CordovaJavaScriptDifferences.md

Changes to the WebApp code to support Cordova

If we didn't load any local images in the WebApp, and we didn't do oAuth to authenticate via Twitter and Facebook, the bundle.js could run in the Cordova wrapper created by the Cordova scaffolding.

The following differences have been found:

1. "Root" path in the bundle.js

   The scaffolding that we used to setup cordova, has the index.js and index.html in the \www directory instead of in \src\js and as a result all of the relative/absolute paths for images have to be adjusted. See cordovaDot in cordovaUtils.js.

2. Startup code in index.js

   // If Apache Cordova is available, wait for it to be ready, otherwise start the WebApp
   if (isCordova()) {
     document.addEventListener("deviceready", () => {
       startApp();
     }, false);
   } else {  // browser
     startApp();
   }
   

   Cordova starts after the enclosing iOS or Android app starts, so you have to wait for the deviceready event to be fired.

3. Cordova buttons can fire on React class load

   return <Button bsSize="large" className="btn btn-social btn-twitter u-push--lg"
           onClick={isWebApp() ? this.twitterSignInWebApp.bind() : this.twitterSignInWebAppCordova }>
     <span className="fa fa-twitter"/> {buttonText}
   </Button>;
   

   In this example, see how we are just passing the name of this.twitterSignInWebAppCordova instead of using this.twitterSignInWebAppCordova() which would immediately execute the method specified in the onClick() on render.

4. Our Router implementation in the WebApp uses browserHistory.push() to route

   Cordova needs to use hashHistory.push() instead of browserHistory.push(), both come from the 'react-router' package. (I don't remember why the needs are different.) So every place where there was a browserHistory.push(), there is now a historyPush() call which is just a wrapper that uses the appropriate kind of "history" for standalone WebApp vs WebApp within Cordova.

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