Joe, As we discussed on the call yesterday, I wrote a script that transforms a Cordova plugin's android platform to a module structure:
https://github.com/jasongin/cordova-plugin-compat/blob/master/scripts/Modularize.js The transformation to a module includes: * Generation of build.gradle for the plugin module - Referencing a custom gradle file from the plugin if specified in plugin.xml - Referencing dependency plugins if specified in plugin.xml * Generation of AndroidManifest.xml for the plugin module - Including config-file transformations specified in plugin.xml for AndroidManifest.xml - (The contents of the module's AndroidManifest.xml get automatically merged into the app at build time.) * Copying source files and resources to correct subdirectories within the module - Remapping to the directory structure preferred by Android Studio: src/main/java and src/main/res I verified with several real plugins in a test app project that the result builds successfully, after you also reference the plugins' modules in the application root settings.gradle. The script depends on some things in cordova-common, though I have not included a package.json that specifies that dependency; you'll have to `npm install cordova-common` explicitly if you want to try it out. There are some TODOs in the code for things that would be required to make the solution more complete. And probably I have forgotten some things, which could be found by testing with more plugins. But it's a good start. While I put it in (my fork of) cordova-plugin-compat, that is just temporary for lack of a better place. I haven't done any work to integrate this kind of transformation into cordova-android plugin installation code, as was suggested on the call. Please note I'm not planning to do any more work on this feature. I hope someone else can pick this up and build on this idea, so that cordova-android can maintain compatibility with lots of 3rd-party plugins that might not get updated anytime soon. Jason -----Original Message----- From: Jesse [mailto:purplecabb...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, June 1, 2016 4:28 PM To: dev@cordova.apache.org Subject: Re: Proposal: Change Android Project Directory Structure to Android Studio style The newer version of push is here [1] and it would break also, we can discuss this more in the hangout. Also, note that it is not 20k references, but more like 2k ;) [1] https://github.com/phonegap/phonegap-plugin-push @purplecabbage risingj.com On Tue, May 31, 2016 at 2:56 PM, Frederico Galvão < frederico.gal...@pontoget.com.br> wrote: > I know it's only a detail, but > https://github.com/phonegap-build/PushPlugin, > the example used as a plugin that would "break", is a deprecated and > old plugin. > > 2016-05-31 13:46 GMT-03:00 Nikhil Khandelwal <nikhi...@microsoft.com>: > > > It sounds like you are working on a plan to remap the older > > directory structure to a new one. Will look forward to updates on > > the design and > code > > for that. In that case our expectation is that most plugins will not > break > > - is that correct? It will be great to do some compat testing with > > say > the > > top plugins. > > > > I understand it's hard to guarantee complete compat and we need to > > move forward but breaking the entire plugin ecosystem will cause a > > lot of > issues > > for existing Cordova developers. > > > > -Nikhil > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Joe Bowser [mailto:bows...@gmail.com] > > Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2016 8:22 AM > > To: dev <dev@cordova.apache.org> > > Subject: Re: Proposal: Change Android Project Directory Structure to > > Android Studio style > > > > On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 12:22 PM, Nikhil Khandelwal < > > nikhi...@microsoft.com> > > wrote: > > > > > As I see it, a change to the directory structure will break almost > > > every Android plugin currently out there. > > > > > > > > I know. However, I don't think that's a good enough reason to not > > do > this. > > > > > > > There are atleast 20K references [1] on github where people use > > > depend on the current directory structure for android: > > > "res/xml/config.xml". > > > > > > Taking the example of a config.xml manipulation that will now stop > > working: > > > https://github.com/phonegap-build/PushPlugin/blob/master/plugin.xm > > > l#L3 > > > 4 > > > > > > Can you explain how source-file and other tags that reference path > > > will continue to work? Looking at your current branch [2] there > > > are not changes to path old path references in plugin.xml to new path. > > > > > > > Actually, here's the thing. They won't. We're going to have to fix > > our tooling so that they remap. After working on the exploratory > > branch, all our plugin installation code is stuck in plugman and > > really should be handled by the