Cordova / Phonegap: Live update codebase

cordova-app-loader is an easy to use plugin to update app files via 3 simple steps:

1. check() for a new manifest
2. download() files
3. update() your app!

It supports android and iOS

I don't know of any ready made solutions for that, but it should be easy enough to program something like this on your own.Here are some points to get you started and to consider:

• If you want to distribute updates via zip, you need a nativ plugin which handles the extraction
• You might not be able to override files in the default location of your app (depending on OS). So, all files you want to update in the future have to sit in a folder your app has read/write access to (iOS: e.g. Library or Documents folder)
• Now you simply need to download the zip-package, unpack the zip to your chosen directory, and restart/reload your app.
• you will not be able to update native plugins!
• Apple probably doesn't like that, since you are able to change the whole application without passingtheir review process

I'm doing this inside my cordova app and haven't had any issues with ios app store review.

I'm using Jquery's ajax function to download both a javascript and a css file from a server that I can change without an app store approval and then I can inject those scripts once they downloaded on app startup.

I tried using the cordova File api and I'd then save the file locally, but offline support ins't the important to me at the moment and Jquery's ajax is much simpler.

Here is the jquery code I use. I have a bundle id that I use to detect if a new javascript file is available, otherwise jquery's ajax caches the previous requests to speed up download time.

This solution lets you have a subset of your code be dynamic. I still have a base set of code that is bundled with the app, along with native plugin js and native code which would need to go through the app store. But this atleast lets me push bug fixes without going through the app store.

Otherwise, I'd look at a solution like this: http://docs.build.phonegap.com/en_US/tools_hydration.md.html

function insertScript(version) {    var scriptUrl = "";    try {        // get javascript file...        scriptUrl = mobileWebServiceUrl + "/DynamicContent/Bundles/Scripts/dynamic";        scriptUrl += "_" + bundleVersion.replace(/\./g, "_") + ".js?v=" + version;        console.log("downloading script: " + scriptUrl);        // Allow user to set any option except for dataType, cache, and url        options = {            dataType: "script",            cache: true,            url: scriptUrl        };        // Use $.ajax() since it is more flexible than $.getScript        // Return the jqXHR object so we can chain callbacks        return $.ajax(options).success(function(response) {            console.log("insertScript success");            dynamicContentScriptLoaded = true;        });    } catch (e) {        //console.error(e);        ReportError("problem downloading javscript: " + scriptUrl);    }}function insertCSS(version) {    try {        // get css file...        var cssUrl = mobileWebServiceUrl + "/DynamicContent/Bundles/Css/dynamic";        cssUrl += "_" + bundleVersion.replace(/\./g, "_") + ".css?v=" + version;        console.log("downloading dynamic css: " + cssUrl);        $.ajax(cssUrl)            .success(function (response) {                console.log("successfully downloaded dynamic css");                var script = document.createElement("style");                script.type = "text/css";                script.innerHTML = response;                $('head link').each(function () {                    if ($(this).attr('href').search('MobileFrame') > -1) {                        $("#MobileFrameCSS").before(script);                    }                });                dynamicContentCssLoaded = true;                // TODO: implement caching at a later date                //if (isPhoneGap())                //    saveFile("DynamicStyles", response);            });    } catch (e) {        ReportError("problem downloading css");    }}