Monday, April 2, 2012

Updates to my PhoneGap Plugins

If you've updated to PhoneGap 1.5.0 which is part of our move to the Apache Cordova name and the next step in becoming an official Apache project you've probably noticed a number of plugins have broken. The biggest problem is that a lot of Plugins used this.ctx as an Android Context. Unfortunately due to some internal code changes this.ctx is no longer a Context. Now you have to call this.ctx.getContext(). So I spent sometime updating the ChildBrowser, FtpClient, TTS and VideoPlayer plugins so they would work smoothly with PhoneGap/Cordova 1.5.0.

Also, thanks to some code submitted by Stephanie Sherriff (ssherriff on GitHub) the VideoPlayer plugin can now play files from your Android assets folder. The syntax is pretty simple as well.
window.plugins.videoPlayer.play("file:///android_asset/www/path/to/my/video.mp4");
at

30 comments:

  1. Michael TamonyApril 5, 2012 at 6:21 PM

    Simon do you know if people have had any success using your Video plugin with PhoneGap Build? I have it working in Cordova 1.5 on HTC Evo, but I want to deploy to other platforms. In reviewing the process I see that ChildBrowser is the only supported plugin.

    If it is supported do you know the ?

    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Simon MacDonaldApril 9, 2012 at 11:10 AM

    @Michael,

    You'll have to request for them to add it:

    http://community.phonegap.com/nitobi/products/nitobi_phonegap_build?from_gsfn=true

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sergi KolesnikApril 16, 2012 at 1:15 PM

    On the matter of cross-platform compatibility, how do you achieve this if you use platform specific plugins?

    On a separate note is there inApp purchase plugin for Android? There's plugin here https://github.com/luoihoc/CallbackBillingPlugin but haven't been updated for 5 months.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Simon MacDonaldApril 24, 2012 at 11:47 AM

    @Serhiy Kolesnyk

    Well, the native side has to be implemented in a different language so there isn't much re-use there but you can use the same JavaScript which is how you make things cross platform. Treat the plugin as a black box with the JavaScript as it's public API.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Michael TamonyMay 21, 2012 at 6:45 PM

    Simon,

    Do you know how to implement CB openExternal on Windows Phone? I have used the plugin files on GitHub. I had to change some stuff from PhoneGap to Cordova and now I'm at least getting it to build and open with showWebPage.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Simon MacDonaldMay 21, 2012 at 7:56 PM

    Sorry Michael, I do not. I have not touched Windows Phone development at this point.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Michael TamonyMay 21, 2012 at 8:04 PM

    You and 98% of the mobile development world.

    It was pretty simple to get it all going, but have gotten stuck with openExternal.

    ReplyDelete
  8. UnknownJune 21, 2012 at 3:12 AM

    hi Simon ,I　use the filetransfer download a mp3(audio) file on ios ,and the callback is successful ,however the downloaded mp3 file can't be played back; do u know why ?
    I use the full path directory ; like
    /var/mobile/.../documents/xxx.mp3 .
    the music file packaged in www is work fine。

    thanks

    ReplyDelete
  9. Simon MacDonaldJune 21, 2012 at 9:42 AM

    @juxiang peng

    Actually, I have no idea. I don't work with iOS that much.

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousJuly 19, 2012 at 10:53 AM

    Hi Simon,

    VideoPlayer Plugin On Android.If I Press One Button after video Playing then after how I reback to my screen.Please help me..

    Example Video play full screen If i touch the screen there Done button i press after goto previous screen

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousSeptember 20, 2012 at 12:42 PM

    I am very to see the Plugin now can play videos from the assets folder. It is a very great improvement.
    Just a question: Is there a way to place the player screen into a "div" or something like that, instead of see the video on fullscreen?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Simon MacDonaldSeptember 20, 2012 at 1:17 PM

    @Gabriel Mendez

    Sorry, there is no way to embed the video into a div or video tag right now.

    ReplyDelete
  13. UnknownOctober 31, 2012 at 2:22 PM

    HI Simon,
    I've installed your videoplay plugin as noted but when I test iton my android I get a blank page (no errors)so I wonder if I installed it wrong or used the wrong code.

    Do you have a sample page could look at?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Simon MacDonaldOctober 31, 2012 at 2:58 PM

    @Dave Armstrong

    You'll need to change the reference to phonegap.js but here is a quick example:

    https://dl.dropbox.com/u/887989/video.html

    ReplyDelete
  15. UnknownJanuary 11, 2013 at 7:03 AM

    hi Simon , i have used in-app purchase plugin for android , but its show me "item not found", i have provided the key, change salt, provide productID ...
    can you tell me any reason ???
    thanks

    ReplyDelete
  16. Simon MacDonaldJanuary 11, 2013 at 9:14 AM

    @zonaib siddiqui

    Sorry, I did not write and have never used that plugin.

