Upgrading Cordova iOS

Please note that Xcode 4.5 is required. To submit to the Apple App Store, you must use the latest shipped version of the iOS SDK, which is iOS 6. The iOS 6 SDK requires Xcode 4.5.

Upgrading Cordova 2.3.0 projects to 2.4.0

  1. Download and extract the Cordova 2.4.0 source to a permanent folder location on your hard drive (say to ~/Documents/Cordova-2.4.0)
  2. Quit Xcode if it is running.
  3. Navigate to the directory where you put the downloaded source above, using Terminal.app.
  4. Create a new project from the command-line tools - you will have to grab the assets from this new project
  5. Copy the www/cordova-2.4.0.js file from the new project into your www folder, and delete your www/cordova-2.3.0.js file
  6. Update the Cordova script reference in your www/index.html file (and any other files that contain the script reference) to point to the new cordova-2.4.0.js file
  7. Update (or replace, if you never changed the files) your MainViewController.m file according to the one from the new project (see this diff).
  8. Update (or replace, if you never changed the file) your AppDelegate.m file according to the one from the new project (see this diff)
  9. In your config.xml file, add this new line.
  10. Delete your "cordova" folder, and copy the "cordova" folder from the new project into your project's root folder (in 2.4.0, this has fixed scripts)
  11. Delete your "CordovaLib" folder, and copy the "CordovaLib" folder from the new project into your project's root folder

Upgrading Cordova 2.2.0 projects to 2.3.0

  1. Download and extract the Cordova 2.3.0 source to a permanent folder location on your hard drive (say to ~/Documents/Cordova-2.3.0)
  2. Quit Xcode if it is running.
  3. Navigate to the directory where you put the downloaded source above, using Terminal.app.
  4. Create a new project from the command-line tools - you will have to grab the assets from this new project
  5. Copy the www/cordova-2.3.0.js file from the new project into your www folder, and delete your www/cordova-2.2.0.js file
  6. Update the Cordova script reference in your www/index.html file (and any other files that contain the script reference) to point to the new cordova-2.3.0.js file
  7. Update (or replace, if you never changed the file) your MainViewController.m according to the one from the new project.
  8. Delete your "cordova" folder, and copy the "cordova" folder from the new project into your project's root folder (in 2.3.0, this has new scripts)
  9. Delete your "CordovaLib" folder, and copy the "CordovaLib" folder from the new project into your project's root folder
  10. Convert your Cordova.plist file to config.xml, by running the script bin/cordova_plist_to_config_xml on your project file.

  11. Add the InAppBrowser plugin to your config.xml, by adding this tag under <cordova><plugins>:

    <plugin name="InAppBrowser" value="CDVInAppBrowser" />
  12. Note that Objective-C plugins are not whitelisted anymore. To whitelist your connections with the app whitelist, you will need to set the “User-Agent” header of the connection to the same user-agent as the main Cordova WebView. You can get this by accessing the userAgent property off the main view-controller. The main view-controller (CDVViewController) also has a URLisAllowed method for you to check whether a URL will pass the whitelist.
  13. Device API changes:
    • For iOS, device.platform used to return “iPhone”, “iPad” or “iPod Touch” — now it returns (correctly) “iOS”.
    • For iOS, device.name (now deprecated for all platforms) used to return the name of the user’s device (e.g ‘Shazron’s iPhone 5′) — now it returns what device.platform used to return: ”iPhone”, “iPad” or “iPod Touch”.
    • For all platforms, there is a new property called device.model — this returns the specific device model, e.g “iPad2,5″ (for other platforms, this returns what device.name used to return).

