I'm a longtime Windows desktop developer (25+ years) who has been doing native Blackberry 10 mobile development for 18 months. For my next app I have to hit as many mobile platforms as possible and have decided on Cordova (NOT PhoneGap) for the job.
I have successfully built and deployed a test app on Blackberry 10 and Android with the Cordova CLI. Now I need to get the workflow for iOS figured out before I start actually coding the real app so I can test on all platforms as I go along. I have OSX Mavericks running in a VMware VM from Windows 8.1 and have Xcode installed on OSX. I'm only slightly knowledgeable in OSX, but I know that I must use it to build for iOS. What I'm trying to figure out is how much duplication of effort I have to expend within OSX to build for iOS. I suspect the challenges would be the same if I was using a physical Mac to package and test for iOS so hopefully there are others out there who have figured out the cleanest way to do this.
Can I use Cordova on Windows to create the iOS project and source or do I have to create a duplicate project platform using Cordova on the Mac and keep duplicate source code there too? If I can do all that from Windows, do I just copy it over to Mavericks after every Cordova build and use Xcode to package and run it in an emulator? If anyone out there is running OSX in a VM for this like I am, is it possible to map a host path into OSX so I don't have to recreate the platform source at all after I build it from Windows? I'm assuming there is not way to automate the whole thing from Windows Cordova like there is for the Android and Blackberry platforms, am I wrong?
My desire is to do ALL coding in Windows and only use Maverick for the final bundling for iOS. After 25 years of pro development I'm not used to being a complete newbie and I'm not crazy about it. LOL
Learn Mac OS X. I know you feel out of sorts in this environment, but honestly -- it's not that difficult. In fact, I made the transition from Windows 7 rather than upgrading to Windows 8, and I was comfortable very quickly. (Far more comfortable than I am with a Windows 8 laptop others in my family use.)
Remember that Mac OS X is a Unix underneath (BSD). This means that if you are in any way familiar with Linux or Unix but are put off by working with the Mac GUI, you can almost always fall back to the terminal. (In my not-so-humble opinion, Mac OS X makes for a very nice *nix machine!)
Your VM should be able to share drives across the network, just like it would if it were a real machine (Apple supports SMB reasonably well). This way both environments could point to the same Cordova project without having to worry about copies. (You can copy the projects around, but it would be easier, in my opinion, just to share across the network. Less risk of accidentally doing something stupid.)
The only things that require a Mac are:
Creation of certificates / provisioning profiles (and there are ways around this on Windows, but it is not supported)
Submission to the app store
Remote debugging using Safari (You can use Weinre to come close, but it doesn't support breakpoints and such)
Local compilation of your code (and there are other toolchains available that do this on other OSes, but again, not supported by Cordova).
Running the app in a simulator
The above means that you can develop your app on Windows and only run to the VM for compilation / submission. With the advent of the Phonegap Developer app (http://app.phonegap.com), you can skip the (re)build step during development and testing as well (as long as you use only core plugins).
Note: I know you indicate you are using Cordova and NOT PhoneGap. What's nice is that, ATM, the Phonegap Developer App works just fine with Cordova projects (whereas PG Build often requires config.xml to be moved and plugins to be handled differently). It does require the PhoneGap CLI to be installed. As long as you are using core plugins, it definitely saves time by eliminating the rebuild steps.
The Cordova project can be created on any platform -- but I know there was a time when adding the iOS platform to your project (cordova platform add ios) would check that all pre-reqs were met, but I'm not sure if that is still the case. It can't hurt to try. But if it is required, use a network share and add the platform on the VM. Keep in mind that the platforms should be thought of as build artifacts -- your app code should live in the root www, which doesn't depend on the added platforms.
Do not rely on the iOS Simulator to tell you anything about how the app works or performs on a real device. The simulator has all the power of your desktop (processor speed, memory, etc.) and lacks many on-device features as well. I suspect the visual performance of the iOS Simulator will be horrid, since it will rely on the GPU as routed through the VM. (Frankly, it's not always great on a real Mac.) You really, really, really must have a real device to test on. (Again, the PhoneGap Developer App can ease the pain of repeat deployments for testing.)