    ReplyDelete
  17. UnknownJanuary 18, 2013 at 12:34 PM

    Hey Simon,

    @first, very nice Plugin :)

    But i always get an error, when i try to start a video. Logcat says: Path or file not found...
    ...and the path is definitly correct and the video is there.
    By the way, i developing on android 3.2 and cordova 2.2

    Thanks a lot!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Simon MacDonaldJanuary 20, 2013 at 11:34 PM

    @Michael Steinbacher

    Need more info.

    ReplyDelete
  19. UnknownJanuary 23, 2013 at 3:42 AM

    ... i try to play a video from the assets (no copy to the sdcard). To do this i have a html video tag with a onclick method. When i add a source tag, my app tries to play it, with the reported error.
    But when i remove the source tag, it seems to do nothing.
    The play method should executes your plugin.
    -> window.plugins.VideoPlayer.play("file:///android_asset/video/3e02.mp4");

    ...need more Infos?
    thanks

    ReplyDelete
  20. Simon MacDonaldJanuary 23, 2013 at 11:16 PM

    @Michael Steinbacher

    Yeah, the output from "adb logcat" would help. Not sure why you are using the video source tag as that is just going to confuse everything. Either use the video tag or the VideoPlayer plugin. However, the video tag doesn't work super great and does not play videos from the assets folder.

    ReplyDelete
  21. UnknownJanuary 25, 2013 at 3:18 AM

    Ok, now it works :D

    ... i created an a href tag to an empty page, where i call your plugin after device ready.

    Thanks for your help anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  22. AnonymousJune 29, 2013 at 4:39 AM

    Great work Simon, Thank you.

    I have this issue 'Sorry this video cannot be played'.
    my video path is:'file:///android_asset/www/v1.mp4'
    and I run your example in this link:https://gist.github.com/macdonst/1507162
    and I used your plugin version 2.2.0

    Also, can it work with updated cordava like 2.5 or 2.7 ?

    Thank you,

    ReplyDelete
  23. AnonymousJune 29, 2013 at 5:45 AM

    Simin, It works AFTER I tried sdcard path (play video from sdcard folder).

    But now there is some error which i couldn't find on google

    logcat:

    06-29 11:42:31.253: E/DX-PowerManager(16566): [WidgetUpdataService1x4] get dxhome err:android.content.pm.PackageManager$NameNotFoundException: com.dianxinos.dxhome
    06-29 11:42:31.253: E/DX-PowerManager(16566): [WidgetUpdataService1x4] get dxlauncher err:android.content.pm.PackageManager$NameNotFoundException: com.dianxinos.dxlauncher
    06-29 11:42:31.253: I/DX-PowerManager(16566): [WidgetUpdataService1x4] update Widget RemoteView : android.widget.RemoteViews@41505360

    So, what's your opinion ?

    ReplyDelete
  24. AnonymousJune 29, 2013 at 6:42 AM

    Sorry Simon, but i'm trying.

    The last error was gone, Without knowing the reason of it.
    But the video state is the same.

    video controls buttons disappears also no back/home .. buttons of device appear, and a lock image/shape is appearing in the top right of video screen.

    Now, I can't do anything on mobile or app till video finish at all. It must be finished then back to my app.

    I wish if i can share with you the video screen image.

    So, What can I do ?

    ReplyDelete
  25. Simon MacDonaldJuly 2, 2013 at 1:34 PM

    @amt

    Install a different video player app, use that one to play the video and see if that changes the behaviour.

    ReplyDelete
  26. AnonymousJuly 7, 2013 at 3:25 AM

    Dear Simon,

    Thank you for reply.
    I knew that this lock icon is from mobile device itself, and when you press power button it unlocked and video controls appear.

    Thank you very much.

    ReplyDelete
  27. AnonymousJuly 7, 2013 at 3:27 AM

    Also, I try to contact Phonegap google group, but i can't, my questions doesn't appear and no reply from admins.

    I'm new in Phonegap and need some help.

    Also, I sent my questions on stackoverflow but no response.

    Is there any way to get help ?

    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Simon MacDonaldJuly 7, 2013 at 11:50 AM

    @amt

    First post to the group is moderated. Once they get a chance to look over the poster to make sure they are not spammers your messages should show up.

    ReplyDelete
  29. AnonymousJuly 28, 2013 at 6:21 AM

    Thank you sir for reply,

    I wanted to ask if I can remove display screen of video plugin when i use it to play only sound ?

    sorry for disturbance,
    Thank you again

    ReplyDelete
  30. Simon MacDonaldJuly 28, 2013 at 1:29 PM

    @amt

    Why wouldn't you just use the Media class to play the sound then?

    http://docs.phonegap.com/en/3.0.0/cordova_media_media.md.html#Media

    ReplyDelete