
myapp3






UIInterfaceOrientationPortrait
UIInterfaceOrientationPortraitUpsideDown






UIInterfaceOrientationPortrait
UIInterfaceOrientationPortraitUpsideDown






location





This app requires constant access to your location in order to track your position, even when the screen is off.




This app will now only track your location when the screen is on and the app is displayed.





NSAllowsArbitraryLoads










Plugin preferences

The plugin supports some preferences which are used to customise the behaviour of the plugin.
These preferences should be placed at the top level (inside ) rather than inside individual elements.
Each preference name is prefixed with cordova-custom-config to avoid name clashes, for example:

The following preferences are currently supported:

- cordova-custom-config-autorestore - if true, the plugin will restore a backup of platform configuration files taken at plugin installation time.
See the Removable preferences section for details. Defaults to false.
- cordova-custom-config-stoponerror - if true and an error occurs while updating config for a given platform during a prepare operation, the error will cause the prepare operation to fail.
If false, the plugin will log the error but will proceed and attempt to update any other platforms, before allowing the prepare operation to continue.
Defaults to false.
- cordova-custom-config-hook - determines which Cordova hook operation to use to run the plugin and apply custom config.
Defaults to after_prepare if not specified.
You may wish to change this to apply custom config earlier or later, for example if config applied by this plugin is clashing with other plugins.
Possible values are: before_prepare, after_prepare, before_compile.
See the Cordova hooks documentation for more on the Cordova build process.
- cordova-custom-config-parse_unprefixed - determines whether the plugin should attempt to parse unprefixed custom config elements in config.xml
- If not explicitly specified, the plugin will set a default by detecting whether the platform project is cordova-android@7 or cordova-android@6 (or below)
- If cordova-android@6, defaults to true
- If cordova-android@7, defaults to false

Log output

If you run the prepare operation with the --verbose command-line option, the plugin will output detail about the operations it's performing. Console messages are prefixed with cordova-custom-config: . For example:

cordova prepare ios --verbose

Example project

An example project illustrating use of this plugin can be found here: https://github.com/dpa99c/cordova-custom-config-example

TODO

See the TODO list for planned features/improvements.

Credits

Config update hook based on this hook by Diego Netto

License