How to crash a cordova ios app - ios

Question

I am trying to write a small sample of cordova ios application. One of my requirements is to provide a button/link to allow user to crash the application.
I have tried to raise exception in CDVUIWebViewNavigationDelegate.m as follows,
- (BOOL)webView:(UIWebView*)theWebView shouldStartLoadWithRequest:(NSURLRequest*)request navigationType:(UIWebViewNavigationType)navigationType
{
NSURL* url = [request URL];
if([url.path containsString:#"CRASH"])
{
NSLog(#"User crash bookmart with NSException");
NSMutableDictionary *userInfo = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
NSDate *current = [NSDate date];
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setTimeStyle:NSDateFormatterMediumStyle];
[dateFormatter setDateStyle:NSDateFormatterMediumStyle]; // Set date and time styles
[dateFormatter setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone localTimeZone]];
NSString *currentTime = [dateFormatter stringFromDate:current];
[userInfo setObject:#"Crash Time" forKey:currentTime];
NSException *ex = [[NSException alloc] initWithName:#"BookmartCrashException" reason:#"User crashed bookmart!" userInfo:userInfo];
[ex raise];
}
...
}
But when I tried, I saw following log,
2017-09-04 17:09:57.148 HRent[96124:12077045] User crash bookmart with NSException
2017-09-04 17:09:57.149 HRent[96124:12077045] *** WebKit discarded an uncaught exception in the >webView:decidePolicyForNavigationAction:request:frame:decisionListener: delegate: User crashed bookmart!
The exception has been discarded and app hasn't crash : (
Is there any other way to crash the app for sure? Or with some configuration can I disable WebKit to discard such exception?
Much appreciate for your answers!
Regards
Rachel

Answer 1

Thanks Everyone.
I have tried with all the suggestion except for plugin suggested by Will.
Overall, there are 2 ways to crash the app.
As Michale suggested, use abort() to terminate the app.
Here is the piece of code I used,
- (BOOL)webView:(UIWebView*)theWebView shouldStartLoadWithRequest:(NSURLRequest*)request navigationType:
(UIWebViewNavigationType)navigationType
{
NSURL* url = [request URL];
if([url.path containsString:#"CRASH"])
{
abort();
}
...
}
As shebuka's suggested, dispatch the exception on main thread. The trick here is that we can not use accessing nil array or dividing 0 to raise this exception but have to write I post in my question. Otherwise, the app won't crash and no log shown.
Here is the code piece I used,
- (BOOL)webView:(UIWebView*)theWebView shouldStartLoadWithRequest:(NSURLRequest*)request navigationType:
(UIWebViewNavigationType)navigationType
{
NSURL* url = [request URL];
if([url.path containsString:#"CRASH"])
{
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
NSLog(#"User crash bookmart with NSException");
NSMutableDictionary *userInfo = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
NSDate *current = [NSDate date];
NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
[dateFormatter setTimeStyle:NSDateFormatterMediumStyle];
[dateFormatter setDateStyle:NSDateFormatterMediumStyle]; // Set date and time styles
[dateFormatter setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone localTimeZone]];
NSString *currentTime = [dateFormatter stringFromDate:current];
[userInfo setObject:#"Crash Time" forKey:currentTime];
NSException *ex = [[NSException alloc] initWithName:#"BookmartCrashException" reason:#"User crashed bookmart!" userInfo:userInfo];
[ex raise];
});
} ...}
I am going to choose solution 2 cause this crashes app with an exception which fits my requirement better.
Thanks everyone.

Answer 2

Try to launch your exception with dispatch on the main thread:
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
NSInteger asd = 5 / 0; // Simple division by 0
});
If it works then try NSException approach to have all that extra info.

Answer 3

Have you tried abort() as in the default core data implementation example? It causes the application to generate a crash log and terminate.

Answer 4

The hockeyapp plugin provides functionality that allows you to crash an app. You can use this as a temporary solution until you figure out the problem.
hockeyapp.forceCrash():void
Check out the repository https://github.com/Microsoft/cordova-plugin-hockeyapp