As a WebWorks developer, I can easily debug on device or in simulator with remote application content

[kwallis]

Description

A powerful “feature” for debugging in sim or on device is to, during development/debugging, point config.xml at a web server for the application content, so that you just need to update the content, restart the app, and boom, you can quickly test your app in a real environment rather than in browser.

With “cordova serve” and “prepare”, we are half way there. I wonder if we could add a feature, in the CLI then exposed to the GUI, that provides maybe a special param on build that will temporarily point the config.xml at the serve location. Then the developer can use the prepare and serve commands as-is and get on-device or in-sim remote debugging with quick refreshes. Ultimate awesome would be for somehow have the device auto-refresh the app, but that is a separate story…

Acceptance Criteria

• In the CLI, the developer should be able to provide a parameter on build to have the config.xml automatically pointed at the "cordova serve" location (usually http://localhost:8000)
  • What happens if that port is in use? How do we know what location to point to?
• Developer should have an option in the GUI to trigger a debugging session with "remote debugging"
  • This would trigger the build with the CLI parameter to point to the serve location
  • If not already running, call Cordova serve
  • Deploy application to device/simulator
• The developer should be able to make changes to their code outside of the config.xml and be able to trigger cordova prepare to update the hosted content
• The GUI should be able to monitor for changes to config.xml and:
  • update the "temporary" config.xml appropriately on the next invocation of prepare
  • redeploy the application

[thtro]

I use location.reload() in the inspector tab after, running prepare, to avoid re-opening the app. Maybe triggering this command automatically from the "prepare" could work as an auto-refresh?