Braden, thats has been on the wish list (cordova watch), but I suspect Anis was suggesting something different with plugman --watch, to do specifically with plugin development. Am I right, Anis? How does your idea compare with using --link with cordova watch? Would plugman --watch be useful for non cli projects?
-Michal On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 10:31 AM, Braden Shepherdson <bra...@chromium.org>wrote: > We've had a vague feature planned for a while now to do a cordova watch. It > would watch your plugins/, www/, and merges/* for any changes. If any > changes are detected, it would re-run cordova prepare, so that your native > projects are always up-to-date. > > I'm open to checking (hashes?) which files have changed and which have not, > but hashing them all is touching them all anyway, and it might be faster > for small files to just copy them instead of checking first. We'll have to > try it and see; for v1 I'm going with the simple option of copying > everything. > > Braden > > > On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 9:44 AM, Michal Mocny <mmo...@chromium.org> wrote: > > > The idea for plugin dev outside of plugins/ folder was to use "plugin add > > --link". Matter of fact, braden suggested that "plugin create" should > > default to --link-ing to some external location so that you don't risk > > deleting your only copy inside plugins/. (I personally don't think > thats a > > necessary concern, but I think its a conversation for later). > > > > I'm not even sure what a 'watch' would do, just uninstall & install each > > time the plugin changes? I think that ends up being just slightly worse > > than the current proposal if you factor in that we already do support > > --link (except without the above change its been useless). > > > > > > However, we may still want some form of 'watch' command for devs using > > plugman directly. I had assumed that those devs just edit in place, > since > > they don't use a prepare step anyway. > > > > -Michal > > > > > > > > On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 7:50 AM, Anis KADRI <anis.ka...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > > > 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 > > > >>> > > > > > > > > > >
