Mendix PhoneGap Build App Template

Mendix apps can simply be viewed in mobile web browsers. However, some features of mobile devices
cannot be accessed through HTML and JavaScript. Also, if you want to publish your app in the Apple
App Store or Google Play Store, you have to wrap your app in a native shell. We use
Cordova/PhoneGap to do this. PhoneGap creates a native wrapper around a web
application and provides access to native functionality through a JavaScript API. These apps are
called _hybrid_ apps because they are a hybrid of a web and a native app.

This project contains the Mendix PhoneGap Build app template. You can use it to

- customize your mobile Mendix app: styling, icons, splash screens and code,
- open the platform specific code inside the appropriate IDEs,
- debug the app using emulators,
- build installable packages, either locally or in the cloud using PhoneGap Build.

Table of Contents

* Prerequisites
* Build on PhoneGap
* Customize DTAP endpoint
* App signing
* Build and run locally
* Customizing your app
* Troubleshooting

Prerequisites

Make sure that the following is installed on your system:

- A clone of this repository or the customizable package for your app, available in the 'Deploy'
section of the Mendix Portal. When starting from a customizable package, basic configuration for
your app has already been done.
- Recent Node.js. This code was tested with version 6. You can check by running node -v.
- Windows: install from nodejs.org
- MacOS: use Brew to install Node.js: brew install node
- Linux, BSD, etc: install using the available package manager, e.g. on Debian: sudo apt-get install node

For building locally you also need a development environment for your target platform:

- Android: Android Studio by following
the instructions
- iOS: XCode, only available for Apple computers (MacBook, iMac)

Build on PhoneGap

With the PhoneGap Build service you can build your app in the cloud, even if you haven't installed
the development environment for your target platform. This way you can target iOS without owning an
Apple computer. You still need an Apple developer account, provisioning profile and signing key. See
the PhoneGap site for more details.

To use the PhoneGap Build service you need to register for an account
first. After that, you can build your app by uploading a PhoneGap Build package, which is just a
regular .zip file containing JavaScript and resource files.

PhoneGap build packages target either ARM (phones and most other devices) which is the default, or
x86 platforms (emulators and other devices).

Through uploading to PhoneGap Build

To build through the PhoneGap site, first build a PhoneGap Build package:
``
$ npm install # install dependencies
$ npm run package # create ARM PGB package in dist or
$ npm run package:x86 # create x86 PGB package in dist
`

Then, go to https://build.phonegap.com/apps/ and click the
+ new app button. When asked, upload the PhoneGap Build package from the dist folder.

Through the command line

To build on PhoneGap Build through the command line:
`
$ npm install # install dependencies
$ npm run package # prepare build directory for ARM or
$ npm run package:x86 # prepare build directory for x86
$ npm run phonegap:login # login into the PGB service
$ npm run phonegap:build:android # build on PGB, alternatively use phonegap:build:ios
`

Customize DTAP endpoint

To target a specific DTAP endpoint with your app you can specify it as a parameter to
npm run package or npm run package:x86, e.g:
`
$ npm run package -- --env.target=test # target the test endpoint for ARM architecture
`

Possible targets are development, test, acceptance, production (default) and sandbox. For
convencience you can shorten these to the first letter.

App signing

In case you want to deploy your app on a real device, you will likely need to sign your app.
Please refer to the appropriate Cordova documentation for details:

- iOS
- Android

Build and run locally

If this is the initial build, first do some preparation:
`
$ npm install # install dependencies
$ npm run package:x86 # prepare build directory for x86 or
$ npm run package # prepare build directory for ARM
$ npm run platform:android # setup for Android or
$ npm run platform:ios # setup for iOS
`

If you cloned the repository or want to change some settings, edit the file config/parameters.json
(create it if necessary). It should at least contain the following properties, with values
appropriate for your app:
`json
{
"identifier": "io.mxapps.myapp",
"name": "My App",
"url": "https://myapp.mxapps.io"
}
`
For information on further customization, refer to Customizing your app.

Now, build and run the app:
`
$ npm run package:x86 # prepare build directory for x86 or
$ npm run package # prepare build directory for ARM
$ npm run prepare:all # prepare phonegap platform files
$ npm run start:emulator # run on emulator, alternatively use start:device
`

Customizing your app

When you first download this project, it is mostly empty. All functionality and styling is by
default implemented as part of one this project's dependencies, called mendix-hybrid-app-base.

You can customize your hybrid app in several ways. All defaults from the base package can be
overridden and/or extended, including the build process itself.

Folder structure

The project structure consists of the following elements:

- src/: this is where you place all customizations for your app
- www/:
- images: any images that you'd like to use on e.g. the login screen
- styles: CSS files with styling for e.g. the login screen
- scripts: JavaScript files that customize the behavior of your app
- index.html.mustache: Mustache template file used to generate the index page
- resources/: icons and splash screens
- config.xml.mustache: template file that is used to generate the Phonegap configuration file
- config/: this is where external configuration files go; these files are optional, overriding the
defaults. Example files containing the defaults are put here upon npm install. Possible
configuration files are:
- environments.json: a description of all available deployment environments for your app,
including the app IDs and URLs
- parameters.json: settings that influence some aspects of the build process and the resulting
app, such as Android/iOS support, offline mode, and pin login
- resources.json: descriptions of all resources, such as icons and splash screens, including
their types and sizes
- texts.json: translations/customizations for the static texts in the hybrid shell part of
your app
- build/: (generated) contains all intermediate build files, such as the bundles javascript and
css. The contents of this folder are overwritten every time you run a build
- dist/: (generated) the final build packages will end up here
- webpack.config.js: starting point for the build process

Basic app settings

Several simple app settings, such as the app name and identifier, can be set in
config/parameters.json. If you've downloaded this project from the Mendix Portal, the file is
already there. Otherwise, you can look at the config/parameters.json.example file.

Styling

To customize the styling of the login screen (including the pin screen), add a .css file to
src/www/styles/. It will be automatically picked up by the build process.

Page structure

To change the structure and contents of the login screen (including the pin screen), you can adapt
src/www/index.html.mustache.

Translations / custom text

All static text in the hybrid app can be customized and/or translated. To do so, create a file
config/texts.json containing the original text as keys and the replacement text as values. You can
take a look at config/texts.json.example to see which texts are available for translation.

Icons & Splash screens

Icons and splash screens are configured in two separate places. The image files themselves should be
stored in src/resources/. The configuration of each icon and splash screen should be updated in
config/resources.json. You can take a look at config/resources.json.example for an example.

In case you have downloaded this package through the Mendix Portal, all configured icons and splash
screens have already been prepackaged and preconfigured.

Client behavior (advanced)

You can run custom code in two specific cases:
- on client configuration setup
- on Mendix client load

To implement custom behavior for these cases, edit src/www/scripts/entry.js.

Customizing the build process (advanced)

You can customize the build process by making changes to webpack.config.js in the root folder of
this project. All Webpack configuration you add here will be merged with the default Webpack
configuration. You can read more about this in the
webpack-merge documentation.

Upgrading the base package

Default functionality and styling is implemented in the mendix-hybrid-app-base package. We will
occasionally release updates to this package. You can upgrade the base package by running
npm upgrade from the root of your project.

Troubleshooting

PIN feature on iOS simulator

When using the PIN feature while running your app on an iOS simulator, you experience an issue where the
app will prompt you to setup a PIN every time app is launched. This is due to the underlying way Cordova access the Keychain.
Either use a device, or enable Keychain Sharing in Capabilities` of your project.
See here for more information.

iPhone X support

Please see here for the steps to support iPhone X in your app.