Apache Cordova (formerly PhoneGap) is a framework that allows developers to create cross-platform mobile applications using web technologies like HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.
Cordova is an open-source, cross-device mobile development platform that allows developers to create mobile applications using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS that can be deployed to each device, rather than programming in each device's native language. It also provides a JavaScript library and wrapper for access to core mobile hardware like accelerometer, camera, contacts, and GPS.
Cordova was originally called PhoneGap, but after Nitobi was acquired by Adobe, the PhoneGap code was donated to Apache and the name changed to Cordova. The project officially graduated from the Apache Incubation in October 2012 and is now a top-level project within the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). Adobe still actively contributes to the project and hosts the original PhoneGap site.
A Cordova mobile application is written in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. The JavaScript used by Cordova is framework agnostic and can easily be bundled with other popular JS frameworks like jquery-mobile, angularjs and others. The final compiled application package (bundle) can be compiled using the vendor's SDK and deployed on to vendor's application store. Adobe also runs a service called PhoneGap Build, for which Cordova project can be submitted with minor modifications and compiled for multiple mobile platforms without the need to install the necessary SDKs locally. PhoneGap Build currently supports iOS, Android and Windows Phone 8.
The official site of the Apache Cordova project is https://cordova.apache.org/. Developer resources, documentation and samples apps can be can be found on http://www.phonegap.com/. Starting with version 3.0, Cordova is distributed primarily via nodejs and projects can be both built and compiled within that environment.
In April 2015 the cordova-plugins registry was moved to the npm registry and the old registry will be dismissed by the end of 2015.
Cordova has varying degrees of support for different platforms. The current main platforms are iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android, BlackBerry, Firefox OS, Ubuntu, Windows Phone 8 and Windows Store. Cordova has code to support Symbian, Bada, Tizen and WebOS. An up to date list of supported platforms can be found on the Cordova wiki.
Useful Links
Documentation
Chat Room
Chat about PhoneGap and Cordova with other Stack Overflow users
Related
cordova-2.0.0, cordova-2.7.0, cordova-3, cordova-3.5, cordova-3.8.0, cordova-4, cordova-5.0.0, cordova6.4.0
