Posted on by George Henne

AppStudio 8: What’s new with PhoneGap?

AppStudio 8 brings a number of improvements to PhoneGap Build.

Two factors made these changes important. First, as of November 1, 2019, Google Play toughened up its requirements for apps. Second, as the number of device screen sizes proliferated, dozens of sizes of icons and splash screens had to be supplied, along with modifications to the config.xml.

We made things much simpler for our users. Just supply a 1024×1024 icon and a 2732×2732 splash screen, and AppStudio will automatically generate all the required images and update the config.xml file.

This means you’ll need to clean out the redundant info currently in your config.xml the first time. Specifically, you will need to do the following:

  1. Remove sections with <icon lines
  2. Remove sections with <splash lines
  3. Remove <gap:splash src='{splashscreen}’/>

If you would prefer to start clean, here is what a plain config.xml looks like. Don’t forget to delete all the old icon and splashscreen files which are no longer needed.

Other changes make download of the completed executable automatic, let you specify the download location and provide a reasonable filename for the result.

Here’s the complete list of PhoneGap changes:

  1. New PhoneGap icon property added. Should be 1024×1024 png.
  2. New PhoneGap splash property added. Should be 2732×2732 png.
  3. If icon or splash are the wrong size or missing, a ‘Missing source image’ message is shown.
  4. All required icons are now automatically generated.
  5. All required splash screens are now automatically generated.
  6. Config.xml is automatically updated with the correct paths for icons and splashes.
  7. ‘Generate Icons for PhoneGap’ removed from Tools menu. It’s not needed any more.
  8. Errors in config.xml now throw an appropriate message.
  9. Build counter property added. Increments on each build and updates config.xml. (Required by Google Play)
  10. Content Security Policy is now required for all PhoneGap apps (Google requirement). AppStudio supplies a generic CSP – you’ll need to update it for your requirements.
  11. PhoneGap samples now give a warning when not run with PhoneGap.
  12. PhoneGap Preferences: Download directory added so you can specify where the download is placed.
  13. Get Native Build Status: After PhoneGap app is generated, it is automatically downloaded.
  14. A reasonable filename is now generated for download PhoneGap apps.
  15. PWA code is no longer included in PhoneGap apps.
  16. QR Code is no longer displayed if no PhoneGap account.
  17. PhoneGap Status exits if new project loaded.