Mendix PhoneGap Build App Template

Mendix apps can simply be viewed in mobile web browsers. However, some features of mobile devices cannot be accessed through HTML and JavaScript. Also, if you want to publish your app in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, you have to wrap your app in a native shell. We use Cordova/PhoneGap to do this. PhoneGap creates a native wrapper around a web application and provides access to native functionality through a JavaScript API. These apps are called hybrid apps because they are a hybrid of a web and a native app.

This project contains the Mendix PhoneGap Build app template. You can use it to

• customize your mobile Mendix app: styling, icons, splash screens and code,
• open the platform specific code inside the appropriate IDEs,
• debug the app using emulators,
• build installable packages, either locally or in the cloud using PhoneGap Build.

Table of Contents

• Prerequisites
• Build on PhoneGap
• Customize DTAP endpoint
• App signing
• Build and run locally
• Customizing your app
• Troubleshooting

Prerequisites

Make sure that the following is installed on your system:

• A clone of this repository or the customizable package for your app, available in the 'Deploy' section of the Mendix Portal. When starting from a customizable package, basic configuration for your app has already been done.
• Recent Node.js. This code was tested with version 6. You can check by running node -v.
  • Windows: install from nodejs.org
  • MacOS: use Brew to install Node.js: brew install node
  • Linux, BSD, etc: install using the available package manager, e.g. on Debian: sudo apt-get install node

For building locally you also need a development environment for your target platform:

• Android: Android Studio by following the instructions
• iOS: XCode, only available for Apple computers (MacBook, iMac)

Build on PhoneGap

With the PhoneGap Build service you can build your app in the cloud, even if you haven't installed the development environment for your target platform. This way you can target iOS without owning an Apple computer. You still need an Apple developer account, provisioning profile and signing key. See the PhoneGap site for more details.

To use the PhoneGap Build service you need to register for an account first. After that, you can build your app by uploading a PhoneGap Build package, which is just a regular .zip file containing JavaScript and resource files.

PhoneGap build packages target either ARM (phones and most other devices) which is the default, or x86 platforms (emulators and other devices).

Through uploading to PhoneGap Build

To build through the PhoneGap site, first build a PhoneGap Build package:

$ npm install                       # install dependencies
$ npm run package                   # create ARM PGB package in `dist` or
$ npm run package:x86               # create x86 PGB package in `dist`

Then, go to https://build.phonegap.com/apps/ and click the + new app button. When asked, upload the PhoneGap Build package from the dist folder.

Through the command line

To build on PhoneGap Build through the command line:

$ npm install                       # install dependencies
$ npm run package                   # prepare `build` directory for ARM or
$ npm run package:x86               # prepare `build` directory for x86
$ npm run phonegap:login            # login into the PGB service
$ npm run phonegap:build:android    # build on PGB, alternatively use `phonegap:build:ios`

Customize DTAP endpoint

To target a specific DTAP endpoint with your app you can specify it as a parameter to npm run package or npm run package:x86, e.g:

$ npm run package -- --env.target=test  # target the test endpoint for ARM architecture

Possible targets are development, test, acceptance, production (default) and sandbox. For convencience you can shorten these to the first letter.

App signing

In case you want to deploy your app on a real device, you will likely need to sign your app. Please refer to the appropriate Cordova documentation for details:

• iOS
• Android

Build and run locally

If this is the initial build, first do some preparation:

$ npm install                       # install dependencies
$ npm run package:x86               # prepare `build` directory for x86 or
$ npm run package                   # prepare `build` directory for ARM
$ npm run platform:android          # setup for Android or
$ npm run platform:ios              # setup for iOS

If you cloned the repository or want to change some settings, edit the file config/parameters.json (create it if necessary). It should at least contain the following properties, with values appropriate for your app:

{
    "identifier": "io.mxapps.myapp",
    "name": "My App",
    "url": "https://myapp.mxapps.io"
}

For information on further customization, refer to Customizing your app.

Now, build and run the app:

$ npm run package:x86               # prepare `build` directory for x86 or
$ npm run package                   # prepare `build` directory for ARM
$ npm run prepare:all               # prepare phonegap platform files
$ npm run start:emulator            # run on emulator, alternatively use start:device

Customizing your app

When you first download this project, it is mostly empty. All functionality and styling is by default implemented as part of one this project's dependencies, called mendix-hybrid-app-base.

You can customize your hybrid app in several ways. All defaults from the base package can be overridden and/or extended, including the build process itself.

Folder structure

The project structure consists of the following elements:

• src/: this is where you place all customizations for your app
  • www/:
    • images: any images that you'd like to use on e.g. the login screen
    • styles: CSS files with styling for e.g. the login screen
    • scripts: JavaScript files that customize the behavior of your app
    • index.html.mustache: Mustache template file used to generate the index page
  • resources/: icons and splash screens
  • config.xml.mustache: template file that is used to generate the Phonegap configuration file
• config/: this is where external configuration files go; these files are optional, overriding the defaults. Example files containing the defaults are put here upon npm install. Possible configuration files are:
  • environments.json: a description of all available deployment environments for your app, including the app IDs and URLs
  • parameters.json: settings that influence some aspects of the build process and the resulting app, such as Android/iOS support, offline mode, and pin login
  • resources.json: descriptions of all resources, such as icons and splash screens, including their types and sizes
  • texts.json: translations/customizations for the static texts in the hybrid shell part of your app
• build/: (generated) contains all intermediate build files, such as the bundles javascript and css. The contents of this folder are overwritten every time you run a build
• dist/: (generated) the final build packages will end up here
• webpack.config.js: starting point for the build process

Basic app settings

Several simple app settings, such as the app name and identifier, can be set in config/parameters.json. If you've downloaded this project from the Mendix Portal, the file is already there. Otherwise, you can look at the config/parameters.json.example file.

Styling

To customize the styling of the login screen (including the pin screen), add a .css file to src/www/styles/. It will be automatically picked up by the build process.

Page structure

To change the structure and contents of the login screen (including the pin screen), you can adapt src/www/index.html.mustache.

Translations / custom text

All static text in the hybrid app can be customized and/or translated. To do so, create a file config/texts.json containing the original text as keys and the replacement text as values. You can take a look at config/texts.json.example to see which texts are available for translation.

Icons & Splash screens

Icons and splash screens are configured in two separate places. The image files themselves should be stored in src/resources/. The configuration of each icon and splash screen should be updated in config/resources.json. You can take a look at config/resources.json.example for an example.

In case you have downloaded this package through the Mendix Portal, all configured icons and splash screens have already been prepackaged and preconfigured.

Client behavior (advanced)

You can run custom code in two specific cases:

• on client configuration setup
• on Mendix client load

To implement custom behavior for these cases, edit src/www/scripts/entry.js.

Customizing the build process (advanced)

You can customize the build process by making changes to webpack.config.js in the root folder of this project. All Webpack configuration you add here will be merged with the default Webpack configuration. You can read more about this in the webpack-merge documentation.

Upgrading the base package

Default functionality and styling is implemented in the mendix-hybrid-app-base package. We will occasionally release updates to this package. You can upgrade the base package by running npm upgrade from the root of your project.

Troubleshooting

PIN feature on iOS simulator

When using the PIN feature while running your app on an iOS simulator, you experience an issue where the app will prompt you to setup a PIN every time app is launched. This is due to the underlying way Cordova access the Keychain. Either use a device, or enable Keychain Sharing in Capabilities of your project. See here for more information.

iPhone X support

Please see here for the steps to support iPhone X in your app.