Add entry to iOS .plist file via Cordova config.xml

Question

I am new to the Cordova CLI.

I need to perform the following steps programmatically via Cordova.

1. In the project .plist add a new row
2. Enter the following values in the new row:
3. Key: GDLibraryMode Type:String (default) Value:GDEnterpriseSimulation

I think I need to do this in the config.xml file in my project's root (or maybe the one in the "platforms" folder).

Can someone explain to me how to add the entry via the config.xml so that the above entry is added at compile-time?

I am using Cordova 3.3.1-0.42 (I know it is not the latest). I have already made my project and all is fine, I just need to add this entry added to the pList.

---

EDIT: 2/8/21 As per a comment on this question:

For anyone coming late to this, setting values in the project plist is now supported by Cordova CLI 7 and above

Answer 1

I don't think you can do this via straight config.xml modification. At least, I didn't see any mention of this in the docs: http://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/3.3.0/config_ref_index.md.html

I think you have to create a plugin, because they can insert plist entries: http://docs.phonegap.com/en/3.3.0/plugin_ref_spec.md.html#Plugin%20Specification

See the 'config-file element' section. Here's a guess as to what the relevant section of the plugin.xml will look like:

<platform name="ios">
<config-file target="*-Info.plist" parent="CFBundleURLTypes">
<array>
    <dict>
        <key>GDLibraryMode</key>
        <string>GDEnterpriseSimulation</string>
    </dict>
</array>
</config-file>
</platform>

Then you can install the plugin: cordova plugin add <your plugin name or file location>

Answer 2

I really like @james's solution using a Cordova hook. However, there are two issues. The docs state:

• "we highly recommend writing your hooks using Node.js"
• "/hooks directory is considered deprecated in favor of the hook elements in config.xml"

Here's a Node.js implementation using the plist NPM package:

var fs    = require('fs');     // nodejs.org/api/fs.html
var plist = require('plist');  // www.npmjs.com/package/plist

var FILEPATH = 'platforms/ios/.../...-Info.plist';

module.exports = function (context) {

    var xml = fs.readFileSync(FILEPATH, 'utf8');
    var obj = plist.parse(xml);

    obj.GDLibraryMode = 'GDEnterpriseSimulation';

    xml = plist.build(obj);
    fs.writeFileSync(FILEPATH, xml, { encoding: 'utf8' });

};

Of all the hook types provided by Cordova, the relevant ones for your situation are:

• after_prepare
• before_compile

Choose a hook type, and then add the hook to your config.xml file:

<platform name="ios">
    <hook type="after_prepare" src="scripts/my-hook.js" />
</platform>

Answer 3

You can use the PlistBuddy utility inside a Cordova hook script to modify the *-Info.plist file.

For example, I have the following script under <project-root>/hooks/after_prepare/010_modify_plist.sh which adds a dictionary property and adds an entry within that dictionary:

#!/bin/bash

PLIST=platforms/ios/*/*-Info.plist

cat << EOF |
Add :NSAppTransportSecurity dict
Add :NSAppTransportSecurity:NSAllowsArbitraryLoads bool YES
EOF
while read line
do
    /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "$line" $PLIST
done

true

Be sure to make the script executable (chmod +x).

The true at the end of the script is because PlistBuddy returns with an error exit code if the key being added already exists, and doesn't provide a way to detect if the key already exists. Cordova will report a build error if the hook script exits with an error status. Better error handling is possible but a pain to implement.

Answer 4

These are the steps I ended up doing to enable my application to share files through itunes between devices.

1.In your application navigate to your config.xml. Type this piece into your config under the platform tag <platform name="ios">.

 <config-file platform="ios" target="*-Info.plist" parent="UIFileSharingEnabled">
      <true/>
  </config-file>

2. Then go to your command line tool and type: cordova prepare

3. Uninstall and reinstall your application on your device, and you will see your app appear in itunes for you to share any files between your devices.

A few things, make sure cordova is up to date, and that you added the platform for ios.

npm install -g cordova

This command installs cordova.

cordova platform add ios

This command adds the platform for ios.

What is happening is when you run the cordova prepare command you are using Apple's Xcode SDK that is generated in the platform/ios folder. There you can see the plist file that is generated for your application, which is labeled as "yourApp-info.plist". There you can see the new key and string produced in the xml layout which looks like this:

 <key>UIFileSharingEnabled</key>
 <true/>

Also word of warning, my company dropped this ionic framework application into my lap a couple weeks ago (with a really short deadline). Everything I am telling you is based on couple weeks of learning. So this may not be the best practice, but I hope it helps someone out.

Edit

Link to the docs

Answer 5

This does seem to be possible now using the config.xml: at least some core plugin authors say so. For instance, in the docs for the Cordova Camera Plugin, they discuss the new requirement in iOS 10 that you provide a permission message string in the plist. To accomplish it, they suggest executing the plugin add command with arguments, thus:

cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-camera --variable CAMERA_USAGE_DESCRIPTION="My App would like to access your camera, to take photos of your documents."

This has the result that you not only get a new <plugin> added to config.xml, but it has a <variable> child:

<plugin name="cordova-plugin-camera" spec="~2.3.0">
    <variable name="CAMERA_USAGE_DESCRIPTION" value="My App would like to access your camera, to take photos of your documents." />
</plugin>

Which then seems to correlate to the new keys in my info.plist, perhaps somehow passing the values at runtime?

  <key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key>
  <string/>
  <key>NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription</key>
  <string/>

I'd be lying if I said that I know exactly how it works, but it seems to point the way.

