InAppBrowser plugin installation - ERROR ReferenceError: cordova is not defined

[arafhossain]

Bug Report

Problem

What is expected to happen?

I'm trying to get the InAppBrowser function up and working on my Ionic App. I'm following the steps on the page 'https://github.com/apache/cordova-plugin-inappbrowser.' The only installation step it says to do is run 'cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-inappbrowser.' Then it begins discussing basic operations on starting the inAppBrowser.

My code is

var ref = cordova.InAppBrowser.open('www.google.com', '_blank')

I would expect this to open up the Google website in my Ionic Lab Android platform emulator.

What does actually happen?

Instead, I get the error: 'ERROR ReferenceError: cordova is not defined'. Someone else posted a similar question, and the suggested solution was to add a Script tag: ' ' to their index.html file. That didn't work for me - but I wonder why that was even suggested. I didn't install any other packages/run any other commands besides the 'cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-inappbrowser' stated at the top of the Github docs on the InAppBrowser page. What am I missing?

Information

Command or Code

cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-inappbrowser.
var ref = cordova.InAppBrowser.open('www.google.com', '_blank')

Version information

Ionic:

   Ionic CLI                     : 5.4.16 (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/ionic)
   Ionic Framework               : @ionic/angular 5.0.7
   @angular-devkit/build-angular : 0.803.26
   @angular-devkit/schematics    : 8.3.26
   @angular/cli                  : 8.3.26
   @ionic/angular-toolkit        : 2.2.0

Capacitor:

   Capacitor CLI   : 2.0.2
   @capacitor/core : 2.0.2

Cordova:

   Cordova CLI       : 9.0.0 (cordova-lib@9.0.1)
   Cordova Platforms : android 8.1.0, ios 5.1.1
   Cordova Plugins   : cordova-plugin-device 2.0.2 "Device"
     cordova-plugin-inappbrowser 3.2.0 "InAppBrowser"
     cordova-plugin-ionic-keyboard 2.2.0 "cordova-plugin-ionic-keyboard"
     cordova-plugin-ionic-webview 4.2.1 "cordova-plugin-ionic-webview"
     cordova-plugin-splashscreen 5.0.2 "Splashscreen"
     cordova-plugin-statusbar 2.4.2 "StatusBar"
     cordova-plugin-whitelist 1.3.3 "Whitelist"

Utility:

   cordova-res : not installed
   native-run  : 1.0.0

System:

   ios-sim : 8.0.2
   NodeJS  : v12.16.1 (/usr/local/bin/node)
   npm     : 6.14.3
   OS      : macOS Catalina
   Xcode   : Xcode 11.3.1 Build version 11C504

Checklist

• [x] I searched for existing GitHub issues
• [ ] I updated all Cordova tooling to most recent version
• [x] I included all the necessary information above

[breautek]

Are you waiting for the deviceready event before executing cordova.InAppBrowser.open('www.google.com', '_blank')?

Documentation could be improved imo, but it does mention it at https://github.com/apache/cordova-plugin-inappbrowser#installation ... just seems to be in odd ordering.

[arafhossain]

Thanks for mentioning that @breautek, it's certainly something I didn't consider was necessary - but although now I have no errors, simply nothing happens. My updated ineffective code:

document.addEventListener("deviceready", onDeviceReady, false);
function onDeviceReady(){
  console.log('Called on device ready!')
  var ref = cordova.InAppBrowser.open('www.google.com', '_self')
} 

A step forward, not there yet.

[ericgopak]

Have you tried adding a scheme to the URL? For example,

https://www.google.com

instead of just

www.google.com

[faisal-easi]

i'm facing this same issue

[jerimiahmilton]

My issue seems to disappear when removing cordova. when calling the InAppBrowser plugin. var ref = InAppBrowser.open('https://www.google.com', '_self');

[shabbir-hossain-ftdl]

Thanks for mentioning that @breautek, it's certainly something I didn't consider was necessary - but although now I have no errors, simply nothing happens. My updated ineffective code:

document.addEventListener("deviceready", onDeviceReady, false);
function onDeviceReady(){
  console.log('Called on device ready!')
  var ref = cordova.InAppBrowser.open('www.google.com', '_self')
} 

A step forward, not there yet.

Did you find any solution to this issue after that @arafhossain?