Breaking changes in cordova-create about cordova-discuss

[dpogue]

Right now, §7 and §8 are major impediments to a sane implementation of #69. Even if we cannot reduce the existing functionality as much as I would want to, I would really appreciate some kind of consensus on these items before continuing with apache/cordova-create#8.

If we're doing this as a major version bump (which we would be for dropping node 4 support), then I'm in favour of saying we only support one template layout. We should also require template to have config.xml at the root instead of under www.

[raphinesse]

It seems it was planned to remove --link-to before #49 (comment). Support was then removed in apache/cordova-lib#456 and re-added in apache/cordova-create@79cace5 addressing https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CB-11623 which is still open because it apparently still not satisfies the reporter's requirements.

The reporter's requirements are to create a cordova project with www linking to some existing web app. This could be easily achieved by running

$ cordova create bin com.example.domain APPNAME
$ rm -r bin/www && ln -sr www bin/www

instead of

$ cordova create bin com.example.domain APPNAME --link-to=www

[raphinesse]

Right now, §7 and §8 are major impediments to a sane implementation of #69. Even if we cannot reduce the existing functionality as much as I would want to, I would really appreciate some kind of consensus on these items before continuing with apache/cordova-create#8.

Especially the need for renaming to .gitingore in cordova-create, combined with the linking feature (which I still would wanted to hear valid use cases for) are heavily conflicting.

[dpogue]

A few quick thoughts from skimming this, will try to give it a full read-through over the weekend.

§2 Drop support for reading configuration from <dir>/.cordova/config.json

I thought we had deprecated the .cordova directory a while back, but I still see a bunch of references to it in various bits of code (HooksRunner in cordova-lib being one example).

IMO we should completely remove any special handling for a .cordova folder in the project.

§4 Do not subscribe CordovaLogger to Cordova events

IMO if this is a module without a CLI executable, it should not subscribe CordovaLogger to the event stream. The event stream is meant so that loggers at the higher-level tools (like cordova-cli, or VS Taco) can receive logging output and handle it however they see fit.

§8 Drop support for linking

I've never used this feature, but I do see some value in it when developing templates. If it's not causing a maintenance burden, I'd slightly prefer to keep it around.

We similarly have a --link option when installing platforms and plugins to allow easier local development and testing within a project.

[raphinesse]

@dpogue Regarding §8

I have used the --link option for plugins and it is indeed useful. But that linked the whole plugin folder IIRC. The linking option of cordova-create only links a few items from the template. So if I would add a res folder next to www, it would not show up in the target.

Regarding maintenance: For its apparent use it's too much code IMO. With §7 it would be better and an implementation that just links the whole template would be even nicer of course.

[brodybits]

Right now, §7 and §8 are major impediments to a sane implementation of #69.

Agreed on my part.

Especially the need for renaming to .gitingore in cordova-create, combined with the linking feature (which I still would wanted to hear valid use cases for) are heavily conflicting.

Agreed, yes

[raphinesse]

I just updated §4. Should I make this a PR document to make it easier to track changes?

[brodybits]

I just updated §4. Should I make this a PR document to make it easier to track changes?

+1 on my part

[raphinesse]

Closed in favor of separate proposals