Upgrading Cordova 2.1.0 projects to 2.2.0

  1. Download and extract the Cordova 2.2.0 source to a permanent folder location on your hard drive (say to ~/Documents/Cordova-2.2.0)
  2. Quit Xcode if it is running.
  3. Navigate to the directory where you put the downloaded source above, using Terminal.app.
  4. Create a new project from the command-line tools - you will have to grab the assets from this new project
  5. Copy the www/cordova-2.2.0.js file from the new project into your www folder, and delete your www/cordova-2.1.0.js file
  6. Update the Cordova script reference in your www/index.html file (and any other files that contain the script reference) to point to the new cordova-2.2.0.js file
  7. Update (or replace, if you never changed the file) your MainViewController.m according to the one from the new project:
    • Updated -> viewWillAppear
  8. Copy the "cordova" folder from the new project into your project's root folder (in 2.2.0, this has an updated 'emulate' script)
  9. Next, update your CordovaLib sub-project reference. Beginning with Cordova 2.1.0, we are not using the CORDOVALIB Xcode variable anymore when referencing where CordovaLib resides, the reference is an absolute file reference now.
    1. Launch Terminal.app
    2. Go to the location where you installed Cordova (see Step 1), in the bin sub-folder

    3. Run the script below where the first parameter is the path to your project's .xcodeproj file:

      update_cordova_subproject path/to/your/project/xcodeproj

Note that in 2.2.0, the bin/create script will copy in the CordovaLib sub-project into your project now. To have the same kind of setup, just copy in the right CordovaLib into your project folder, and update the CordovaLib sub-project location (relative to the project) in the Xcode File Inspector.

Upgrading Cordova 2.0.0 projects to 2.1.0

With Cordova 2.1.0, CordovaLib has been upgraded to use Automatic Reference Counting (ARC). You don't need to upgrade to ARC to use CordovaLib, but if you want to upgrade your project to use ARC, please use the Xcode migration wizard from the menu: Edit -> Refactor -> Convert to Objective-C ARC…, de-select libCordova.a, then run the wizard to completion.

  1. Download and extract the Cordova 2.1.0 source to a permanent folder location on your hard drive (say to ~/Documents/Cordova-2.1.0)
  2. Quit Xcode if it is running.
  3. Navigate to the directory where you put the downloaded source above, using Terminal.app.
  4. Create a new project from the command-line tools - you will have to grab the assets from this new project
  5. Copy the www/cordova-2.1.0.js file from the new project into your www folder, and delete your www/cordova-2.0.0.js file
  6. Update the Cordova script reference in your www/index.html file (and any other files that contain the script reference) to point to the new cordova-2.1.0.js file
  7. Update (or replace, if you never changed the file) your AppDelegate.m according to the one from the new project:
    • Edited -> application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:
    • Added -> application:supportedInterfaceOrientationsForWindow:
  8. Update (or replace, if you never changed the file) your MainViewController.m according to the one from the new project:
    • Added -> viewWillAppear
  9. Copy the "cordova" folder from the new project into your project's root folder (in 2.1.0, this has the updated scripts to support paths with spaces)
  10. Remove the VERSION file reference from your project (NOT the one in CordovaLib)
  11. Next, update your CordovaLib sub-project reference. Beginning with Cordova 2.1.0, we are not using the CORDOVALIB Xcode variable anymore when referencing where CordovaLib resides, the reference is an absolute file reference now.
    1. Launch Terminal.app
    2. Go to the location where you installed Cordova (see Step 1), in the bin sub-folder

