multi-device hybrid app fails to build - The certificate specified has expired

Question

I started playing around with deploying a multi-device hybrid app. today. I am not sure the exact steps I took whilst doing this, but now when I try to build for windows 8 I get the following:

Error 3 The certificate specified has expired. For more information about renewing certificates, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=241478. [D:\dev\client\source\myApp\bld\Debug\platforms\windows8\CordovaApp.jsproj]
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v12.0\AppxPackage\Microsoft.AppXPackage.Targets
1772

There doesn't seem to be any way to configure or renew test certificates for this type of project.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

Another way to fix this issue in CPT3.0 is to replace CordovaApp_TemporaryKey.pfx under

%userprofile%\.cordova\lib\npm_cache\cordova-windows\3.6.4\package\template\CordovaApp_TemporaryKey.pfx with the latest one from here.

Once you've downloaded the file, just rename it to CordovaApp_TemporaryKey.pfx

This way you do not have to copy the certificate every time you create new project.

Answer 2

Due to a coding error, the Windows Cordova platform has a temporary key in it that expired on 11/11/2014. Microsoft is actively working with the community on a long term fix. To work around this issue, create a Windows Store project (WWA), take the “_TemporaryKey.pfx” from the Windows Store project, and put it in your Tools for Apache Cordova project in following location: • CTP 1 or 2: res/cert/windows8/CordovaApp_TemporaryKey.pfx • CTP 3: res/native/windows/CordovaApp_TemporaryKey.pfx

This post by MS Open Tech has details and a certificate that you can download.