plugman

A command line tool to install and uninstall plugins for use with Apache Cordova projects.

This document defines tool usage.

Requirements

You must have git on your PATH to be able to install plugins directly from remote git URLs.

Plugin Specification

Quickstart

npm install -g plugman

Design Goals

Facilitate programmatic installation and manipulation of plugins
Detail the dependencies and components of individual plugins
Allow code reuse between different target platforms

Supported Platforms

Amazon Fire OS
Android
BlackBerry 10
iOS
Tizen
Windows Phone 8
Windows 8

Command Line Usage

Display all available plugman commands:

plugman help

Plugin Management

Install a plugin into a Cordova project:

plugman install --platform <ios|amazon-fireos|android|blackberry10|wp8> --project <directory> --plugin <name|url|path> [--plugins_dir <directory>] [--www <directory>] [--variable <name>=<value> [--variable <name>=<value> ...]]

Uninstall a Plugin from a Cordova project:

plugman uninstall --platform <ios|amazon-fireos|android|blackberry10|wp8> --project <directory> --plugin <id> [--www <directory>] [--plugins_dir <directory>]

For each command (install and uninstall), you must specify a platform and Cordova project location for that platform. You also must specify a plugin, with the different --plugin parameter forms being:

name: The directory name where the plugin contents exist. This must be an existing directory under the --plugins_dir path (see below for more info) or a plugin in the Cordova registry.
url: A URL starting with https:// or git://, pointing to a valid git repository that is clonable and contains a plugin.xml file. The contents of this repository would be copied into the --plugins_dir.
path: A path to a directory containing a valid plugin which includes a plugin.xml file. This path's contents will be copied into the --plugins_dir.

Other parameters:

--plugins_dir defaults to <project>/cordova/plugins, but can be any directory containing a subdirectory for each fetched plugin.
--www defaults to the project's www folder location, but can be any directory that is to be used as cordova project application web assets.
--variable allows to specify certain variables at install time, necessary for certain plugins requiring API keys or other custom, user-defined parameters. Please see the plugin specification for more information.

Registry Search

Search the Plugin registry for plugin id's that match the given space separated list of keywords.

plugman search <plugin keywords>

Configuration Management:

Display the current list of configuration settings:

plugman config ls

Display the current repository endpoint:

plugman config get registry

Set the registry endpoint:

plugman config set registry <url-to-registry>

You should leave this set to http://registry.cordova.io, unless you want to use a third party plugin registry.

Node Module Usage

This section details how to consume Plugman as a node module and is only for Cordova tool authors and other hackers. You should not need to read this section if you are just using Plugman to manage a Cordova project.

node
> require('plugman')
{ install: [Function: installPlugin],
  uninstall: [Function: uninstallPlugin],
  fetch: [Function: fetchPlugin],
  search: [Function: search],
  publish: [Function: publish],
  unpublish: [Function: unpublish],
  adduser: [Function: adduser],
  prepare: [Function: handlePrepare],
  create: [Function: create],
  platform: [Function: platform] }

`install` method

module.exports = function installPlugin(platform, project_dir, id, plugins_dir, subdir, cli_variables, www_dir, callback) {

Installs a plugin into a specified cordova project of a specified platform.

platform: one of amazon-fireos, android, ios, blackberry10, or wp8
project_dir: path to an instance of the above specified platform's cordova project
id: a string representing the id of the plugin, a path to a cordova plugin with a valid plugin.xml file, or an https:// or git:// url to a git repository of a valid cordova plugin or a plugin published to the Cordova registry
plugins_dir: path to directory where plugins will be stored, defaults to <project_dir>/cordova/plugins
subdir: subdirectory within the plugin directory to consider as plugin directory root, defaults to .
cli_variables: an object mapping cordova plugin specification variable names (see plugin specification) to values
www_dir: path to directory where web assets are to be copied to, defaults to the specified project directory's www dir (dependent on platform)
callback: callback to invoke once complete. If specified, will pass in an error object as a first parameter if the action failed. If not and an error occurs, plugman will throw the error

`uninstall` method

module.exports = function uninstallPlugin(platform, project_dir, id, plugins_dir, cli_variables, www_dir, callback) {

Uninstalls a previously-installed cordova plugin from a specified cordova project of a specified platform.

