Thanks, that clears everything up.
It seems the fact that <preference> tags don't work inside <platform> tags is a
bug.
Fortunately there is no advantage to putting a <preference> tag inside and
everyone seems to put them outside.
Julian
-----Original Message-----
From: Shazron [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2014 6:38 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Questions re: plugin variables
I know it seems confusing, but the <preference> tag inside the <config-file>
tag is just some xml insertion into the config.xml file that is specified, but
is not related to the <preference> tag specified for plugin.xml. It is the
<preference> tag for config.xml.
It should behave as specified in the Plugin Spec [1], when inside <platform>
tags, except for what I explained above.
Answering your points:
1) Yes, it ignores the value attribute, only 'name' is applicable per the spec.
2) They shouldn't be ignored if inside the <platform> node, seems to be a bug
(unless the tool is smart enough to know if the variable is actually being used
and not prompt -- but that seems to be bad design)
[1]
http://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/4.0.0/plugin_ref_spec.md.html#Plugin%20Specification
On Fri, Nov 7, 2014 at 7:18 AM, Horn, Julian C <[email protected]>
wrote:
> Leo's question really hasn't been answered yet. Let me try to make
> this more concrete and see if anyone can explain whether the current
> behavior of the CLI is correct or not.
>
> The plugin.xml in the StatusBar plugin contains the following content:
>
> ...
> <platform name="ios">
> <config-file target="config.xml" parent="/*">.
> ...
> <preference name="StatusBarOverlaysWebView" value="true" />
>
> There are several mysteries here.
>
> 1) What does it mean if the name attribute of a preference tag does
> not obey the "only capital letters, digits, or underscores" rule?
> Apparently it can never cause variable replacement.
> 2) What does the value attribute mean? Does this supply a default
> value for a variable if the variable is not mentioned in the
> --variable flag (thus making the variable "optional")?
> 3) Where can <preference> tags legally appear? Must they be outside
> of <platform> tags, or can they be inside <platform> tags or even
> inside <config-file> tags?
>
> Our experiments with CLI 4.0.1-dev show the following:
>
> 1) The value attribute is ignored by the CLI, or at least it doesn't
> create a default value.
>
> For example, suppose you put the following preference tag outside of
> any <platform> tag.
> <preference name="API_KEY" value="my-api-key" /> We found that the
> user is still required to supply --variable API_KEY, which means that
> "my-api-key" never becomes the value of API_KEY.
>
> 2) <preference> tags appear to be ignored by the CLI if they appear
> below a <platform> node.
>
> If you move the <preference> node shown above from outside a
> <platform> node to inside a <platform> node, then the CLI stops
> prompting for a --variable flag and $API_KEY is not replaced by anything.
>
> It looks to us like the <preference> tag is overloaded. When it
> appears outside the <platform> tag it defines a variable. When it
> appears inside a <platform> tag it does not. The meaning of the
> <preference> tag within a <platform> tag is apparently determined by the
> platform.
>
> If people agree that this is correct then the documentation can be
> updated accordingly. However, we did see some code in the
> implementation that seemed to be looking for <preference> tags inside
> of <platform> tags. It seems like this isn't working as intended, but
> then again we can't figure out what the intention is.
>
> Julian
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Marcel Kinard [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Friday, November 07, 2014 9:42 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: Questions re: plugin variables
>
> If there is a reasonable question from a user, it should probably be
> added to the docs (assuming it's not already there).
>
> Leo, would you like to do a pull request?
>
> On Nov 5, 2014, at 8:24 PM, Mark Koudritsky <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Variables should to be provided when adding the plugin
> > E.g:
> >
> > cordova plugin add org.some.plugin --variable API_KEY=some_value
> >
> > Example of a plugin that uses variables:
> > http://plugins.cordova.io/#/package/com.phonegap.plugins.facebookcon
> > ne
> > ct
> >
> > Relevant places in the code in cordova-lib:
> > Where variables are checked during plugin add:
> >
> > https://github.com/apache/cordova-lib/blob/master/cordova-lib/src/co
> > rd
> > ova/plugin.js#L126
> >
> > https://github.com/apache/cordova-lib/blob/master/cordova-lib/src/pl
> > ug
> > man/install.js#L296
> >
> > Here each variable is replaced with its value when generating the
> > "config munge" which is an object that describes changes that need
> > to be applied to the platform dir.
> >
> > https://github.com/apache/cordova-lib/blob/master/cordova-lib/src/pl
> > ug
> > man/util/config-changes.js#L368
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Nov 5, 2014 at 5:28 PM, Treggiari, Leo
> > <[email protected]>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> I'm having a hard time understanding exactly how plugin variables work.
> >> It's probably a level of detail that only plugin developers and
> >> tool developers need to be concerned about. I'd appreciate it if
> >> someone can give me the answers.
> >>
> >> 1. "variables can be indicated by a dollar-sign followed by a
> >> series of capital letters, digits, or underscores."
> >> "To make the variable mandatory, the <platform> tag needs to
> >> contain a <preference> tag."
> >> Does this mean that there are optional and required variables - i.e?
> >> - A variable reference is defined by a lexical element which
> >> begins with a $ and is followed only by capital letters, digits, or
> underscores?
> >> - A variable is made mandatory by the presence of a
> >> <preference> tag which uses the same name with the $ removed?
> >> - Can this <preference> tag be anywhere in the plugin.xml
> >> file, or must it be the direct child of the <plugin> element or
> >> a <platform> element?
> >> - Can the variable references be anywhere or only within strings?
> >>
> >> 2. Where and when are the variables replaced by their value?
> >> - plugin.xml is the only place that the variable value is
> >> used and only for replacing the variable references?
> >> - When in Cordova CLI do the values get applied - during
> >> "add", during "prepare"?
> >>
> >> 3. What happens if you combine dependencies with variables. For
> >> example, suppose A depends on B, and B requires a variable X. How
> >> do you supply the value?
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Leo
> >>
> >>
>
>
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