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Apache Cordova Android 4.0.0
By: Andrew Grieve
15 Apr 2015

We are happy to announce that Cordova Android 4.0.0 has been released!

This release adds significant functionality, and also introduces a number of breaking changes. Mostly though, it adds first-class support for Crosswalk -- a bundled modern WebView!

cordova-android@4.0.0 will be the default android version in the next version of cordova. If you just can't wait though, you can try it out now:

cd my_project
cordova platform update android@4.0.0
cordova plugin add https://github.com/apache/cordova-plugin-whitelist.git#r1.0.0
# To install Crosswalk (optional):
cordova plugin add https://github.com/MobileChromeApps/cordova-plugin-crosswalk-webview.git#1.0.0

Major Changes

  • Support for pluggable WebViews!
  • Splash screen functionality is now provided via plugin
  • Whitelist functionality is revamped
    • You will need to add the new cordova-plugin-whitelist plugin to continue using a whitelist
    • Setting a Content-Security-Policy (CSP) is now supported and is the recommended way to whitelist (see details in plugin readme)
    • Network requests are blocked by default without the plugin, so install this plugin even to allow all requests, and even if you are using CSP.
    • This new whitelist is enhanced to be more secure and configurable, but the Legacy whitelist behaviour is still available via a separate plugin (not recommended).
    • Note: while not strictly part of this release, the latest default app created by cordova-cli will include this plugin by default.

Changes For Plugin Developers:

  • Develop in Android Studio
    • Android Studio is now fully supported, and recommended over Eclipse
    • Use cordova plugin add ../path/to/my-plugin --link to symlink .java files for development
  • Build using Gradle
    • All builds use Gradle by default, instead of Ant
    • Plugins can add their own gradle build steps!
    • Plugins can depend on Maven libraries using <framework> tags
  • New APIs: onStart, onStop, onConfigurationChanged
  • "onScrollChanged" message removed. Use view.getViewTreeObserver().addOnScrollChangedListener(...) instead
  • CB-8702 New API for plugins to override shouldInterceptRequest with a stream

Other Changes

  • CB-8378 Removed hidekeyboard and showkeyboard events (apps should use a plugin instead)
  • CB-8735 bin/create regex relaxed / better support for numbers
  • CB-8699 Fix CordovaResourceApi copyResource creating zero-length files when src=uncompressed asset
  • CB-8693 CordovaLib should not contain icons / splashscreens
  • CB-8592 Fix NPE if lifecycle events reach CordovaWebView before init() has been called
  • CB-8588 Add CATEGORY_BROWSABLE to intents from showWebPage openExternal=true
  • CB-8587 Don't allow WebView navigations within showWebPage that are not whitelisted
  • CB-7827 Add --activity-name for bin/create
  • CB-8548 Use debug-signing.properties and release-signing.properties when they exist
  • CB-8545 Don't add a layout as a parent of the WebView
  • CB-7159 BackgroundColor not used when <html style="opacity:0">, nor during screen rotation
  • CB-6630 Removed OkHttp from core library. It's now available as a plugin: cordova-plugin-okhttp
  • CB-8484 Support for creating signed archive for Android