Hey Cordova community,
I am Subhag Oak, senior program manager on the Visual Studio team working on VS
tools for Multi device hybrid apps. In line with the discussion of having a
generic Cordova ‘packaging’ command for all platforms, here is one proposal:
As we all know, packaging an application for deployment requires extra steps
that are specific to the native platforms. A new generic Cordova CLI ‘package’
command can perform these platform specific actions to generate a final signed
package ready for deployment:
cordova package [platform] [--packageConfiguration] {-- –-sign[location] --
–-embed[location] -- --signIdentity[location]}, where all the parameters within
{ } are platform specific overrides.
If no platform is specified, the command will build packages for all platforms
added.
The values for –packageConfiguration are interpreted by the respective
platforms. For Android and Windows, the value can be debug or release, with
release being the default value. For iOS, the possible values are development,
adhoc or store with development being the default value. The -- --sign, -- --
embed and -- --signIdentity are optional iOS specific signing arguments for
specifying the location of code-signing certificate, the provisioning profile
or the code signing identity (certificates along with public and private keys)
respectively.
e.g:
· ‘cordova package iOS’ would generate a signed ipa with development
profile, using code signing identity defined in build.xcconfig:
// to list all installed iOS identities, run:
// security find-identity | sed -n 's/.*\("[^"]*"\).*/\1/p' | grep 'iPhone'
// generic 'iPhone Developer' (no quotes) will match the right Identity with
the right Provisioning // Profile plus Certificate, based on the app bundle id
CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY = iPhone Developer
· ‘cordova package android’ would generate a release signed using the
packaging assets (keystore, alias and password) defined in the ant.properties
files using the ANT build. This would be using gradle.propoerties once cordova
changes to gradle build like the one Andrew mentions below.
· ‘Cordova package windows’ would generate a signed APPX package. This
will use the following tools in the Windows SDK:
• An unsigned packaged Windows Store app, for example, an
.APPX file created by using the app packager (MakeAppx.exe) tool
• A valid code signing certificate, for example, a Personal
Information Exchange (.pfx) file created with the MakeCert.exe and Pvk2Pfx.exe
tools
• SignTool, which is part of the Windows SDK
Here is how the package command should work. The proposal is to make the
‘package’ command work on convention (similar to the Cordova build command)
rather than config settings. The command would look out for packaging assets in
the “platform\ [native-platform]” folder.
For android, the contents of the ant.properties (keystore, password, alias and
alias password) would be used for packaging. If any of these properties is
missing in ant.properties [or gradle.properties for gradle build] or if the
file is missing, the command would prompt the user for these value at the
command prompt. If the values provided are invalid, the command would fail.
For iOS, the contents of build.xcconfig specify the code-sign certificate and
the provisioning profile to be used. The default build.xcconfig file is setup
to handle different information by build profile based on the configuration
defined in the command. Build.xcconfig can also support signing identities that
tie the code-sign certificate with the provisioning profile.
Tools like VS and other IDEs, which use cordova CLI, may need an explicit way
to specify certs/profile for packaging for iOS (since the build needs to happen
on MAC agent) instead of the assets being defined in the build.xcconfig. One
way to allow this is by using optional platform specific arguments to the
package command like:
Cordova package iOS --development --sign “d:\cert\mycert.cer” --embed
“d:\cert\devprovision.mobileprovisioning”
This command will run the xcrun command to generate a signed IPA with
development provisioning profile.
I would love to hear your comments, insights and feedback on this proposal.
Subhag Oak | Senior Program Manager
Visual Studio, Client Tools
[email protected]
425 707 5598 office
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Andrew Grieve
Sent: Wednesday, October 8, 2014 4:40 AM
To: Shazron
Cc: tommy-carlos williams; [email protected]
Subject: Re: Build signed archives using CLI
For Android Gradle, what's in (and experimental) right now:
Environment variable "RELEASE_SIGNING_PROPERTIES_FILE" points to a .properties
file that contains:
storeFile=relative/path/to/keystore.p12
storePassword=SECRET1
storeType=pkcs12
keyAlias=DebugSigningKey
keyPassword=SECRET2
Topics to discuss:
1) Combine platform info into one file, or leave separate?
- Leaning towards together
2) have config.xml point to signing info?
- I think no, since signing info you often want to not check in / keep secure
Strawman:
If a file "cordova-keys.json" exists as a sibling to www/, then use it. It
should look like:
{
"android": {
"storeFile": "relative/path.p12"
...
