You can also use the Visual Studio 2015 Preview which includes these tools as part of its installation although the template is available only with TypeScript there.However, I was pleasantly surprised when I actually took this toolset for a spin it solves a real problem by providing a unified installer for the necessary SDKs and tools to support Android, Windows Phone and iOS, and provides a very well thought out development platform that builds on top of the already awesome Web tooling that Visual Studio provides.The highlight of these tools is the ability to easily debug Cordova applications using Web developer tools that are integrated directly in Visual Studio, allowing you to debug either the provided emulators and simulators, or debug actual attached live devices including iOS devices.Cordova For those of you that dont know, Apache Cordova also known as Adobe PhoneGap provides hybrid mobile Web development technology that lets you use standard Web technologies to build mobile apps.
Visual Studio Angular Full Screen WebCordova works by providing a native device application that hosts a full screen Web browser control as well as tooling for building the app and getting it ready for deployment to a mobile device. As a developer you implement the Web interface using the same Web technologies you use for Web development: HTML5, CSS and JavaScript as well as any support libraries and frameworks you might be using. Cordova or in this case the Visual Studio Cordova Tools then can build the application for you into a mobile device specific package that can be deployed to an app store and run on a mobile device. Because HTML5 mobile APIs are severely lacking in consistency and browser support, Cordova also provides a JavaScript based plug-in API that allows it to interact with native hardware and device APIs so you get access to native features of most mobile devices using a common multi-platform compatible interface. There are over 600 plug-ins that interfaces that provide access to most mobile device features and you can build your own plug-ins against native APIs if necessary. Why do you need Visual Studio Integration Cordova on its own does a pretty good job of letting you create projects and build them using command line tools. However, its your responsibility to collect all the SDKs and tools you need for each platform and set them up. On Windows you also cant build an iOS app, which is supported only on Macs. Cordova on its own also doesnt do anything for debugging your applications it lets you build and run them on a device but theres no debugging support. The Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova provide a consolidated installation for all the necessary SDKs and emulators, as well as an integrated development experience from coding to running and debugging of a Cordova applications, all within the boundaries of Visual Studio. Additionally Cordova natively doesnt allow for building iOS applications on Windows, but using the Visual Studio tools you can actually develop and debug iOS apps on Windows. Visual Studio Angular Full DOM AndHere are some of the highlights of Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova: Installation of all necessary SDKs for Windows Phone and Android on Windows A remote iOS build and debugging agent that interfaces with XCodes command line build tools (a Mac and Apple Developer Account is required to build and debug) A startup template that sets up a multi-platform project (iOSAndroidWindows Phone) Customized platform configuration integration A host of Emulators you can run on Windows Full DOM and CSS Viewer for live applications both in emulators and on devices Full JavaScript Console and Debugger using the Visual Studio debugger UI iOS support is Excellent Ive been particularly impressed by the iOS support, which allows you build, run and debug Cordova apps using Visual Studio and run on a live device attached to a Mac. While you still need to have a Mac somewhere on the network and an Apple Developer account to make this work, its still pretty impressive to click Attach in Visual Studio and have your app fire up on an actual live iPhone, and then provide you rich browser developer tools to let you interactively access a DOM and Style inspector, a JavaScript Console and use Visual Studio as a debugger. Ironically the iOS support currently is better than either the Windows Phone or Android experience. Windows PhoneWindows Universal debugging is not yet supported and Android debugging requires devices running Android 4.4 or later. Ive toyed with Cordova in the past off and on, and Ive always turned away from it because it was just too much of a pain trying to debug on device applications especially for iOS devices. Using these tools for Visual Studio however, it feels very natural to develop, test and debug your application either in a browser, an emulator or on an actual device. Creating a Cordova Application for iOS To take these tools for a spin I took a small AlbumViewer sample application and moved it to Cordova. Im going to use iOS as the example here because iOS has traditionally been the most difficult platform for Windows developers to build mobile apps for and to me this is one of the highlights of the Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova. Other platforms are actually easier to set up, but currently there are limitations: Android 4.4 has to be used for live device debugging, and Windows PhoneUniversal currently dont support debugging at all, but the range of support is supposed to be better by the time these tools release. Lets get started. Im using Visual Studio 2013 and the add-in package for the Cordova tools (CTP 3).
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