Related
We are starting to work with react-native at my company. We have one mac and the rest of the team is running on windows.
Is there a way to write the app on windows with the ios device connected to the windows machine or local wifi. Then launch the build on the mac (from the windows pc) and get the app launched on the ios device ? So it would like using the mac only as a build/package server.
Hope i am clear enought.
Thanks.
We can launch the build on windows using Virtual Machine, the detailed steps for doing that can be found in the following link:
https://blog.udemy.com/xcode-on-windows/
Honest advice
The functionality of developing IOS apps on windows is something that Apple intentionally wants to block and hence tries to give you hard time doing that by purposeful hindrances in the software that slow you down in such attempts.
To do that, you will need to install Xcode, which requires MacOS, which you would have to install on a virtual machine if you ever want to use on windows, which itself is against the apple terms and policy
So, even if it works, you wouldn't be smoothly developing in such blocked environment. So I believe it isn't worth spending time on.
I am writing this since I have tried it myself, and want to help you to not waste your time. Since most websites during search including on youtube, this subject is for clickbait with videos with more dislikes than likes. The most you can get is the following
Use cloud services like MacInCloud, MacStadium, XcodeClub ( They are expensive )
Install MacOS on virtual machine like VirtualBox or Vmware ( Apple intentionally hinders such activities and you will have hard time installing it let alone using it for bearable development )
Build and use hackintosh ( expensive, I prefer buying mac )
I hope this saves your time
You should explore the option of running macOS in VMWare on Windows machines for building purposes.
EDIT:
Now using:
expo build:android
expo build:ios
Way simpler.
Old question, but for’people who are still searching for an easy solution, take a look at https://appcenter.ms
App center let you to build iOS app in the cloud, it’s free (unless you need lot of builds), easy (you just need to know how provisioning profile and certificate works and host your code on a online fit repo).
We use it to build and deploy app on iOS and android for 3 year (even if we work on Mac)
We only have 2 main issues: it’s slow 30 minutes for an iOS build, and not extremely stable. Sometime we need to relaunch build 3-5 times.
Well, you can setup a virtual machine.
Install VM Ware software and add MacOS image to run the operating system.
Then setup Xcode and build the react native iOS app.
I'm developing native apps but I have a Windows pc. Is there an actual way to build iOS apps on Windows? And can I run an ios emulator on Windows? I researched but I can't find an actual way.
I tried to install MacOS Sierra on Virtual Box but it consistently restarting.
Do I need both to build it?
NativeScript CLI & Sidekick support cloud build that would help you build your app from a Windows machine, basically the source code is uploaded to a remote machine and built there, then you could directly run the package on your local iOS device.
But unfortunately it is not possible to run the iOS Simulator on Windows at all, which is a limitation from Apple.
I haven't used it before, but apparently you can do so using Nativescript Sidekick.
Yes, flutter is the key to do it,
But I don't recommend it because its still in beta state and to implement it you need to learn a new language i.e dart which feels similar to Java at start but is actually very different also you won find any book or tutorials.
While their is 1 more solution
You can download McOs virtual machine but it would be very slow, recommended only if you have a powerful computer
I am new to mobile development, working on my first app for both iOS and Android. I was under the impression that I can develop it through Ionic once (on my Linux system) and deploy it for both, but recently found out I need to develop on a Mac for iOS?
Like this guy said to someone equally unimpressed:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/38117802/8494414
Also stated here:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/40779188/8494414
My question is, at which stage do I need a Mac? Can I do all the development on my system and then just deploy with a Mac? Did I need to do something special from the get-go to support iOS? I am already rather deep in the process, but should I be considering a different framework?
I do find it strange that this knowledge doesn't seem very explicitly available.
Thank you for any help!