Answer 6

UPDATE: for people want to use camera with iOS >= 10. This mean, by normal you can config in plugin as:

 <!-- ios -->
 <platform name="ios">

     <config-file target="*-Info.plist" parent="NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription">
         <string></string>
     </config-file>
     <config-file target="*-Info.plist" parent="NSCameraUsageDescription">
         <string></string>
     </config-file>
      <config-file target="*-Info.plist" parent="NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription">
         <string></string>
     </config-file>

 </platform>

But for now, you can't config NSCameraUsageDescription and NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription in plugin. You need to config them in platform -> iOS project by Xcode or in *-Info.plist file.

Since iOS 10 it's mandatory to add a NSCameraUsageDescription and NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription in the info.plist.

Learn more: https://www.npmjs.com/package/cordova-plugin-camera

Answer 7

I'm using the following in the ionic 3 without any additional plugin or imports and I think this could be helpful for others:

<platform name="ios">
    <edit-config file="*-Info.plist" mode="merge" target="NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription">
        <string>Location is required so we can show you your nearby projects to support.</string>
    </edit-config>
    <edit-config file="*-Info.plist" mode="merge" target="NSCameraUsageDescription">
        <string>Camera accesss required in order to let you select profile picture from camera.</string>
    </edit-config>
    <edit-config file="*-Info.plist" mode="merge" target="NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription">
        <string>Photo library accesss required in order to let you select profile picture from gallery / library.</string>
    </edit-config>
</platform>

Answer 8

You can set the display name in app's plist by directly editing the ios.json in the plugins directory.

Adding the following to the config_munge.files section of the ios.json file will do the trick and it will be maintained even when using the CLI.

"*-Info.plist": {

    "parents": {
        "CFBundleDisplayName": [
            {
                "xml": "<string>RevMob Ads Cordova Plugin Demo</string>",
                "count": 1
            }
        ]
    }
}

Here's a complete example

Answer 9

@TachyonVortex solution seems to be the best option but was crashing down in my case. The issue was caused by an empty NSMainNibFile field that is not right converted by the plist NPM package. In the .plist file

    <key>NSMainNibFile</key>
    <string></string>
    <key>NSMainNibFile~ipad</key>
    <string></string>

is converted to:

    <key>NSMainNibFile</key>
    <string>NSMainNibFile~ipad</string>

I fixed it with by adding to the script:

    obj.NSMainNibFile = '';
    obj['NSMainNibFile~ipad'] = '';

---

The script finally looks like (scripts/my-hook.js):

var fs    = require('fs');     // nodejs.org/api/fs.html
var plist = require('plist');  // www.npmjs.com/package/plist

var FILEPATH = 'platforms/ios/***/***-Info.plist';

module.exports = function (context) {

    var xml = fs.readFileSync(FILEPATH, 'utf8');
    var obj = plist.parse(xml);

    obj.GDLibraryMode = 'GDEnterpriseSimulation';
    obj.NSMainNibFile = '';
    obj['NSMainNibFile~ipad'] = '';

    xml = plist.build(obj);
    fs.writeFileSync(FILEPATH, xml, { encoding: 'utf8' });

};

and config.xml:

<platform name="ios">
    <hook type="before_build" src="scripts/my-hook.js" />
</platform>

Answer 10

I have used this plugin to solve the problem, maybe it can help you :

https://www.npmjs.com/package/cordova-plugin-queries-schemes

Answer 11

Yes, it is possible!

I am using Cordova 9.0.0 (cordova-lib@9.0.1).

For example this is the configuration file that I used to insert new string value into Info.plist :

<platform name="ios">
    <edit-config file="*-Info.plist" mode="merge" target="NSMicrophoneUsageDescription">
        <string>My awesome app wish to hear your awesome voice through Microphone. Not for fancy stuff, just want to hear you.</string>
    </edit-config>
    <edit-config file="*-Info.plist" mode="merge" target="---Key configuration---">
        <string>---string value---</string>
    </edit-config>
</platform>

After that, don't forget to rebuild your staging file by running this two command in your terminal :

cordova platform rm ios
cordova platform add ios

To confirm the change, you can check the newly generated .plist file by opening them with xCode.

-Info.plist file located at :

./platform/ios/[your app name]/[your app name]-Info.plist

Answer 12

If you are trying to modify a .plist in a native iOS plugin with a <config-file> tag in your plugin.xml, here is what you need to do:

1. Make sure your .plist is xml, not binary! You can use plutil to convert a binary .plist into xml, and commit it to version control.

   plutil -convert xml1 Info.plist

2. The instructions for <config-file> indicate that target= is relative to the generated xcode project at platforms/ios/<project>/, but I found that I needed to prepend a wildcard character to my path to get it to work:

   target="*/Resources/MyResources.bundle/Info.plist"

3. If you want to add a key at the top level of the .plist, you need to set parent equal to the key name, and then nest a <string> tag with the value. Using an <array> or <dict> as any examples show will cause these keys to be nested under parent.

Here is a complete example that works for me for adding multiple top level properties:

<platform name="ios">
    <config-file target="*/Resources/MyResources.bundle/Info.plist" parent="MyDistribution">
        <string>Cordova</string>
    </config-file>
    <config-file target="*/Resources/MyResources.bundle/Info.plist" parent="MyVersion">
        <string>3.2.0</string>
    </config-file>
</platform>

Answer 13

I prefer the after_prepare hook for bigger projects or if you have multiple plugins using the same permissions. But you can always go the simple way:

simply: - remove the plugin that requires the desired permission - add it again with --save - in config.xml, the plugin now has a new variable with a blank description that you can fill in - now build ios with -- release and they will be set.

Answer 14

you just need following steps 1.

Go to Project navigator Select the target Click on info from tab option other option are build setting build phase you will see key type value When you point on any key name you will find + and - sign click on the + sign write Key: GDLibraryMode in key section Type:Stringin tyoe section Value:GDEnterpriseSimulation in value section