    3. Run the script below where the first parameter is the path to your project's .xcodeproj file:

      update_cordova_subproject path/to/your/project/xcodeproj

Upgrading Cordova 1.9.0 projects to 2.0.0

  1. Install Cordova 2.0.0
  2. Create a new project from the command-line tools - you will have to grab the assets from this new project
  3. Copy the www/cordova-2.0.0.js file from the new project into your www folder, and delete your www/cordova-1.9.0.js file
  4. Update the Cordova script reference in your www/index.html file (and any other files that contain the script reference) to point to the new cordova-2.0.0.js file
  5. Copy the "cordova" folder from the new project into your project's root folder (if you want the project command-line tools)
  6. Add a new entry under Plugins in your Cordova.plist file (under the Supporting Files group) - the key is Device and the value is CDVDevice
  7. Remove Cordova.framework
  8. Remove verify.sh from the Supporting Files group
  9. Select the project icon in the Project Navigator, select your project Target, then select the "Build Settings" tab
  10. Search for "Preprocessor Macros", then remove all "CORDOVA_FRAMEWORK=1" values
  11. Locate the CordovaLib folder that was installed in your hard-drive under your home folder's Documents sub-folder.
  12. Locate the CordovaLib.xcodeproj file in the CordovaLib folder, then drag and drop the file into your project - it should appear as a sub-project.
  13. Build your project, you should get some errors relating to #import directives

  14. For the #import errors, change any quote-based imports in this style:

    #import "CDV.h"

    to this brackets-based style:

    #import <Cordova/CDV.h>

    and remove any #ifdef wrappers around any Cordova imports, they are not needed anymore (the imports are unified now)

  15. Build your project again, and it should not have any #import errors.
  16. Select the project icon in the Project Navigator, select your project Target, then select the "Build Phases" tab
  17. Expand the "Target Dependencies" phase, then select the "+" button
  18. Select the "CordovaLib" target, then select the "Add" button
  19. Expand the first "Link Binary with Libraries" phase (it should already contain a bunch of frameworks), then select the "+" button
  20. Select the libCordova.a static library, then select the "Add" button
  21. Delete the "Run Script" phase.
  22. Select the project icon in the Project Navigator, select your project Target, then select the "Build Settings" tab
  23. Search for "Other Linker Flags", and add the values -all_load and -Obj-C
  24. Expand the "CordovaLib" sub-project
  25. Locate the "VERSION" file, drag it into your main project (we want to create a link to it, not a copy)
  26. Select the "Create groups for any added folders" radiobutton, then select the "Finish" button
  27. Select the "VERSION" file that you just dragged in a previous step
  28. Press the key combination Option-Command-1 to show the File Inspector (or menuitem View -> Utilities -> Show File Inspector)
  29. Choose "Relative to CORDOVALIB" in the File Inspector for the drop-down menu for Location
  30. Set the Xcode preference "Xcode Preferences -> Locations -> Derived Data -> Advanced…" to "Unique" (this is so the unified headers can be found)
  31. Select the project icon in the Project Navigator, select your Target, then select the "Build Settings" tab

  32. Search for "Header Search Paths". For that setting, add these three values below (with quotes):

    "$(TARGET_BUILD_DIR)/usr/local/lib/include"

"$(OBJROOT)/UninstalledProducts/include"

"$(BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR)"

  33. Search for "Other Linker Flags". For that setting, add this value below:

    -weak_framework CoreFoundation
  34. Build your project, it should compile and link with no issues.
  35. Select your project from the Scheme drop-down, and then select "iPhone 5.1 Simulator"
  36. Select the Run button

NOTE:
If your project is not working as expected in the Simulator, please take a note of any errors in the console log in Xcode for clues.

Upgrading Cordova 1.8.x projects to 1.9.0

  1. Install Cordova 1.9.0
  2. Create a new project - you will have to grab assets from this new project
  3. Copy the www/cordova-1.9.0.js file from the new project into your www folder, and delete your www/cordova-1.8.x.js file
  4. Update the Cordova script reference in your www/index.html file (and any other files that contain the script reference) to point to the new cordova-1.9.0.js file

Note:

1.9.0 supports the new "BackupWebStorage" boolean setting in Cordova.plist. By default, this setting is turned on, set it to "false" to turn it off - especially for iOS 6 - see Release Notes - Safari and UIKit Section

Upgrading Cordova 1.7.0 projects to 1.8.x

  1. Install Cordova 1.8.0
  2. Create a new project - you will have to grab assets from this new project
  3. Copy the www/cordova-1.8.0.js file from the new project into your www folder, and delete your www/cordova-1.7.x.js file
  4. Update the Cordova script reference in your www/index.html file (and any other files that contain the script reference) to point to the new cordova-1.8.0.js file