platforms so that we can actually > > handle changes to > Android > > Studio and Xcode. > > > > What I'm now proposing is that by default when we specify a source > > file, or a config file without specifying a target, it by default > > goes to a location specified by the project. That means that when > > you are using an Android Studio project, it knows that we keep the > > config.xml in a > different > > location than the old project. That way, if Google decides that > > they > don't > > like the current Android Studio project structure and they decide to > change > > things again, we're not stuck holding the bag for years and being > > stuck having to do all this work so that we can actually allow > > native > developers > > to be able to use Cordova, since it's almost completely unusable to > > these developers currently. > > > > > > > > > > If the path of the file changes it will break lots of plugins and > > > if the plugins change to work with the new directory structure > > > they will not work with older versions of Cordova. Let me know if > > > I missed some part of this change which ensures most plugins for > > > Android do not stop > > working. > > > > > > [1] > > > https://github.com/search?q=%22res%2Fxml%2Fconfig.xml%22+filename% > > > 3Apl > > > ugin.xml&ref=searchresults&type=Code&utf8=%E2%9C%93 > > > [2] > > > https://github.com/apache/cordova-android/compare/master...infil00 > > > p:st > > > udio_project_structure > > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: Joe Bowser [mailto:bows...@gmail.com] > > > Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2016 8:14 PM > > > To: dev <dev@cordova.apache.org> > > > Subject: Re: Proposal: Change Android Project Directory Structure > > > to Android Studio style > > > > > > On Tue, May 17, 2016 at 5:35 PM, Richard Knoll > > > <rikn...@microsoft.com> > > > wrote: > > > > > > > Does that mean the plan is to provide a mapping from old file > > > > locations to new ones? For example, if I have this in my plugin.xml: > > > > > > > > <config-file target="res/values/strings.xml" parent="" /> > > > > > > > > Will the new cordova-android automatically convert the target > > > > value to the new location of "app/src/main/res/values/strings.xml"? > > > > > > > > > > > > > I'm pretty sure that config-file targets like that won't work > > > properly, but I think that source, resource and assets should. I > > > would have added that as a resource file, since it's strings.xml. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > Richard > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > > From: Joe Bowser [mailto:bows...@gmail.com] > > > > Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2016 3:51 PM > > > > To: dev <dev@cordova.apache.org> > > > > Subject: Re: Proposal: Change Android Project Directory > > > > Structure to Android Studio style > > > > > > > > @Richard: The changes to the Android files in cordova-common > > > > should allow for config-file, source-file and resource-file to work > > > > fine. > > > > I already did something similar in February, but I should have > > > > checked it in on an Cordova-Android branch instead of the other repo. > > > > > > > > https://github.com/infil00p/cordova-android-studio > > > > > > > > @Parashuram: Does this drop the JAR is libs? I couldn't quite > > > > tell from looking at the JS code doing the installation. If it > > > > does, that won't change at all. > > > > > > > > On Tue, May 17, 2016 at 3:03 PM, Parashuram N > > > > <panar...@microsoft.com> > > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > This is an example - > > > > > https://github.com/ConnectSDK/Connect-SDK-Cordova-Plugin. This > > > > > actually has a hook that downloads and places the source code > > > > > based on the current directory structure. > > > > > > > > > > On 5/17/16, 2:53 PM, "Richard Knoll" <rikn...@microsoft.com> > wrote: > > > > > > > > > > >We have a lot of plugin.xml elements that depend on the old > > > > > >file > > > > > structure. Tags like config-file, source-file, resource-file, etc. > > > > > all have target elements that take arbitrary paths to project > files. > > > > > Looking at the new project structure, it seems like most of > > > > > the relevant folders have moved around. Does your proposal > > > > > handle that or do plugins need to update to reflect the new > > > > > structure? I figure there isn't much we can do for plugins that use > > > > > hooks. > > > > > > > > > > > >Richard > > > > > > > > > > > >-----Original Message----- > > > > > >From: Joe Bowser [mailto:bows...@gmail.com] > > > > > >Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2016 2:07 PM > > > > > >To: dev <dev@cordova.apache.org> > > > > > >Subject: Re: Proposal: Change Android Project Directory > > > > > >Structure to > > > > > Android Studio style > > > > > > > > > > > >On Tue, May 17, 2016 at 2:01 PM, Parashuram N > > > > > ><panar...