Difference between PhoneGap and Cordova and which one should we install?

Question

I have been tasked with developing an Android and iOS application with PhoneGap (http://phonegap.com/)

However, as I read, things start to get really complicated: Some people say Cordova (http://cordova.apache.org/) is now PhoneGap, others say PhoneGap is just a distribution of PhoneGap.I lost 3 days and still can't find a proper way or a guide to install a fully functional PhoneGap plugin either in Eclipse or Netbeans running Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit.

What I tried: 1. Installing Eclipse, installing MDS AppLaud Phonegap Plugin (http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/applaud-phonegap-android-jslintjshint#.Utf1JPiSTh8). This one actually installed at once, and it actually lets me create a new PhoneGap project in Eclipse, however, the I cannot select any SDK different than 4.4. (?!) 2. Installed NetBeans and after I tried to install phonegap and cordove through nodeJS it failed, again.

My question is: Which one I should install and how to do it in Ubuntu, using either Eclipse of NetBeans?!

Edit: OK guys, I just found out how to install nodeJS and PhoneGap on Ubuntu 12.04: http://paste2.org/1OnX6M6F . Still trying to integrate it in some IDE for the real thing, though!

Answer 1

If you want to basically start developing an app, I suggest this for PhoneGap:

These are the steps I used to install PhoneGap on Ubuntu. Take note, this is for PhoneGap version 2.8.1. Personally I was not able to get nodeJS to install the latest. If you need the latest to be installed, check around on google. Referencing This tutorial.

Step 1 Install Java 7 JDK

Step 2 Install ANT

Step 3 Download & Extract PG v2.8.1

Step 4 Download Android SDK

Step 5 Set up environment variables

Step 6 Create base project

./create location/to/put/project package_name project_name

Step 7 Import Project into Eclipse

• File->New->Android->Android Project From Existing Code
• Browse to where you placed the project and select it

Now you can start developing.

Reminder: This is the way to do it for v2.8.1 of PhoneGap. Different versions(especially 3.*) will be different (nodeJS)