If you intend on using the Capture API, you will need the new iPad retina-display assets:

  1. Copy the Resources/Capture.bundle item from the new project into your project folder, over-writing your existing Resources/Capture.bundle item
  2. In your project, select the Capture.bundle item into Xcode into your Project Navigator, and press the Delete key, then select Remove Reference from the dialog that pops up.
  3. Drag the new Capture.bundle from Step 1. above into Xcode into your Project Navigator, and select the Create groups for any added folders radio-button

Upgrading Cordova 1.6.x projects to 1.7.0

  1. Install Cordova 1.7.0
  2. Create a new project - you will have to grab assets from this new project
  3. Copy the www/cordova-1.7.0.js file from the new project into your www folder, and delete your www/cordova-1.6.0.js file
  4. Update the Cordova script reference in your www/index.html file (and any other files that contain the script reference) to point to the new cordova-1.7.0.js file

Upgrading Cordova 1.5.0 projects to 1.6.x

  1. Install Cordova 1.6.1
  2. Make a backup of AppDelegate.m, AppDelegate.h, MainViewController.m, MainViewController.h, and Cordova.plist in your project
  3. Create a new project - you will have to grab assets from this new project

  4. Copy these files from the new project into your 1.5.0 based project folder on disk, replacing any old files (backup your files first from step 2 above):

     AppDelegate.h
 AppDelegate.m
 MainViewController.h
 MainViewController.m
 Cordova.plist
  5. Add all the new MainViewController and AppDelegate files into your Xcode project
  6. Copy the www/cordova-1.6.1.js file from the new project into your www folder, and delete your www/cordova-1.5.0.js file
  7. Update the Cordova script reference in your www/index.html file (and any other files that contain the script reference) to point to the new cordova-1.6.1.js file
  8. Add the new Cordova.plist file into your project - this is because the core plugin service names needed to be changed to match the ones from Android and BlackBerry, for a unified Cordova JavaScript file (cordova-js).
  9. Integrate any settings, Plugins and ExternalHosts entries that you had in your backed-up Cordova.plist into the new Cordova.plist
  10. Integrate any project specific code that you have in your backed-up AppDelegate.h and AppDelegate.m into the new AppDelegate files. Any UIWebViewDelegate or CDVCommandDelegate code in AppDelegate.m will need to go into MainViewController.m now (see commented out sections in that file)
  11. Integrate any project specific code that you have in your backed-up MainViewController.h and MainViewController.m into the new MainViewController files
  12. Click on the project icon in the Project Navigator, select your Project, then select the "Build Settings" tab
  13. Enter "Compiler for C/C++/Objective-C" in the search field
  14. Select the "Apple LLVM Compiler 3.1" value

Upgrading Cordova 1.4.x projects to 1.5.0

  1. Install Cordova 1.5.0
  2. Create a new project and run it once - you will have to grab assets from this new project
  3. Copy the www/cordova-1.5.0.js file from the new project into your www folder, and delete your www/phonegap-1.4.x.js file
  4. Update the Cordova script reference in your www/index.html file (and any other files that contain the script reference) to point to the new Cordova cordova-1.5.0.js file
  5. Find "PhoneGap.framework" in your Project Navigator, select it
  6. Press the Delete key and delete the "PhoneGap.framework" reference in the Project Navigator
  7. Press the key combination Option-Command-A, which should drop down a sheet to add files to your project (the "Add Files…" sheet). Make sure the "Created groups for any added folders" radio-button is selected
  8. Press the key combination Shift-Command-G, which should drop down another sheet for you to go to a folder (the "Go to the folder:" sheet)
  9. Enter "/Users/Shared/Cordova/Frameworks/Cordova.framework" in the "Go to the folder:" sheet and then press the "Go" button
  10. Press the "Add" button in the "Add Files…" sheet
  11. Select "Cordova.framework" in the Project Navigator
  12. Press the key combination Option-Command-1 to show the File Inspector
  13. Choose "Absolute Path" in the File Inspector for the drop-down menu for Location
  14. Press the key combination Option-Command-A, which should drop down a sheet to add files to your project (the "Add Files…" sheet). Make sure the "Created groups for any added folders" radio-button is selected
  15. Press the key combination Shift-Command-G, which should drop down another sheet for you to go to a folder (the "Go to the folder:" sheet)
  16. Enter "~/Documents/CordovaLib/Classes/deprecated" in the "Go to the folder:" sheet and then press the "Go" button
  17. Press the "Add" button in the "Add Files…" sheet

