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Cordova end of life?

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    Cordova end of life?

    I'm evaluating options for moving forward with an application I'm working on, and it's making use of some Cordova plugins (notably camera and filesystem) so we can package it as an offline app. As I'm reading various industry blogs, Cordova isn't dead in the water, but its death appears to be assumed in coming years.

    There's a lot of industry movement toward PWAs (even within Alpha) which have some great features, but these don't have the same degree of persistent storage, so I don't think that will suffice for my needs.

    There's also Capacitor, which is still developing a bit, but theoretically is a drop-in replacement for Cordova, and theoretically has a longer expected life.

    Has anyone started looking into this, and maybe more specifically, has anyone heard Alpha reference Cordova's decreasing support and/or Capacitor?

    #2
    The problem you have with third party stuff is that AA has no control over what decisions third party management makes about the future direction of their product, when they say it's over, well it's over.. A has no option but to say 'no longer supported'.

    BUT the PWA's is worth persisting with as it's under AA control. You can build an off-line app with your specs in AA, your view of persisted storage may be outdated. Explore your options ask this community - 'hey this is what I want to do - what do you think?' - then describe your spec.

    See what comes back at you.

    Pete
    Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
    Albert Einstein, (attributed)
    US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)

    Comment


      #3
      Part of Alpha's value proposition is to offer low-code integrations with third-party solutions, like Google Maps, Stripe, Zapier... This one is particularly important, though, because if Cordova ends, then Alpha can't be used to build mobile apps anymore.

      I've read a lot on this already. PWAs can't access device file storage, which means storage is just cache. That's not a workable solution.

      Comment


        #4
        Hi Chris,
        Cordova is going to be around for a while. Also, when the time comes for it to sunset you'll have a bit of time to transition to Capacitor, and I think Alpha will head that direction - along with PWA's. Eventually, App Stores will give way when they find a way to monetize PWA's. That will be a while though, so I think you are good for at least a few years.

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          #5
          I know you can't trust everything you read online, but I haven't seen anything touting confidence in Cordova's longevity, and I see plenty that suggests its decline. I know the Alpha transition from PhoneGap Build to Cordova was implemented fairly well, but not in the most timely fashion. I guess I'd be more comfortable to know that Alpha was a bit ahead of the curve rather than waiting for the end to be announced before they start thinking about it.

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            #6
            I hear you Chris. Who knows how it will play out. Here is an interesting article from Microsoft though:
            https://mobidev.biz/blog/apache-cord...pp-development

            I'm hoping the PWA's take the forefront and Alpha seems to be dedicating resources to this avenue. Maybe in the next two years the issues with storage and all that will be worked out.

            Comment


              #7
              Yes I actually read that article earlier today before you posted the link. I don't think Cordova is dead yet. But from the article you reference: 'The main finding implies that Cordova can be used, yet it is not the appropriate option for new projects."

              On PWA File system access, there's this: The File System Access API: simplifying access to local files (web.dev). In it, this: "Android support is not immediately planned, but you can track potential progress by starring crbug.com/1011535." And if you look at the link referenced, people have been pushing for support for almost 3 years now. By definition, you're creating ways for websites (PWAs) to access device functionality, which has serious security considerations even on top of any technical considerations. I see the industry headed toward PWAs but I think the majority of use cases for PWAs will be met with an almost-always-connected, cache-based storage. And if you want file system storage, you just have to build a traditional mobile app.

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