If you want to do a build for the iOS platform you will always need a macOS based operating system with xcode installed at some point. You can do all the coding on your linux machine as the hybrid part will be the same for all platforms. But if you want to test or deploy the iOS version of your app you will need either a mac or you will have to use some third party service where you can upload your sourcecode and you get a ready for install .ipa back. Ionic itself offers a service like that: see Ionic Package Service
As joshmorony said on his blog:
In order to compile an iOS application using Cordova, you need the iOS
SDK, which is only possible if you have a Mac and XCode. This is not
an issue for Android because the Android SDK can be installed on both
Windows and Mac. If you are not using a Mac, you simply can not create
iOS builds.
you can also use some virtual machines but they can be illegal and I don't recommend them
We are starting to work with react-native at my company. We have one mac and the rest of the team is running on windows.
Is there a way to write the app on windows with the ios device connected to the windows machine or local wifi. Then launch the build on the mac (from the windows pc) and get the app launched on the ios device ? So it would like using the mac only as a build/package server.
Hope i am clear enought.
Thanks.
We can launch the build on windows using Virtual Machine, the detailed steps for doing that can be found in the following link:
https://blog.udemy.com/xcode-on-windows/
Honest advice
The functionality of developing IOS apps on windows is something that Apple intentionally wants to block and hence tries to give you hard time doing that by purposeful hindrances in the software that slow you down in such attempts.
To do that, you will need to install Xcode, which requires MacOS, which you would have to install on a virtual machine if you ever want to use on windows, which itself is against the apple terms and policy
So, even if it works, you wouldn't be smoothly developing in such blocked environment. So I believe it isn't worth spending time on.
I am writing this since I have tried it myself, and want to help you to not waste your time. Since most websites during search including on youtube, this subject is for clickbait with videos with more dislikes than likes. The most you can get is the following
Use cloud services like MacInCloud, MacStadium, XcodeClub ( They are expensive )
Install MacOS on virtual machine like VirtualBox or Vmware ( Apple intentionally hinders such activities and you will have hard time installing it let alone using it for bearable development )
Build and use hackintosh ( expensive, I prefer buying mac )
I hope this saves your time
You should explore the option of running macOS in VMWare on Windows machines for building purposes.
EDIT:
Now using:
expo build:android
expo build:ios
Way simpler.
Old question, but for’people who are still searching for an easy solution, take a look at https://appcenter.ms
App center let you to build iOS app in the cloud, it’s free (unless you need lot of builds), easy (you just need to know how provisioning profile and certificate works and host your code on a online fit repo).
We use it to build and deploy app on iOS and android for 3 year (even if we work on Mac)
We only have 2 main issues: it’s slow 30 minutes for an iOS build, and not extremely stable. Sometime we need to relaunch build 3-5 times.
Well, you can setup a virtual machine.
Install VM Ware software and add MacOS image to run the operating system.
Then setup Xcode and build the react native iOS app.
How to make an IOS App with cordova on Windows 10? I just looked here on the official site https://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/2.5.0/guide/getting-started/ios/. It says that you need an iMac! Do you realy need it? What for? Cant you just download XCode for Windows (or with emulator) and than use it to build Apps with Cordova?
FYI,
You can't install Xcode in windows. Xcode is designed and developed by Apple specifically for mac OS X.
It doesn't mean that you can't use Xcode on windows.
Check out below link, it should be a good starting point for you.
Xcode on Windows
Hope this helps, Cheers!!!!
those docs are really old. Here's a link to the latest.
You can create multi-platform Cordova apps under Windows, but you'll need some virtualization software (or a separate OS X box) in order to specifically add the ios and osx platforms and run them in an emulator. The same is true if you want to create the various windows platform flavors on a Macintosh -- or if you want to create the Windows / Mac platforms on a Linux box.
The Visual Studio site has some more information on setup.
You can also use the PhoneGap Build Service to create the UWP/Android/iOS apps for you, and install them / test them directly on the appropriate devices. You can use "hydration" to push changes to the devices as you go. But I'm thinking that in the long run you might want to invest in a Mac for building / testing iOS -- it's easier to debug.