Embedding Cordova WebView on iOS
Beginning with Cordova 1.4, you can use Cordova as a component in your iOS applications. This component is code-named 'Cleaver'.
New Cordova-based applications created using the Xcode template provided in Cordova 1.4 or greater use Cleaver. (The template is Cleaver's reference implementation.)
Cordova 2.0.0 and subsequent versions only support the sub-project based Cleaver implementation.
Prerequisites
- Cordova 2.3.0 or greater
- Xcode 4.5 or greater
config.xml
file (from a newly created Cordova project)
Adding Cleaver to your Xcode project (CordovaLib sub-project)
- Download and extract the Cordova source to a permanent folder location on your hard drive (say to
~/Documents/Cordova
) - Quit Xcode if it is running.
- Navigate to the directory where you put the downloaded source above, using Terminal.app.
- Copy the
config.xml
file into your project folder on disk (see Prerequisites above) - Drag and drop the
config.xml
file into the Project Navigator of Xcode - Choose the Create groups for any added folders radio button and press Finish
- Drag and drop the
CordovaLib.xcodeproj
file into the Project Navigator of Xcode (from the permanent folder location above, and it should be in the CordovaLib sub-folder) - Select
CordovaLib.xcodeproj
in the Project Navigator - Type the Option-Command-1 key combination to show the File Inspector
- Choose Relative to Group in the File Inspector for the drop-down menu for Location
- Select the project icon in the Project Navigator, select your Target, then select the Build Settings tab
- Add
-all_load
and-Obj-C
for the Other Linker Flags value - Click on the project icon in the Project Navigator, select your Target, then select the Build Phases tab
- Expand Link Binaries with Libraries
-
Select the + button, and add these frameworks (and optionally in the Project Navigator, move them under the Frameworks group):
AddressBook.framework AddressBookUI.framework AudioToolbox.framework AVFoundation.framework CoreLocation.framework MediaPlayer.framework QuartzCore.framework SystemConfiguration.framework MobileCoreServices.framework CoreMedia.framework
- Expand Target Dependencies - the top box labeled like this if you have multiple boxes!
- Select the + button, and add the
CordovaLib
build product - Expand Link Binaries with Libraries - the top box labeled like this if you have multiple boxes!
- Select the + button, and add
libCordova.a
- Set the Xcode preference Xcode Preferences → Locations → Derived Data → Advanced… to Unique
- Select the project icon in the Project Navigator, select your Target, then select the Build Settings tab
-
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)"
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.
Using CDVViewController in your code
-
Add this header:
#import <Cordova/CDVViewController.h>
-
Instantiate a new
CDVViewController
, and retain it somewhere (e.g. to a property in your class):CDVViewController* viewController = [CDVViewController new];
-
(OPTIONAL) Set the
wwwFolderName
property (defaults towww
):viewController.wwwFolderName = @"myfolder";
-
(OPTIONAL) Set the start page in your config.xml, the
<content>
tag.<content src="index.html" />
OR
<content src="http://apache.org" />
-
(OPTIONAL) Set the
useSplashScreen
property (defaults toNO
):viewController.useSplashScreen = YES;
-
Set the view frame (always set this as the last property):
viewController.view.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 480);
-
Add Cleaver to your view:
[myView addSubview:viewController.view];
Adding your HTML, CSS and JavaScript assets
- Create a new folder in your project on disk,
www
for example. - Put your HTML, CSS and JavaScript assets into this folder.
- Drag and drop the folder into the Project Navigator of Xcode.
- Choose the Create folder references for any added folders radio button.
-
Set the appropriate
wwwFolderName
andstartPage
properties for the folder you created in (1) or use the defaults (see previous section) when you instantiate theCDVViewController
./* if you created a folder called 'myfolder' and you want the file 'mypage.html' in it to be the startPage */ viewController.wwwFolderName = @"myfolder"; viewController.startPage = @"mypage.html"