As you are likely aware, Visual Builder uses Cordova (the open source version of PhoneGap) to deliver hybrid capabilities within mobile apps; the combination of web clients and device native access such as bar code readers and push notifications. Although HTML is adding more and more device features, like camera, GPS, and file storage, Cordova is still necessary for many features, in particular, receiving Push Notifications. In this blog, I will walk through a new feature in Visual Builder which enables you to add any Cordova plug-in (not already provided by Visual Builder) into your app to enable Push Notifications for my client. For brevity, I will walk through building the package for iOS. 

Regardless of which platform you are building your custom Cordova package for, the basic steps are the same.

  1. Prepare your workstation for Cordova build requirements for iOS and/or Android
  2. Download the Cordova package sources from your app settings
  3. Unzip that package and add the Cordova plug-ins you need
  4. Build a new Cordova package with those plug-ins
  5. Upload that package through your app settings
  6. Create a build profile for your larget platform that references the custom Cordova package
  7. Prepare your workstation for Cordova build requirements for iOS and/or Android

Prepare your workstation for Cordova builds

In your download package, there is a readme.md with links to both the iOS and Android prerequisites and requirements for you to build on your workstation. For your convenience, I've provided the links below.

http://cordova.apache.org/#getstarted

 

https://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/latest/guide/platforms/ios/index.html#requirements-and-support

 

https://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/latest/guide/platforms/android/index.html#installing-the-requirements

Download and unzip the Cordova package

For Visual Builder apps, you should download the Cordova package from within your app settings. This cordova project includes the shipping plugins within which you can add your additional plugins.

After unzipping the package, cd to that directory with your terminal or console and run the following command to get the list of current plugins.