If we're talking about developing plugins inside the plugins/org.myplugin.id folder than I think it's a great workflow and I would just hide the cached version of plugin.xml inside that plugins/org.myplugin.id folder.
However, if you're developing a plugin outside of a cordova CLI project, I think a `watch` (and add --watch) command is more appropriate. One of the reasons you would develop a plugin outside of a cordova CLI project is for easier version control (each plugin would have its own repository). The other cool thing about `watch` is that it would copy the files that have actually changed and not everything (some plugins have a LOT of files [1]). [1] https://github.com/phonegap/phonegap-facebook-plugin On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 3:30 AM, James Jong <wjamesj...@gmail.com> wrote: > +1 This is a cleaner workflow and should reduce some confusion. > > -James Jong > > On Sep 24, 2013, at 3:09 PM, Michal Mocny <mmo...@chromium.org> wrote: > >> Just to add, the reason for the "if" statement in step (2) is that >> uninstall & reinstall take a lot longer than just moving a few files, which >> is the 99.9% case for most end users who aren't making modifications to >> plugins. >> >> This way, we only do the heavy lifting if your plugin structure actually >> changed. Doing it automatically means we no longer have to advise users >> that making edits inside plugin/ folder is useless. Now we just advise >> them to run "prepare" after making changes to either www/ or plugins/. >> >> This key insight was Braden's idea and I think its just an awesome change >> for workflow. >> >> -Michal >> >> >> On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 2:58 PM, Braden Shepherdson >> <bra...@chromium.org>wrote: >> >>> Michal and I were discussing how to make the plugin developer experience >>> better, by having `cordova prepare` update the platform projects properly >>> when you change a plugin in place. >>> >>> I propose the following changes: >>> >>> 1. On plugin install, we cache the plugin.xml in $PROJECT/.cordova >>> somewhere. >>> 2. On 'cordova prepare', compare each plugin's plugin.xml against the >>> cached one. >>> a. If they have changed, uninstall the plugin using the old plugin.xml, >>> then reinstall using the new one (and update the cached plugin.xml). >>> b. If they are identical, copy all the native code files from the >>> plugin into the project again. >>> >>> The idea is that you can change your plugin's native code, JS modules, or >>> assets, and after a prepare you'll be running the latest. We already have >>> cordova plugin add foo --link, but it wasn't very useful. This will make >>> plugin development a much smoother flow, without too much implementation >>> effort. >>> >>> Checking for changes to plugin.xml lets us know that no files have been >>> added or removed, that <config-file> edits haven't changed, and so on, >>> meaning that simply copying the native code again will be sufficient. >>> >>> What do people think? Any gotchas that I overlooked? >>> >>> Braden >>> >