@microsoft.com> > > > > > >wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > >> I think the proposal is great. Our gradle is pretty big, > > > > > >> and it does make sense to just do the defaults. > > > > > >> +1 (personally speaking) to this – will save soo much of my > > > > > >> +time as I > > > > > >> depend on this for my react-native-cordova-plugin adapter. > > > > > >> Your changes will make life so much easier ☺ > > > > > >> > > > > > >> How do the plugins break? Will plugins have to make change? > > > > > >> In a way, it may make sense to do this with big changes at > > > > > >> Google I/O – that way, we just have 1 breaking change, and > > > > > >> plugin authors have to look at the changes just once. > > > > > >> > > > > > > > > > > > >Ideally they shouldn't break, but I can't guarantee that. I > > > > > >do have to > > > > > change how plugins are installed in the Android cordova > > > > > scripts, but the cordova-common work abstracted all that out > > > > > and made that > > easier. > > > > > A user who hasn't tweaked their app shouldn't notice the > difference. > > > > > > > > > > > >That said, the users who have may notice stuff, and I have no > > > > > >idea how > > > > > Crosswalk would work with this yet. It'd be good to work with > > > > > them once we have something more working. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >> > > > > > >> On 5/17/16, 1:55 PM, "Joe Bowser" <bows...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > >> > > > > > >> >Hey > > > > > >> > > > > > > >> >I know people have been waiting for this for a very long > > > > > >> >time, but I wrote up a proposal to change the project so > > > > > >> >it's an Android Studio > > > > > project. > > > > > >> >Given that Android Studio is on 2.1.1, I think it's time > > > > > >> >we moved forward and changed things around. > > > > > >> > > > > > > >> >Proposal PR is here: > > > > > >> >https://github.com/cordova/cordova-discuss/pull/45 > > > > > >> > > > > > > >> >Branch where Proof of Concept work is being done is here: > > > > > >> >https://github.com/infil00p/cordova-android/tree/studio_pr > > > > > >> >ojec > > > > > >> >t_ > > > > > >> >st > > > > > >> >ruc > > > > > >> >ture > > > > > >> > > > > > > >> >The main roadblock to doing this, of course is migration > > > > > >> >of plugins and custom code, as well as assets, but I think > > > > > >> >Android developers would welcome this change because we're > > > > > >> >acting more like a regular, normal Android project again > > > > > >> >and not some old, weird legacy/special > > > > > case thing. > > > > > >> >I've already did some exploratory work with the old > > > > > >> >cordova-android-studio version of cordova-common, and > > > > > >> >installing plugins works fine depending on what version of > > > > > >> >Cordova you're > > > using. > > > > > >> > > > > > > >> >The other thing that has me stuck is all the functionality > > > > > >> >in the gradle files. I would love to rip out a lot of the > > > > > >> >stuff we autogenerate in there, such as the > > > > > >> >settings.gradle file that caused me a huge headache > > > > > >> >earlier today when I tried to get importing to work. It'd > > > > > >> >also be good to have a documented process on how we set > > > > > >> >the Application ID, since I can't quite figure out how we > > > > > >> >do that, and I know other people are struggling with that > > > > > >> >as > > > > well. > > > > > >> > > > > > > >> >This would be slated for Cordova-Android 6.0, and > > > > > >> >hopefully Google IO doesn't have too many surprises that break us. > > > > > >> > > > > > > >> >Joe > > > > > >> > > > > > >> > > > > > > > > > > > >------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > >---- > > > > > >-- > > > > > >-- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@cordova.apache.org > > > > > >For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@cordova.apache.org > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > > - To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@cordova.apache.org > > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@cordova.apache.org > > > > > > -- > > *Frederico Galvão* > > Diretor de Tecnologia > > PontoGet Inovação Web > > > ( +55(62) 8131-5720 > > * > https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=www.pontoget.com.br&data=01%7c01%7cjasongin%40microsoft.com%7ce35038f703e94fa3c53e08d38a7466c9%7c72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7c1&sdata=QvcIz5Ccav40gTq%2f2yfEiOOYN%2br%2ffZe0PVtAo1ZtsM8%3d > > <https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.pontoget.com%2f&data=01%7c01%7cjasongin%40microsoft.com%7ce35038f703e94fa3c53e08d38a7466c9%7c72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7c1&sdata=NKbjT7wey%2fKPuo3JMqDAb7U2M0lSbmvJZbN9aF67VM0%3d> >
