Tips for PhoneGap Users

Many VoltBuilder users started with PhoneGap. It’s not tough to switch - some projects need no changes at all.

However, there are reasons you may need to make changes to your project:

• Legacy PhoneGap Patterns: During the 10 years PhoneGap was around, many changes were made to the format and setup of PhoneGap projects. VoltBuilder picks up where PhoneGap left off - but isn’t able to handle all the stuff from PhoneGap’s early days.

• Updates to Android and iOS requirements: In the past couple of years, both Android and iOS have added new requirements for apps on their platforms. Many of these are for improved security. You’ll need to add and change things in your project to meet those requirements.

• Changes to Cordova: As with PhoneGap, Apache Cordova is used by VoltBuilder to compile your project. They’ve had updates to their software over the years.

Legacy PhoneGap Project Format

VoltBuilder expects your project to be uploaded as a zip file in Apache Cordova CLI project format.

The old PhoneGap Legacy project format is not supported. See How to set up your project.

Certificates

With PhoneGap, you saved your signing certificates on PhoneGap’s server. This was a problem for a couple of reasons. Storing certs on someone else’s server is a security risk, and, as many PhoneGap users found out, when PhoneGap shut down they were locked out of their certificates.

With VoltBuilder, you keep your certificates in a folder in your project.

Resources

This folder holds your icon and splash screen resources. It can have any name, but is commonly called res or resources. The files are referenced in config.xml.

It should be at the top level of your project - not inside your www folder. Old versions of PhoneGap allowed you to keep the resources in the www folder - but this was not a good idea. It results in two copies of each resource being built into your project: one as an asset, the other in the www folder. This can add several megs to your project size.

The voltbuilder.json file

This is a new file required by VoltBuilder. It provides information VoltBuilder needs to run. Here’s where you say what kind of build you’re making (debug or release).

See How to set up your project.

Updates to Plugins

With the updates to Android and iOS, many plugins have been updated. You’ll want to review your plugins to make sure you’re using the current version.

Plugins you used in the past may not be available.

• cordova-plugin-file-transfer - deprecated by its author
• cordova-plugin-console - functionality merged into Cordova, no longer supported.
• phonegap-plugin-push - deprecated, replaced by @havesource/cordova-plugin-push

Look up your plugins on npmjs.com to get their latest status.

Param attribute in config.xml

PhoneGap at one point had a <param attribute for plugins. Apache Cordova now calls this <variable.

More

Check out the Troubleshooting page.

For more, check out Support page.