Amazon Fire OS WebViews

Beginning with 3.3.0, you can use Cordova as a component in Amazon Fire OS applications. Amazon Fire OS refers to this component as CordovaWebView. CordovaWebView extends Amazon WebView that is built on the open source Chromium Project. By leveraging this feature, your web apps can utilize the latest HTML5 web standards running in a modern web runtime engine.

If you're unfamiliar with Amazon Fire OS, you should first familiarize yourself with the Amazon Fire OS Platform Guide and have the latest SDKs installed before you attempt the more unusual development option of embedding a WebView.

Prerequisites

  • Cordova 3.3.0 or greater

  • Android SDK updated to the latest SDK

  • Amazon WebView SDK

Guide to using CordovaWebView in a Amazon Fire OS Project

  1. To follow these instructions, make sure you have the latest Cordova distribution. Download it from cordova.apache.org and unzip its Amazon Fire OS package.

  2. Download and expand the Amazon WebView SDK , then copy the awv_interface.jar into /framework/libs directory. Create a libs/ folder if it doesn't exist.

  3. Navigate to the package's /framework directory and run ant jar. It creates the Cordova .jar file, formed as /framework/cordova-3.5.0.jar.

  4. Copy the .jar file into the Android project's /libs directory.

  5. Add the following to the application's /res/xml/main.xml file, with the layout_height, layout_width and id modified to suit the application:

     <org.apache.cordova.CordovaWebView
         android:id="@+id/tutorialView"
         android:layout_width="match_parent"
         android:layout_height="match_parent" />
    
  6. Modify your activity so that it implements the CordovaInterface. You should implement the included methods. You may wish to copy them from /framework/src/org/apache/cordova/CordovaActivity.java, or implement them on your own. The code fragment below shows a basic application that uses the interface. Note how the referenced view id matches the id attribute specified in the XML fragment shown above:

     public class CordovaViewTestActivity extends Activity implements CordovaInterface {
         CordovaWebView cwv;
         /* Called when the activity is first created. */
         @Override
         public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
             super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
             setContentView(R.layout.main);
             cwv = (CordovaWebView) findViewById(R.id.tutorialView);
             Config.init(this);
             cwv.loadUrl(Config.getStartUrl());
         }
    

If you use the camera, you should also implement this:

    @Override
    public void setActivityResultCallback(CordovaPlugin plugin) {
        this.activityResultCallback = plugin;
    }
    /**
     * Launch an activity for which you would like a result when it finished. When this activity exits,
     * your onActivityResult() method is called.
     *
     * @param command           The command object
     * @param intent            The intent to start
     * @param requestCode       The request code that is passed to callback to identify the activity
     */
    public void startActivityForResult(CordovaPlugin command, Intent intent, int requestCode) {
        this.activityResultCallback = command;
        this.activityResultKeepRunning = this.keepRunning;

        // If multitasking turned on, then disable it for activities that return results
        if (command != null) {
            this.keepRunning = false;
        }

        // Start activity
        super.startActivityForResult(intent, requestCode);
    }

    @Override
    /**
     * Called when an activity you launched exits, giving you the requestCode you started it with,
     * the resultCode it returned, and any additional data from it.
     *
     * @param requestCode       The request code originally supplied to startActivityForResult(),
     *                          allowing you to identify who this result came from.
     * @param resultCode        The integer result code returned by the child activity through its setResult().
     * @param data              An Intent, which can return result data to the caller (various data can be attached to Intent "extras").
     */
    protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent intent) {
        super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, intent);
        CordovaPlugin callback = this.activityResultCallback;
        if (callback != null) {
            callback.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, intent);
        }
    }

Finally, remember to add the thread pool, otherwise the plugins have no threads to run on:

    @Override
    public ExecutorService getThreadPool() {
        return threadPool;
    }
  1. Copy your application's HTML and JavaScript files to your Amazon Fire OS project's /assets/www directory.

  2. Copy config.xml from /framework/res/xml to your project's /res/xml directory.