platform: one of amazon-fireos, android, ios, blackberry10, or wp8
project_dir: path to an instance of the above specified platform's cordova project
id: a string representing the id of the plugin
plugins_dir: path to directory where plugins are stored, defaults to <project_dir>/cordova/plugins
subdir: subdirectory within the plugin directory to consider as plugin directory root, defaults to .
cli_variables: an object mapping cordova plugin specification variable names (see plugin specification) to values
www_dir: path to directory where web assets are to be copied to, defaults to the specified project directory's www dir (dependent on platform)
callback: callback to invoke once complete. If specified, will pass in an error object as a first parameter if the action failed. If not and an error occurs, plugman will throw the error

`fetch` method

Copies a cordova plugin into a single location that plugman uses to track which plugins are installed into a project.

module.exports = function fetchPlugin(plugin_dir, plugins_dir, link, subdir, git_ref, callback) {

plugin_dir: path, URL to a plugin directory/repository or name of a plugin published to the Cordova registry.
plugins_dir: path housing all plugins used in this project
link: if plugin_dir points to a local path, will create a symbolic link to that folder instead of copying into plugins_dir, defaults to false
subdir: subdirectory within the plugin directory to consider as plugin directory root, defaults to .
gitref: if plugin_dir points to a URL, this value will be used to pass into git checkout after the repository is cloned, defaults to HEAD
callback: callback to invoke once complete. If specified, will pass in an error object as a first parameter if the action failed. If not and an error occurs, plugman will throw the error

`prepare` method

Finalizes plugin installation by making configuration file changes and setting up a JavaScript loader for js-module support.

module.exports = function handlePrepare(project_dir, platform, plugins_dir) {

project_dir: path to an instance of the above specified platform's cordova project
platform: one of amazon-fireos, android, ios, blackberry10, or wp8
plugins_dir: path housing all plugins used in this project

Registry related actions

`adduser` method

Adds a user account to the registry. Function takes no arguments other than a an optional callback

module.exports = function(callback) {

`publish` method

Publishes plugins to the registry. plugin_paths is an array of plugin paths to publish to the registry.

module.exports = function(plugin_paths, callback) {

`unpublish` method

unpublishes plugins from the registry. Can unpublish a version by specifying plugin@version or the whole plugin by just specifying plugin. plugins is an array of plugin[@version] elements.

module.exports = function(plugins, callback) {

`search` method

Searches plugins in the registry. search_opts is an array of keywords

module.exports = function(search_opts, callback) {

`config` method

Configures registry settings. params is an array that describes the action /* * var params = ['get', 'registry']; * var params = ['set', 'registry', 'http://registry.cordova.io']; * module.exports = function(params, callback) { */

Create plugin related actions

`create` method

Creates basic scaffolding for a new plugin

module.exports = function create( name, id, version, pluginPath, options, callback ) {...}

name : a name for the plugin
id : an id for the plugin
version : a version for the plugin
pluginPath : a path to create the plugin in
options : an array of options
callback : callback to invoke once complete. If specified, will pass in an error object as a first parameter if the action failed. If not and an error occurs, plugman will throw the error

`platform` method

Add/Remove a platform from a newly created plugin

module.exports = function platform( { operation: operation, platform_name: cli_opts.platform_name } );

operation : "add or remove"
platform_name : ios, android

Example Plugins

Google has a bunch of plugins which are maintained actively by a contributor to plugman
Adobe maintains plugins for its Build cloud service, which are open sourced and available on GitHub
BlackBerry has a bunch of plugins offering deep platform integration
Core and 3rd party plugins can be found on the Cordova Registry.

Development

Basic installation:

git clone https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/cordova-plugman.git
cd cordova-plugman
npm install -g

Linking the global executable to the git repo:

git clone https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/cordova-plugman.git
cd cordova-plugman
npm install
sudo npm link

Running Tests

npm test

Plugin Directory Structure

A plugin is typically a combination of some web/www code, and some native code. However, plugins may have only one of these things - a plugin could be a single JavaScript file, or some native code with no corresponding JavaScript.

Here is a sample plugin named foo with android and ios platforms support, and 2 www assets.

foo-plugin/
|- plugin.xml     # xml-based manifest
|- src/           # native source for each platform
|  |- android/
|  |  `- Foo.java
|  `- ios/
|     |- CDVFoo.h
|     `- CDVFoo.m
|- README.md
`- www/
   |- foo.js
   `- foo.png

This structure is suggested, but not required.

Contributors

See the package.json file for attribution notes.

License

Apache License 2.0

Current Tags

3.0.1 ... latest (6 years ago)
1.0.4 ... rc (9 years ago)