PhoneGap Build vs PhoneGap Documentation

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Many new users do not realize the difference between PhoneGap Build and just PhoneGap. Frequently they will end up looking at documentation for PhoneGap and not even realize that it doesn't apply to PGB. It doesn't help that the documentation screens for both use the same gray with a black title bar color scheme. It would be helpful if pages specific to PGB were more visually distinct. Also, when a user is on the main Docs page (at http://docs.build.phonegap.com/en_US/) and they click on the link that says "PhoneGap Documentation" display a message that warns them that they are leaving "build.phonegap.com" and mentions that some things that they read might be different for PGB.
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John Weidner, Champion

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Posted 6 years ago

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Amir

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+1

Waiting for other voters...
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Erny

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I will also add that the docs NEED an area where it explains how to configure and build a simple one page app and test it. An easy beginners guide with ONLY what is needed and explanations. Phonegap Build is for web-developers not app developers and most of us only know js php html css and other web languages and don't really use the command line interface to build. Using dreamweaver or brackets.

Otherwise, the service is great and the support is amazing! Thanks guys!
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Amir

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Special thanks to our champions for their great contribution to the community!

@John Weidner
@Petra V.
@Eddyverbruggen (plugins)
(Edited)
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Andres

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That is correct, to be honest, every single time I search for some Phonegap feature, I immediately land in the docs.phonegap.com site and I don't know whether to close the page or remain there.

I've been working for over a month now with Cordova CLI for quick deployment+testing and I plan to use Phonegap Build for public releases. Of course I'll have to test everything again, doubling the testing time required.

I always assume I can trust the Phonegap docs reference, but I noticed it is critically outdated, they don't even mention Windows Phone in sections like the config.xml page.
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Jeff

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+1

similar experience. have created my application with cordova tools and was hoping to use phonegap build for ease of building and deployment to ios and windows test devices.

I haven't gotten it to work yet, but looks like the templates for cordova and even the phonegap cli creates the config.xml at the root of the project (outside of the /www directory), but phonegap build is expecting that file in the /www directory.

That seems to be a weird discrepency. Why not keep this core component of the process in a common location?
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Petra V., Champion

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Why not keep this core component of the process in a common location?
Common between...what? Many developers who use PGB don't have something like a /www directory. Why would such developers install node, java, phonegap and plugins first...and then use an online tool that doesn't require any of that?

Developers using PGB simply write a web application, using their favorite code editor, starting with an index.html at their root directory, then add a config file and finally zip up the lot. No need to move any file to another directory.

Are you proposing that such PGB developers now must have a config file outside of their root directory, just because some local tool used by others generates such structure by default?
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Jeff

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@Petra V. Common to how a PhoneGap application is built, and for that matter any other Cordova based application.

PGB should have the config file outside of the www directory because 1) that is common among all the similar tools and 2) config.xml is detail that is not important to the website only to the build tool.
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John Weidner, Champion

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Maybe PGB should just look for a config.xml in the www first and then if they don't find one there look to see if there is one in the root. I know the way I zip up my www folder I end up with a zip file that contains the www folder itself not just the contents of the www folder and PGB seems to handle that fine.
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Petra V., Champion

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According to the PGB docs, the default icon.png must be in the root.
How do you reference that icon, if the config.xml itself is in subdirectory /www? Do you specify
<Icon src="../icon.png"/>
?
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John Weidner, Champion

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No
<icon src="icon.png" />
the icon.png, config.xml, and index.html are all in the root of the www folder. All file references inside of the config.xml are specified relative to www folder.

Just to be clear what I am doing... I am using Windows. To create my zip file I click on PGB's Upload button, browse to the directory where my project is, right click on the www directory and select "Send To" and pick "Compressed zip file". Then I select that zip file as what I want to upload. So if I open that zip file, I see that it contains a www folder and inside the www folder is my index.html, config.xml, and icon.png plus other directories that I use like css and js.
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Petra V., Champion

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Thanks John. I understand, now.
But if your zip file only contains /www with all contents, and nothing outside /www, what is that directory for? It just sounds like an unnecessary container layer inside the zip file, right?
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John Weidner, Champion

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Yes. I was surprised to see that windows creates it like that.
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Petra V., Champion

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It's not really surprising, I think. You told Windows to create a zip file of your /www, not just the contents of /www.

If you had first opened /www and selected all (ctrl-a) before picking 'send as zip', then you would send a zip file without the /www "shell", which is exactly what I am sending to PGB.