},
"ios": {
},
...
}
Android signs debug builds as well (not sure if other platforms do this too?),
so maybe also allow
"android-release" as an alias for "android", and
"android-debug"
On Tue, Oct 7, 2014 at 6:52 PM, Shazron
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> I did open an issue for this two years ago:
> https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CB-1369
> and we did discuss this as well 2 yrs ago:
> http://apache.markmail.org/thread/xxlmjjzgnctvsqnm
>
> Seems to be of great value - so let's get going on this ;) The CLI has
> (I think) matured more since then to allow this
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 7, 2014 at 3:44 PM, tommy-carlos williams
> <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
> wrote:
>
> > Frederico’s workflow is the same as ours. I would love to see
> > something happen To improve this, the less time I spend in Xcode,
> > the happier I am
> ;)
> >
> >
> >
> > On 7 October 2014 at 8:48:40, Frederico Galvão (
> > [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>)
> > wrote:
> >
> > I can already get the ultimate .apk through "cordova build android
> > --release", but I already have the required .properties properly
> configured
> > in my platform/android folder, specifying the path and name to my
> > keystores. The "cordova build android --release" already gives me
> > the signed and ready .apk, all I have to do is upload it to play.google.com.
> >
> > I have never, however, used cordova's CLI to build the final
> > artifact for iOS (IPA) for iTunes. All I do is run "cordova
> > prepare", and use xCode
> from
> > then on to build, package, sign, and upload.
> >
> > 2014-10-06 16:52 GMT-03:00 Parashuram Narasimhan (MS OPEN TECH) <
> > [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>:
> >
> > > How about a "cordova package" command, that would be for packaging
> > > the
> > app
> > > for the store? Note that different platforms may have different
> > > requirements for certs, signing etc. So it may make sense to
> > > promote
> this
> > > to a different command and let each command take care of packaging
> > > the
> > app
> > > for the store. This command will also mean that developers don’t
> > > have
> to
> > go
> > > over to the native projects when they finally want to publish
> > > their
> apps
> > to
> > > the store.
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Josh Soref [mailto:[email protected]]
> > > Sent: Monday, October 6, 2014 12:46 PM
> > > To: dev
> > > Subject: Re: Build signed archives using CLI
> > >
> > > if you do:
> > > Cordova build --release,
> > > The blackberry10 platform will generate a signed image...
> > >
> > > On 10/6/14, 3:18 PM, "Andrew Grieve"
> > > <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> > >
> > > >AFAIK, I don't think there's any technical roadblocks. Just need
> > > >a proposal for how it should look, and then a patch & docs to add it!
> > > >
> > > >For Android's hot-off-the-press gradle support, you can set an
> > > >environment variable that points to a .properties file for
> > > >signing builds. This shows one way to go about it, but I'm not in
> > > >love with
> the
> > > .properties idea.
> > > >
> > > >On Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 2:48 PM, Victor Sosa
> > > ><[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
> > > >wrote:
> > > >
> > > >> Hi community.
> > > >>
> > > >> Been looking at this topic and wondering why the build command
> > > >>does not create signed archives. Digging a little bit found a
> > > >>lot of differences in the platforms to create these archives.
> > > >>
> > > >> For instance, in Android you need to 1. Export your APK in
> > > >> release mode (--release flag) 2. Sign your APK (you already
> > > >> need a RSA key)
> > > >>
> > > >> In iOS, you need to:
> > > >> 1. Export your APP using --device flag (--release seems to
> > > >> export
> for
> > > >>emulator only) 2. Either use XCode (UI-based) and sign the
> > > >>archive or use xcrun (headless
> > > >> process)
> > > >>
> > > >> Besides these differences, what is preventing Cordova from
> > > >> providing a generic one-way to build these signed, ready-to-publish
> > > >> archives?
> > > >>
> > > >> Perhaps I'm missing something here...? I really appreciate your
> > > >>insights on this topic
> > > >>
> > > >> Thanks!
> > > >>
> > > >> --
> > > >> Victor Adrian Sosa Herrera
> > > >> IBM Software Engineer
> > > >> Guadalajara, Jalisco
> > > >>
> > >
> > >
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> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> > *Frederico Galvão*
> >
> > Diretor de Tecnologia
> >
> > PontoGet Inovação Web
> >
> >
> > ( +55(62) 8131-5720
> >
> > * www.pontoget.com.br<http://www.pontoget.com.br> <http://www.pontoget.com/>
> >
>
