fantastic stuff andrew; looking forward to seeing how the childbrowser plugin package itself evolves
On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 4:58 PM, Steven Gill <[email protected]> wrote: > This sounds awesome Andrew! > > On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 4:48 PM, Andrew Lunny <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Update: The pluginstall script - https://github.com/alunny/pluginstall - >> now installs (simple) iOS plugins as well as Android. >> >> There are three steps to installing an iOS plugin: >> 1. move some files around >> 2. modify the PhoneGap.plist file >> 3. modify the XCode project file (App.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj) >> >> 1 and 2 are trivial (although the Node library for manipulating plist files >> does need some love). >> >> 3 right now depends on a separate library I've developed - >> https://github.com/alunny/node-xcode - that parses an XCode project file >> into a JavaScript object. This object can then be easily modified, and >> written back out. The node-xcode project is not very mature, and will need >> enhancements to deal with the full range of PhoneGap plugins. >> >> My next step is to modify a fork of the ChildBrowser plugin, to allow for >> cross-platform deployment of the same JavaScript file (there are some >> fiddly inconsistencies between Android and iOS there). I'll then have a >> screencast/demo available of how the whole process works. >> >> On 24 January 2012 13:19, Filip Maj <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> > >> > On 24 January 2012 09:55, Filip Maj <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected] >> >> >> > wrote: >> > >> > Can you explain the two <asset> nodes in your example plugins.xml ? What >> > is the difference between the two elements? Lines 8-9. >> > >> > "The first tag is pointing to the js file, the second to a directory also >> > called "childbrowser" that needs to be moved into the project's www >> > directory." >> > >> > Gotcha! >> > >> > >> > >... >> > >A couple of open issues: >> > >* the current format doesn't have a mechanism for specifying that one >> > >plugin depends on another, which will be necessary >> > >* there's no way to specify a dependency on an external library - for >> > >example, a separate framework on iOS. I will investigate options as I >> > >begin >> > >work on the iOS side of the code. >> > >> > Could we use what mechanisms already exist in package.json to figure this >> > out? Maybe add an extension to this? It'd be nice to be able to feature >> > phonegap plugins and other tools in NPM, and it seems we're going the >> > route of node anyways for our CLI stuff. >> > >> > >> > It's definitely something we should feel out as phonegap-js and the >> plugin >> > tooling progress, particularly for plugin distribution. I think having >> this >> > kind of manifest file and a package.json is not out of the question, if >> > they're doing two very different things. >> > >> > At this stage, I'm focused on the plugin installation - with the >> > assumption that all the code is available locally. If you assume all the >> > code is there on the filesystem, package.json and the npm infrastructure >> > don't really benefit us. The goal right now is to encode all this >> > information: >> > >> > >> > >> https://github.com/phonegap/phonegap-plugins/blob/master/Android/ChildBrowser/README.md >> > >> > in a format that can easily be manipulated by software and humans. >> > >> > ^^ This is key. I'm thinking some extensions to either xml/json format we >> > end up on over what's already "in place" (a la NPM or even a similar sort >> > of extensions employed by Nodejitsu). >> > >> > It'd be a little ugly to have two config files in the root of the plugin, >> > but it keeps things simple (non-intertwined), especially while we're >> > prototyping this stuff. >> > >> > That's my concern, is that if we go down the rabbit hole without thinking >> > about all the aspects of the cordova project this affects we could end up >> > with a sub-par solution. >> > >> > ;/ >> > >>
