plugman

A command line tool to install and uninstall plugins for use with Apache Cordova projects.

This document defines tool usage.

Requirements

You must have git on your PATH to be able to install plugins directly from remote git URLs.

Plugin Specification

--> plugin_spec.md <--

Quickstart

npm install -g plugman

Design Goals

• Facilitate programmatic installation and manipulation of plugins
• Detail the dependencies and components of individual plugins
• Allow code reuse between different target platforms

Supported Platforms

• iOS
• Android
• BlackBerry 10
• Windows Phone (7+8)

Command Line Usage

plugman install --platform <ios|android|blackberry10|wp7|wp8> --project <directory> --plugin <name|url|path> [--plugins_dir <directory>] [--www <directory>] [--variable <name>=<value> [--variable <name>=<value> ...]]
plugman uninstall --platform <ios|android|blackberr10|wp7|wp8> --project <directory> --plugin <id> [--www <directory>] [--plugins_dir <directory>]

• Using minimum parameters, installs a plugin into a cordova project. You must specify a platform and cordova project location for that platform. You also must specify a plugin, with the different --plugin parameter forms being:
  • name: The directory name where the plugin contents exist. This must be an existing directory under the --plugins_dir path (see below for more info) or a plugin in the Cordova registry.
  • url: A URL starting with https:// or git://, pointing to a valid git repository that is clonable and contains a plugin.xml file. The contents of this repository would be copied into the --plugins_dir.
  • path: A path to a directory containing a valid plugin which includes a plugin.xml file. This path's contents will be copied into the --plugins_dir.
• --uninstall: Uninstalls an already---install'ed plugin from a cordova project. Specify the plugin ID.

Other parameters:

• --plugins_dir defaults to <project>/cordova/plugins, but can be any directory containing a subdirectory for each fetched plugin.
• --www defaults to the project's www folder location, but can be any directory that is to be used as cordova project application web assets.
• --variable allows to specify certain variables at install time, necessary for certain plugins requiring API keys or other custom, user-defined parameters. Please see the plugin specification for more information.

Node Module Usage

node
> require('plugman')
{ install: [Function: installPlugin],
  uninstall: [Function: uninstallPlugin],
  fetch: [Function: fetchPlugin],
  search: [Function: search],
  publish: [Function: publish],
  unpublish: [Function: unpublish],
  adduser: [Function: adduser],
  prepare: [Function: handlePrepare] }

install method

module.exports = function installPlugin(platform, project_dir, id, plugins_dir, subdir, cli_variables, www_dir, callback) {

Installs a plugin into a specified cordova project of a specified platform.

• platform: one of android, ios, blackberry10, wp7 or wp8
• project_dir: path to an instance of the above specified platform's cordova project
• id: a string representing the id of the plugin, a path to a cordova plugin with a valid plugin.xml file, or an https:// or git:// url to a git repository of a valid cordova plugin or a plugin published to the Cordova registry
• plugins_dir: path to directory where plugins will be stored, defaults to <project_dir>/cordova/plugins
• subdir: subdirectory within the plugin directory to consider as plugin directory root, defaults to .
• cli_variables: an object mapping cordova plugin specification variable namess (see plugin specification) to values
• www_dir: path to directory where web assets are to be copied to, defaults to the specified project directory's www dir (dependent on platform)
• callback: callback to invoke once complete. If specified, will pass in an error object as a first parameter if the action failed. If not and an error occurs, plugman will throw the error

uninstall method

module.exports = function uninstallPlugin(platform, project_dir, id, plugins_dir, cli_variables, www_dir, callback) {

Uninstalls a previously-installed cordova plugin from a specified cordova project of a specified platform.

• platform: one of android, ios, blackberry10, wp7 or wp8
• project_dir: path to an instance of the above specified platform's cordova project
• id: a string representing the id of the plugin
• plugins_dir: path to directory where plugins are stored, defaults to <project_dir>/cordova/plugins
• subdir: subdirectory within the plugin directory to consider as plugin directory root, defaults to .
• cli_variables: an object mapping cordova plugin specification variable namess (see plugin specification) to values
• www_dir: path to directory where web assets are to be copied to, defaults to the specified project directory's www dir (dependent on platform)
• callback: callback to invoke once complete. If specified, will pass in an error object as a first parameter if the action failed. If not and an error occurs, plugman will throw the error

fetch method

Copies a cordova plugin into a single location that plugman uses to track which plugins are installed into a project.

module.exports = function fetchPlugin(plugin_dir, plugins_dir, link, subdir, git_ref, callback) {

• plugin_dir: path, URL to a plugin directory/repository or name of a plugin published to the Cordova registry.
• plugins_dir: path housing all plugins used in this project
• link: if plugin_dir points to a local path, will create a symbolic link to that folder instead of copying into plugins_dir, defaults to false
• subdir: subdirectory within the plugin directory to consider as plugin directory root, defaults to .
• gitref: if plugin_dir points to a URL, this value will be used to pass into git checkout after the repository is cloned, defaults to HEAD
• callback: callback to invoke once complete. If specified, will pass in an error object as a first parameter if the action failed. If not and an error occurs, plugman will throw the error

prepare method

Finalizes plugin installation by making configuration file changes and setting up a JavaScript loader for js-module support.

module.exports = function handlePrepare(project_dir, platform, plugins_dir) {

• project_dir: path to an instance of the above specified platform's cordova project
• platform: one of android, ios, blackberry10, wp7 or wp8
• plugins_dir: path housing all plugins used in this project

Registry related actions

Plugman uses an npmjs.org based registry to host plugins. The URL can be configured in the config.js file at the root of the installation folder.

config.js file

module.exports = {
    registry: "http://registry.cordova.io"
}

adduser method

Adds a user account to the registry. Function takes no arguments other than a an optional callback

module.exports = function(callback) {

publish method

Publishes plugins to the registry. plugin_paths is an array of plugin paths to publish to the reigstry.

module.exports = function(plugin_paths, callback) {

unpublish method

unpublishes plugins from the registry. Can unpublish a version by specifying plugin@version or the whole plugin by just specifying plugin. plugins is an array of plugin[@version] elements.

module.exports = function(plugins, callback) {

search method

Searches plugins in the registry. search_opts is an array of keywords

module.exports = function(search_opts, callback) {

Example Plugins

• Google has a bunch of plugins which are maintained actively by a contributor to plugman
• Adobe maintains plugins for its Build cloud service, which are open sourced and available on GitHub
• BlackBerry has a bunch of plugins offering deep platform integration
• Core and 3rd party plugins can be found on the Cordova Registry.

Development

Basic installation:

git clone https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/cordova-plugman.git
cd cordova-plugman
npm install -g

Linking the global executable to the git repo:

git clone https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/cordova-plugman.git
cd cordova-plugman
npm install
sudo npm link

Running Tests

npm test

Plugin Directory Structure

A plugin is typically a combination of some web/www code, and some native code. However, plugins may have only one of these things - a plugin could be a single JavaScript file, or some native code with no corresponding JavaScript.

Here is a sample plugin named foo with android and ios platforms support, and 2 www assets.

foo-plugin/
|- plugin.xml     # xml-based manifest
|- src/           # native source for each platform
|  |- android/
|  |  `- Foo.java
|  `- ios/
|     |- CDVFoo.h
|     `- CDVFoo.m
|- README.md
`- www/
   |- foo.js
   `- foo.png

This structure is suggested, but not required.

Contributors

See the package.json file for attribution notes.

License

Apache License 2.0