Cordova React Template

A template for leveraging the power of Cordova and React.

Integrating React with Cordova from scratch can be a tedious process and most tutorials do not provide and efficient development process.

This template offers the tools required for an easy and effective development.

Features

• Webpack
• Cordova Plugins in Development mode
• Ionic Web View for Cordova
• Developing on multiple platforms at the same time

Dependencies

• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]

Getting Started

Start by creating a cordova project with template

cordova create MyReactApp --template cordova-react

this will create a new cordova project with cordova-react template.

Go to to your project directory and run

npm install

to install all dependencies.

Now you can modify public and src directories similar to a create-react-app project.

Development

To support the Hot Module Reload of Webpack as well as Cordova platforms, two clients have been developed Development Console and Development App

Two flags can be used with cordova run {platform} to support running in development mode.

Flag	Description
devmode	Run the cordova react in development mode
devserver	(optional) Run the development server

e.g.

    cordova run android --devmode --devserver

The above example will run the android app using the development mode and will start the development server.

Alternatively to the devserver flag, running

npm start

will also start the development server. The main difference between the two methods is their lifespan. The devserver flag will terminate when the cordova run is terminated while the other one will keep running until manually terminated.

When the development server runs, it will open the Development Console in the browser. The Development Console is a support tool that will provide a terminal to monitor the wepback process. The Development Console also generates QR code and links to access the React application using via browser or mobile platforms. The links available are: Local, Network and Tunnel

The cordova web resources will be served by the webpack development server and all its features will be support, i.e. Hot Module Reload.

Browser

Make sure to add the browser platform first

cordova platform add browser

then run

npm start

or

cordova run browser --devmode --devserver

and wait for the Development Console to show up. When the webpack development server is ready, the appropriate links will show up. Click on open to open the browser platform in a new tab.

Note: if you are trying to use the link on a different device, append ?platform=browser to the end of the link.

Mobile (Android/iOS)

Make sure to install the platform,

cordova platform add android

then run

cordova run android --devmode --devserver

this will generate the Development App and starts the Development Console

The Development App uses a QR code plugin to scan the QR code form the Development Console

This process allows decoupling the cordova native plugin from the web content, meaning as long as no changes were done to the plugin you no longer need to rebuild the platform, simply run npm start and scan the QR code

Production

To generate a production build, simply run the default cordova commands, e.g. cordova build android or cordova run browser, the template will take care of running webpack build and handling all the logistics.

Troubleshooting

QRcode not generated in Console

Local and Network addresses are collected from the output of the webpack process, if the compilation of the app files the first time webpack starts, it will not output the addresses and consequently the Tunnel address is not generated.

Solve any issue preventing the compilation from succeding and restart the development server.