Ionic/Cordova: Add intent-filter using config.xml

Question

I'm developing a mobile app using Ionic Framework (based on Cordova).

In Android I register my app to open *.txt files. I do it adding intent-filter in platforms/android/AndroidManifest.xml and it works. But platform folder is in .gitignore: I want to do it using config.xml.

I tried adding in config.xml:

 <platform name="android">
    <config-file target="AndroidManifest.xml" parent="/*/application/activity">
      <intent-filter><!-- ... --></intent-filter>
    </config-file>
    <!-- ... -->
 </platform>

And I tried also adding:

 <platform name="android">
    <config-file target="AndroidManifest.xml" parent="/manifest/application">
      <activity android:name="CordovaApp"> 
        <intent-filter><!-- ... --></intent-filter>
      </activity>
    </config-file>
    <!-- ... -->
 </platform>

Then I tried to update AndroidManifest launching

ionic prepare

Or also:

ionic remove platform android && ionic add platform android

But AndroidManifest.xml is always unchanged. What am I doing wrong?

I'm using Ionic 1.3.2 and Cordova 4.2.0.

Edit Here the entire config.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<widget id="com.ionicframework.myapp551932" version="0.0.1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/ns/widgets" xmlns:cdv="http://cordova.apache.org/ns/1.0" xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
  <name>MyApp</name>
  <description>
        myApp
    </description>
  <author email="[email protected]" href="http://www.example.com/">
      A Team
    </author>
  <content src="index.html"/>
  <access origin="*"/>
  <preference name="webviewbounce" value="false"/>
  <preference name="UIWebViewBounce" value="false"/>
  <preference name="DisallowOverscroll" value="true"/>
  <preference name="BackupWebStorage" value="none"/>
  <preference name="SplashScreen" value="screen"/>
  <preference name="SplashScreenDelay" value="3000"/>
  <feature name="StatusBar">
    <param name="ios-package" value="CDVStatusBar" onload="true"/>
  </feature>
  <platform name="android">
    <config-file target="AndroidManifest.xml" parent="/manifest/application/activity">
      <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
        <data android:scheme="file" />
        <data android:mimeType="*/*" />
        <data android:pathPattern=".*\\.txt" />
        <data android:host="*" />
      </intent-filter>
      <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
        <data android:scheme="content" />
        <data android:pathPattern=".*\\.txt" />
        <data android:mimeType="*/*" />
      </intent-filter>
    </config-file>
    <icon src="resources/android/icon/drawable-ldpi-icon.png" density="ldpi"/>
    <icon src="resources/android/icon/drawable-mdpi-icon.png" density="mdpi"/>
    <icon src="resources/android/icon/drawable-hdpi-icon.png" density="hdpi"/>
    <icon src="resources/android/icon/drawable-xhdpi-icon.png" density="xhdpi"/>
    <icon src="resources/android/icon/drawable-xxhdpi-icon.png" density="xxhdpi"/>
    <icon src="resources/android/icon/drawable-xxxhdpi-icon.png" density="xxxhdpi"/>
    <splash src="resources/android/splash/drawable-land-ldpi-screen.png" density="land-ldpi"/>
    <splash src="resources/android/splash/drawable-land-mdpi-screen.png" density="land-mdpi"/>
    <splash src="resources/android/splash/drawable-land-hdpi-screen.png" density="land-hdpi"/>
    <splash src="resources/android/splash/drawable-land-xhdpi-screen.png" density="land-xhdpi"/>
    <splash src="resources/android/splash/drawable-land-xxhdpi-screen.png" density="land-xxhdpi"/>
    <splash src="resources/android/splash/drawable-land-xxxhdpi-screen.png" density="land-xxxhdpi"/>
    <splash src="resources/android/splash/drawable-port-ldpi-screen.png" density="port-ldpi"/>
    <splash src="resources/android/splash/drawable-port-mdpi-screen.png" density="port-mdpi"/>
    <splash src="resources/android/splash/drawable-port-hdpi-screen.png" density="port-hdpi"/>
    <splash src="resources/android/splash/drawable-port-xhdpi-screen.png" density="port-xhdpi"/>
    <splash src="resources/android/splash/drawable-port-xxhdpi-screen.png" density="port-xxhdpi"/>
    <splash src="resources/android/splash/drawable-port-xxxhdpi-screen.png" density="port-xxxhdpi"/>
  </platform>
  <icon src="resources/android/icon/drawable-xhdpi-icon.png"/>
</widget>

Answer 1

Resolved!

I can't do it using Ionic or Cordova: it's a PhoneGap feature (see this Stackoverflow answer)

I can do it in two other ways:

1. Using a custom Cordova plugin
2. Using a hook

I prefered the second way. I found an interesting hook for my purposes. Note: Rembember to install some packages:

npm install lodash elementtree plist --save-dev

Sadly this hook merges tags. So I wrote a little changed version of this hook: see here. You can put this hook in /hooks/after_platform_add.

Now I have my intent-filter configuration in config.xml:

  <platform name="android">
    <config-file target="AndroidManifest.xml" parent="application/activity">
      <intent-filter><!-- ... --></intent-filter>
    </config-file>
    <!-- ... -->
  </platform>

And I can update AndroidManifest.xml regenerating android platform:

ionic platform remove android && ionic platform add android

Answer 2

Cordova 9 now directly supports using <config-file> and <edit-config> sections, like in plugin.xml files.

Without using any plugin or hook, you can directly do the following, for example, to add an intent filter to AndroidManifest.xml:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<widget id="yourdomain.app" version="1.7.8" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/ns/widgets" xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" xmlns:cdv="http://cordova.apache.org/ns/1.0">
    <!-- ... -->
    <platform name="android">
        <!-- ... -->
        <config-file parent="application" target="AndroidManifest.xml">
            <activity android:label="webIntentFilter" android:name="yourdomain.app">
                <intent-filter android:autoVerify="true">
                    <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
                    <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
                    <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
                    <data android:host="yourdomain.com" android:scheme="https" />
                </intent-filter>
            </activity>
        </config-file>
    </platform>
    <!-- ... -->
</widget>

Don't forget to add attribute xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" into your <widget> tag to avoid unbound prefix error at build.