plugman

plugman

A command line tool to install and uninstall plugins for use with Apache Cordova projects.

This document defines tool usage.

Plugin Specification

--> plugin_spec.md <--

Quickstart

npm install -g plugman

Design Goals

• Facilitate programmatic installation and manipulation of plugins
• Detail the dependencies and components of individual plugins
• Allow code reuse between different target platforms

Supported Platforms

• iOS
• Android
• BlackBerry 10
• Windows Phone (7+8)

Command Line Usage

plugman --platform <ios|android|blackberry10|wp7|wp8> --project <directory> --plugin <name|url|path> [--plugins_dir <directory>] [--www <directory>] [--variable <name>=<value> [--variable <name>=<value> ...]]
plugman --uninstall --platform <ios|android|blackberr10|wp7|wp8> --project <directory> --plugin <id> [--www <directory>] [--plugins_dir <directory>]

• Using minimum parameters, installs a plugin into a cordova project. You must specify a platform and cordova project location for that platform. You also must specify a plugin, with the different --plugin parameter forms being:
  • name: The directory name where the plugin contents exist. This must be an existing directory under the --plugins_dir path (see below for more info).
  • url: A URL starting with https:// or git://, pointing to a valid git repository that is clonable and contains a plugin.xml file. The contents of this repository would be copied into the --plugins_dir.
  • path: A path to a directory containing a valid plugin which includes a plugin.xml file. This path's contents will be copied into the --plugins_dir.
• --uninstall: Uninstalls an already---install'ed plugin from a cordova project. Specify the plugin ID.

Other parameters:

• --plugins_dir defaults to <project>/cordova/plugins, but can be any directory containing a subdirectory for each fetched plugin.
• --www defaults to the project's www folder location, but can be any directory that is to be used as cordova project application web assets.
• --variable allows to specify certain variables at install time, necessary for certain plugins requiring API keys or other custom, user-defined parameters. Please see the plugin specification for more information.

Node Module Usage

node
> require('plugman')
{ install: [Function: installPlugin],
  uninstall: [Function: uninstallPlugin],
  fetch: [Function: fetchPlugin],
  prepare: [Function: handlePrepare] }

install method

module.exports = function installPlugin(platform, project_dir, id, plugins_dir, subdir, cli_variables, www_dir, callback) {

Installs a plugin into a specified cordova project of a specified platform.

• platform: one of android, ios, blackberry10, wp7 or wp8
• project_dir: path to an instance of the above specified platform's cordova project
• id: a string representing the id of the plugin, a path to a cordova plugin with a valid plugin.xml file, or an https:// or git:// url to a git repository of a valid cordova plugin
• plugins_dir: path to directory where plugins will be stored, defaults to <project_dir>/cordova/plugins
• subdir: subdirectory within the plugin directory to consider as plugin directory root, defaults to .
• cli_variables: an object mapping cordova plugin specification variable namess (see plugin specification) to values
• www_dir: path to directory where web assets are to be copied to, defaults to the specified project directory's www dir (dependent on platform)
• callback: callback to invoke once complete. If specified, will pass in an error object as a first parameter if the action failed. If not and an error occurs, plugman will throw the error

uninstall method

module.exports = function uninstallPlugin(platform, project_dir, id, plugins_dir, cli_variables, www_dir, callback) {

Uninstalls a previously-installed cordova plugin from a specified cordova project of a specified platform.

• platform: one of android, ios, blackberry10, wp7 or wp8
• project_dir: path to an instance of the above specified platform's cordova project
• id: a string representing the id of the plugin
• plugins_dir: path to directory where plugins are stored, defaults to <project_dir>/cordova/plugins
• subdir: subdirectory within the plugin directory to consider as plugin directory root, defaults to .
• cli_variables: an object mapping cordova plugin specification variable namess (see plugin specification) to values
• www_dir: path to directory where web assets are to be copied to, defaults to the specified project directory's www dir (dependent on platform)
• callback: callback to invoke once complete. If specified, will pass in an error object as a first parameter if the action failed. If not and an error occurs, plugman will throw the error

fetch method

Copies a cordova plugin into a single location that plugman uses to track which plugins are installed into a project.

module.exports = function fetchPlugin(plugin_dir, plugins_dir, link, subdir, git_ref, callback) {

• plugin_dir: path or URL to a plugin directory/repository
• plugins_dir: path housing all plugins used in this project
• link: if plugin_dir points to a local path, will create a symbolic link to that folder instead of copying into plugins_dir, defaults to false
• subdir: subdirectory within the plugin directory to consider as plugin directory root, defaults to .
• gitref: if plugin_dir points to a URL, this value will be used to pass into git checkout after the repository is cloned, defaults to HEAD
• callback: callback to invoke once complete. If specified, will pass in an error object as a first parameter if the action failed. If not and an error occurs, plugman will throw the error

prepare method

Finalizes plugin installation by making configuration file changes and setting up a JavaScript loader for js-module support.

module.exports = function handlePrepare(project_dir, platform, plugins_dir) {

• project_dir: path to an instance of the above specified platform's cordova project
• platform: one of android, ios, blackberry10, wp7 or wp8
• plugins_dir: path housing all plugins used in this project

Example Plugins

• Google has a bunch of plugins which are maintained actively by a contributor to plugman
• Adobe maintains plugins for its Build cloud service, which are open sourced and available on GitHub
• BlackBerry has a bunch of plugins offering deep platform integration

Development

Basic installation:

git clone https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/cordova-plugman.git
cd cordova-plugman
npm install -g

Linking the global executable to the git repo:

git clone https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/cordova-plugman.git
cd cordova-plugman
npm install
sudo npm link

Running Tests

npm test

Plugin Directory Structure

A plugin is typically a combination of some web/www code, and some native code. However, plugins may have only one of these things - a plugin could be a single JavaScript file, or some native code with no corresponding JavaScript.

Here is a sample plugin named foo with android and ios platforms support, and 2 www assets.

foo-plugin/
|- plugin.xml     # xml-based manifest
|- src/           # native source for each platform
|  |- android/
|  |  `- Foo.java
|  `- ios/
|     |- CDVFoo.h
|     `- CDVFoo.m
|- README.md
`- www/
   |- foo.js
   `- foo.png

This structure is suggested, but not required.

Contributors

See the package.json file for attribution notes.

License

Apache License 2.0