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  1. Apache Cordova
  2. CB-11795

Introduce cordovaDependencies to all core plugins

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    • Task
    • Status: Closed
    • Major
    • Resolution: Done
    • None
    • None
    • AllPlugins

    Description

      We've been researching ways to prevent cordova workflow breakages, caused by installing edge versions of the plugins, which possibly could be incompatible with cordova version, used by user. This is IMO a very nasty sort of problems, because it might cause unpredictable build- and runtime failures of cordova setup which has been working perfectly previously.

      A typical example of this scenario is when some plugin introduces a change incompatible w/ some particular cordova version and doesn't update cordovaDependencies property in its' package.json correspondingly.

      To prevent such breakages and avoid negative user experience I propose to start using cordovaDependencies in core plugins in a following way:

      1. For every plugin we maintain, we add `cordovaDependencies` to its'
        package.json w/ the following entry
            CURRENT_PLUGIN_VERSION: { cordova: >= LATEST_SUPPORTED_CORDOVA_VERSION }
        

        We will try to determine the LATEST_SUPPORTED_CORDOVA_VERSION based on release
        notes and most significant changes in plugins, but probably we can safely use 6.1.0 here because new version choosing logic for plugin add was introduced in this version and older versions of cordova will not use cordovaDependencies anyway.
        Also for some plugins adding such entry doesn't make sense because they will work with any version of cordova, so for these plugins this step could be omitted.

      2. For every plugin we add additional 'protective' entry
            NEXT_MAJOR_PLUGIN_VERSION: { cordova: >= 100 }
        

        There are 2 purposes for this:

      • if there is a major plugin update that potentially would broke compatibility
        with some cordova versions, this will protect users against installing this
        major update, unless plugin maintainers update `cordovaDependencies` by adding
        corresponding entry for this plugin version.
        In other words, if we've introduced a breaking change and forgot to update cordovaDependencies correspondingly to reflect that the change requires a specific cordova version, user will not get this plugin update.
      • By some reason without such 'protective' entry in case if NEXT_MAJOR_PLUGIN_VERSION gets released without adding corresponding entry to cordovaDependencies (i.e. we don't have any restrictions for this version in cordovaDependencies) - cordova will fetch that version without any checks.
        This is sounds non-obviously for me and probably there is some reason behind installing plugin version, which we can't verify requirements for, but this is how it works.
        3. When we introduce a change that requires us to change plugin version to NEXT_MAJOR_PLUGIN_VERSION, we go and fix cordovaDependencies by changing
        cordova requirement for NEXT_MAJOR_PLUGIN_VERSION to actual value instead of 100 and introducing
        ANOTHER_NEXT_MAJOR_PLUGIN_VERSION: { cordova: >= 100 }}}
        

        entry.

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            vladimir.kotikov Vladimir Kotikov
            vladimir.kotikov Vladimir Kotikov
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              Updated:
              Resolved: