Apache Cordova: Difference between browser and www platform

Question

If I type on my console:

cordova platform ls

I get the following list for platforms:

Installed platforms:
  
Available platforms: 
  android ~6.3.0
  blackberry10 ~3.8.0 (deprecated)
  browser ~5.0.0
  ios ~4.5.1
  osx ~4.0.1
  ubuntu ~4.3.4 (deprecated)
  webos ~3.7.0
  windows ~5.0.0
  www ^3.12.0

But I cannot understand the difference between www platform and browser platform. The both seem to me that serve the very same purpose: Run cordova apps via the web.

But on a second thought it may be something slightly different. What is the reason for the two platforms? As fas as I look on documentation it says-documents mostly mobile platforms such as:

• Windows phone
• iOs
• Android
• Blackberry 10

Answer 1

I don't think www is a valid platform and it shows up in the list of available platforms because of a bug somewhere in the cordova-cli.

If you have a look at the supported platforms of the latest docs there is no mention of www. I do not know where version 3.12.0 comes from exactly, but one thing related to cordova and this version I found is that the latest version of cordova-app-hello-world is 3.12.0. If it would be a valid platform there would also be a github repo for it which is not present. So I suggest you just use the browser platform.

Answer 2

It could show if you are using ionic, www is the ionic build for ionic serve