  18. In your AppDelegate.h, AppDelegate.m, and MainViewController.h files - replace the whole #ifdef PHONEGAP_FRAMEWORK block with:

    #import "CDVDeprecated.h"
  19. Click on the project icon in the Project Navigator, select your Target, then select the "Build Settings" tab
  20. Search for "Framework Search Paths"
  21. Replace the existing value with "/Users/Shared/Cordova/Frameworks"
  22. Search for "Preprocessor Macros"
  23. For the first (combined) value, replace the value with "CORDOVA_FRAMEWORK=YES"
  24. Select the "Build Phases" tab
  25. Expand "Run Script"
  26. Replace any occurrences of PhoneGap with Cordova
  27. Find your "PhoneGap.plist" file in the Project Navigator, and click on the filename once to enter name edit mode
  28. Rename "PhoneGap.plist" to "Cordova.plist"
  29. Right-click on "Cordova.plist" and choose "Open As" --> "Source Code"
  30. Press Option-Command-F, choose "Replace" from the drop-down on the top left of the Source window
  31. Enter com.phonegap for the Find string, and org.apache.cordova for the Replace string - then press the "Replace All" button
  32. Enter PG for the Find string, and CDV for the Replace string - then press the "Replace All" button
  33. Press Command-B to build, you will still have deprecations that you can get rid of in the future (see CDVDeprecated.h - replace classes in your code that use PG* to CDV*, for example)

Upgrading Cordova 1.4.0 projects to 1.4.1

  1. Install Cordova 1.4.1
  2. Make a backup of MainViewController.m
  3. Create a new project - you will have to grab assets from this new project
  4. Copy the MainViewController.m file from the new project into your 1.4.0 based project folder on disk, replacing the old file (backup your files first from step 2 above).
  5. Add the MainViewController.m file into your Xcode project
  6. Integrate any project specific code that you have in your backed-up MainViewController.m into the new file
  7. Updating the phonegap-X.X.X.js file is optional, nothing has changed in the JavaScript between 1.4.0 and 1.4.1

Upgrading Cordova 1.3.0 projects to 1.4.0

  1. Install Cordova 1.4.0
  2. Make a backup of AppDelegate.m and AppDelegate.h in your project
  3. Create a new project - you will have to grab assets from this new project

  4. Copy these files from the new project into your 1.3.0 based project folder on disk, replacing any old files (backup your files first from step 2 above):

     AppDelegate.h
 AppDelegate.m
 MainViewController.h
 MainViewController.m
 MainViewController.xib
  5. Add all the MainViewController files into your Xcode project
  6. Copy the www/phonegap-1.4.0.js file from the new project into your www folder, and delete your www/phonegap-1.3.0.js file
  7. Update the Cordova script reference in your www/index.html file (and any other files that contain the script reference) to point to the new phonegap-1.4.0.js file
  8. Add a new entry under Plugins in your PhoneGap.plist file - key is com.phonegap.battery and the value is PGBattery
  9. Integrate any project specific code that you have in your backed-up AppDelegate.h and AppDelegate.m into the new AppDelegate files

Upgrading Cordova 1.2.0 projects to 1.3.0

  1. Install Cordova 1.3.0
  2. Make a backup of AppDelegate.m and AppDelegate.h in your project
  3. Create a new project - you will have to grab assets from this new project

  4. Copy these files from the new project into your 1.2.0 based project folder on disk, replacing any old files (backup your files first from step 2 above):

     AppDelegate.h
 AppDelegate.m
 MainViewController.h
 MainViewController.m
 MainViewController.xib
  5. Add all the MainViewController files into your Xcode project
  6. Copy the www/phonegap-1.3.0.js file from the new project into your www folder, and delete your www/phonegap-1.2.0.js file
  7. Update the Cordova script reference in your www/index.html file (and any other files that contain the script reference) to point to the new phonegap-1.3.0.js file
  8. Add a new entry under Plugins in your PhoneGap.plist file - key is com.phonegap.battery and the value is PGBattery
  9. Integrate any project specific code that you have in your backed-up AppDelegate.h and AppDelegate.m into the new AppDelegate files

Upgrading Cordova 1.1.0 projects to 1.2.0

  1. Install Cordova 1.2.0
  2. Make a backup of AppDelegate.m and AppDelegate.h in your project
  3. Create a new project - you will have to grab assets from this new project

  4. Copy these files from the new project into your 1.1.0 based project folder on disk, replacing any old files (backup your files first from step 2 above):

     AppDelegate.h
 AppDelegate.m
 MainViewController.h
 MainViewController.m
 MainViewController.xib
  5. Add all the MainViewController files into your Xcode project
  6. Copy the www/phonegap-1.2.0.js file from the new project into your www folder, and delete your www/phonegap-1.1.0.js file
  7. Update the Cordova script reference in your www/index.html file (and any other files that contain the script reference) to point to the new phonegap-1.2.0.js file
  8. Add a new entry under Plugins in your PhoneGap.plist file - key is com.phonegap.battery and the value is PGBattery
  9. Integrate any project specific code that you have in your backed-up AppDelegate.h and AppDelegate.m into the new AppDelegate files

Upgrading Cordova 1.0.0 projects to 1.1.0

  1. Install Cordova 1.1.0
  2. Make a backup of AppDelegate.m and AppDelegate.h in your project
  3. Create a new project - you will have to grab assets from this new project

  4. Copy these files from the new project into your 1.0.0 based project folder on disk, replacing any old files (backup your files first from step 2 above):

     AppDelegate.h
 AppDelegate.m
 MainViewController.h
 MainViewController.m
 MainViewController.xib
  5. Add all the MainViewController files into your Xcode project
  6. Copy the www/phonegap-1.1.0.js file from the new project into your www folder, and delete your www/phonegap-1.0.0.js file
  7. Update the Cordova script reference in your www/index.html file (and any other files that contain the script reference) to point to the new phonegap-1.1.0.js file
  8. Add a new entry under Plugins in your PhoneGap.plist file - key is com.phonegap.battery and the value is PGBattery
  9. Integrate any project specific code that you have in your backed-up AppDelegate.h and AppDelegate.m into the new AppDelegate files

Upgrading Cordova 0.9.6 projects to 1.0.0

  1. Install Cordova 1.0.0
  2. Make a backup of AppDelegate.m and AppDelegate.h in your project
  3. Create a new project - you will have to grab assets from this new project

  4. Copy these files from the new project into your 0.9.6 based project folder on disk, replacing any old files (backup your files first from step 2 above):

     AppDelegate.h
 AppDelegate.m
 MainViewController.h
 MainViewController.m
 MainViewController.xib
  5. Add all the MainViewController files into your Xcode project
  6. Copy the www/phonegap-1.0.0.js file from the new project into your www folder, and delete your www/phonegap-0.9.6.js file
  7. Update the Cordova script reference in your www/index.html file (and any other files that contain the script reference) to point to the new phonegap-1.0.0.js file
  8. Add a new entry under Plugins in your PhoneGap.plist file - key is com.phonegap.battery and the value is PGBattery
  9. Integrate any project specific code that you have in your backed-up AppDelegate.h and AppDelegate.m into the new AppDelegate files