cordova/phonegap does not make android directory

Question

ant, java, node.js, phonegap, and my adobe account are all setup properly. The getting started guide says I should be able to type:

cordova create hello com.example.hello "HelloWorld"

to create a phonegap project. This does not work but following these instructions and doing:

phonegap build android

does eventually get me a .apk file. But the getting started guide tells me to open eclipse and navigate to the directory of my project and then set the subdirectory as /android. but /android does not get created when you do phonegap build android so I have nothing to work with.

How do I get phonegap to create the android directory? I am trying to finish the getting started guide instead of taking shortcuts.

Answer 1

It does seem like you are using PhoneGap 3.0 and for this version, eclipse is not required (only if you want to use it for coding - compared to PhoneGap 1.0-2.x where eclipse was used to compiled the app, for the latest version it is no longer a requirement).

1. To begin, you should use the phonegap command instead of the cordova command: phonegap create hello com.example.hello "HelloWorld"

2. Then navigate to /HelloWorld/ folder

3. You should see atleast these two key folders /www and /platforms. Inside /www is where you place your HTML files and codes, and /platforms/android gets generated when you compile the app with the following command: phonegap build android.

Note: Avoid making any direct changes to files inside /platforms except for config and manifest files. The other files are dynamically generated when you run the build command. All coding should take place within /www.

One more thing, use the 3.0.0 Getting Started guide.

---- February 2014 Update ----

With the release of Cordova 3.3.0, it seems the PhoneGap team is trying to address the naming confusion. The documentations have been updated to recommend people using the cordova command instead. Do not use the phonegap command anymore.

Here is a fresh installation guide for a guaranteed trouble free set up:

1. Install Cordova (forget the name PhoneGap from now on). For PC:

   C:> npm install -g cordova

2. From command prompt, navigate to the folder you want to create your project using:

   cordova create hello com.example.hello HelloWorld
   cd HelloWorld

3. Define the OS you want to suppport, we'll go with Android for this example:

   cordova platform add android

4. Install plugins (If needed). For example we want the following:

   cordova plugin add org.apache.cordova.device
   cordova plugin add org.apache.cordova.camera
   cordova plugin add org.apache.cordova.media-capture
   cordova plugin add org.apache.cordova.media
   

5. Finally, generate the app using:

   cordova build android

   or to directly install the app to your connected device:

   cordova run android

Here is a link to the PhoneGapCordova 3.3.0 Documentation http://docs.phonegap.com/en/3.3.0/guide_cli_index.md.html#The%20Command-Line%20Interface

Answer 2

First of all, you should be using phonegap instead of cordova to create the project folder structure.

phonegap create hello com.example.hello "HelloWorld"

And secondly, please note that build command uses two way to build for any specific platform. One using the phonegap build API (online) using the below command

phonegap build android

and second one locally using below command,

phonegap local build android

So you should try to use the second command for creating the android specific folder and use it with eclipse. You can look for more details over here http://docs.phonegap.com/en/3.0.0/guide_cli_index.md.html#The%20Command-line%20Interface

When you run the build local command, android folder is created inside the platforms folder, and you should always modify the code(html, js, css) on the www folder present outside the platforms folder. The changes will get reflected once you again run the build command. This helps you maintain single code base for multiple platform ( which is the basis aim of using Phonegap)

Note: you need to have latest android sdk tools (vs18) to run on Android SDK.