edit-config removes tags in my AndroidManifest.xml

Question

I added an edit-config directive to my project's config.xml, and now every time I run 'cordova run android', another line is removed from the file being edited.

Here's my edit-config:

    <platform name="android">
        ...
        <edit-config file="AndroidManifest.xml" mode="merge" target="/manifest/application">
            <application android:allowBackup="false" />
        </edit-config>
    </platform>

How can I get this to work without removing a tag every time I call 'cordova run android'?

I suspect this is a bug, but I haven't found other instances of it - I'd be happy to report it if I had a better understanding of how to create it.

Answer 1

I've encountered similar problems when trying to use <edit-config> to change attributes on the <application> element. It seems Cordova overwrites the changes made by <edit-config> when it applies it's own default change to the <application> element, i.e. to set android:label, etc.

My workaround has been to use an after_prepare hook script to apply the changes after Cordova has finished making its changes. In your case, you'd want something like this:

config.xml

<platform name="android">
  ...
  <hook type="after_prepare" src="scripts/set_allowBackup.js" />
  ...
</platform>

scripts/set_allowBackup.js:

#!/usr/bin/env node

var TARGET_ATTRIBUTE = 'android:allowBackup';
var TARGET_VALUE = TARGET_ATTRIBUTE+'="false"';
var TARGET_REGEX = new RegExp(TARGET_ATTRIBUTE+'="([^"]+)"');

module.exports = function(context) {

  var fs = context.requireCordovaModule('fs'),
      path = context.requireCordovaModule('path');

  var platformRoot = path.join(context.opts.projectRoot, 'platforms/android');
  var manifestFile = path.join(platformRoot, 'AndroidManifest.xml');

  if (fs.existsSync(manifestFile)) {
    fs.readFile(manifestFile, 'utf8', function (err, data) {
      if (err) {
        throw new Error('Unable to find AndroidManifest.xml: ' + err);
      }

      var result;
      if(!data.match(TARGET_ATTRIBUTE)) {
        result = data.replace(/<application/g, '<application ' + TARGET_VALUE);
      }else if (data.match(TARGET_REGEX) && !data.match(TARGET_VALUE)){
        result = data.replace(TARGET_REGEX, TARGET_VALUE);
      }

      if(result){
        fs.writeFile(manifestFile, result, 'utf8', function (err) {
          if (err) throw new Error('Unable to write AndroidManifest.xml: ' + err);
        })
      }
    });
  }
};

---

Another alternative is to use cordova-custom-config which applies changes after_prepare by default:

Add the plugin:

cordova plugin add cordova-custom-config

Set the custom preference in config.xml:

<platform name="android">
  ...
  <custom-preference name="android-manifest/application/@android:allowBackup" value="false" />
  ...
</platform>