Develop Reference

Branch.io Cordova API - init() fails on Android Device

I'm having problems getting Branch.io to work in a Cordova powered Android app. I have a landing page that parses the data from branch.io deep links and forwards the user to the correct page. My javascript for this page contains:
function onDeviceReady() {
console && console.log("Device Ready");
initBranch();
}
function initBranch() {
branch.init(<branchKey>, function(err, data) {
console && console.log("branch init error: " + err);
//then the parsing and forwarding follows - omitted here
}
I then created a Branch.io deep link to this landing page in the web api and tested it in chrome which works.
Then i tried to move to the Cordova app...
I followed this guide to prepare the app for branch.io:
https://dev.branch.io/recipes/quickstart_guide/cordova/ (I installed the plugin and adapted the Manifest file.)
But when i try to open the same link that worked in chrome on my Android device the app opens correctly and the landing page loads, but i'm not forwared. Instead i see the following error in logcat:
I/chromium(19382): [INFO:CONSOLE(22)] "Device Ready"
[...]
I/chromium(19382): [INFO:CONSOLE(29)] "branch init error: Error: API request /v1/open missing parameter device_fingerprint_id"
Can anyone tell me what i'm doing wrong? I'm just getting to know Cordova and Branch.io so it's probably something small i'm overlooking.
Thanks,
Lif

A colleague of mine figured it out:
Branch.io creates an entry branch_session in the local storage of the android device. On my device this session was corrupted somehow and the device_fingerprint_id was empty:
{"session_id":"198413861345316824","identity_id":"198398707320770300","device_fingerprint_id":null,"browser_fingerprint_id":null,"link":"<link>","data":"{\"+is_first_session\":false,\"+clicked_branch_link\":false}"}
After clearing the local storage* the session was freshly created, and now looks like this:
{"session_id":"198413861345316824","identity_id":"198398707320770300","device_fingerprint_id":"118176839880411216","browser_fingerprint_id":null,"link":<link>,"data":"{\"+is_first_session\":false,\"+clicked_branch_link\":false}"}
And now deep linking works.
Kr,
Lif
* To clear the local storage i used chrome://inspect --> inspect webview, go to resources tab, choose "local storage" and the the correct url, then remove all values.

Facebook app browser debugging [duplicate]

I'm developing website with a lot of HTML5 and CSS3 features. I'm also using iframe to embed several content on my website. It works fine if I open it using Chrome/Firefox/Safari mobile browser. However, if I share on facebook (post/page) and I opened it up with Facebook application with Facebook Internal Browser, my website is messed up.
Is there any tools or way to debug on Facebook Browser? Thanks.

This is how you can do the debugging yourself. It's painful, but the only way I've come across so far.
tl;dr Get the Facebook App loading a page on your local server so you can iterate quickly. Then print debug statements directly to the page until you figure out what is going on.
Get a link to a page on your local server that you can access on your mobile device (test in mobile safari that it works). See this to find out your local IP address How do you access a website running on localhost from iPhone browser. It will look something like this
http://192.xxx.1.127:3000/facebook-test
Post that link on your Facebook page (you can make it private so your friends aren't all like WTF?)
Click the posted link in the Facebook mobile App and it will open up in Facebook's mobile browser
Since you don't have a console, you basically need to print debug statements directly to the page so it is visible. Put debug statements all over your code. If your problems are primarily related to CSS, then you can iteratively comment out stuff until you've found the issue(s) or print the relevant CSS attributes using JavaScript. Eg something like (using JQuery)
function debug(str){$('body').append("<br>"+str);}
Quite possibly the most painful part. The Facebook browser caches very aggressively. If you are making changes and nothing has happened, it's because the content is cached. You can sometimes resolve this by updating the URLs, eg /facebook-test-1, /facebook-test-2, or adding dummy parameters eg /facebook-test?dummy=1. But if the changes are in external css or js sheets it sometimes will still cache. To 100% clear the cache, delete the Facebook App from your mobile device and reinstall.

The internal browser the Facebook app uses is essentially a uiWebView. Paul Irish has made a simple iOS app that lets you load any URL into a uiWebView which you then can debug using Safari's Developer Tools.
https://github.com/paulirish/iOS-WebView-App

I found a way how to debug it easier. You will need to install the Ghostlab app (You have a 7-day free trial there, however it's totally worth paying for).
In Ghostlab, add the website address (or a localhost address) you want to debug and start the session.
Ghostlab will generate a link for access.
Copy that link and post it on Facebook (as a private post)
Open the link on mobile and that's it! Ghostlab will identify you once you open that link, and will allow you to debug the page.
For debugging, you will have all the same tools as in the Chrome devtools (how cool is that!). For example, you can tweak CSS and see the changes applied live.

If you want to debug a possible error, you can try to catch it and display it.
Put this at the very top of your code:
window.onerror = function (msg, url, lineNo, columnNo, error) {
var string = msg.toLowerCase();
var substring = "script error";
if (string.indexOf(substring) > -1){
alert('Script Error: See Browser Console for Detail');
} else {
var message = [
'Message: ' + msg,
'URL: ' + url,
'Line: ' + lineNo,
'Column: ' + columnNo,
'Error object: ' + JSON.stringify(error)
].join(' - ');
alert(message);
}
}
(Source: MDN)
This will catch and alert your errors.
Share a link on Facebook (privately), or send yourself a message on Facebook Messenger (easier). To break the cache, create a new URL every time, e.g. by appending a random string to the URL.
Follow the link and see if you can find any errors.

With help of ngrok create temporary http & https adress instead of your ordinary localhost:3000(or other port) and you could run your app on any devices. It is super easy to use.
and as it was written above all other useful information you should write somewhere inside div element (in case of React I recommend to put onClick on that div with force update or other function for getting info, sometimes it helps because JS in FB could be executed erlier than your information appears). Keep in mind that alerts are not reliable, sometimes they are blocked
bonus from ngrok that in console you will see which files was
requested and response code (it will replace lack of network tab)
and about iFrame.If you use it on other domain and you rely on cookies - you should know that facebook in-app browser blocks 3rd party cookies
test on Android and iOS separately because technicaly they use different browsers

API calls are not working in cordova application

I made an application using apache cordova. my server is written in node.js running locally and port 3005. So I want to make API call from cordova I am using backbone in client side.
I written the following code to make API call
makingAPICallForStatus:function(){
var userSessionModel = Backbone.Model.extend({ //Creaating a model for checking user session status
url:"http://localhost:3005/api/user/status/",
});
var userSessionModelObj=new userSessionModel();
this.makeApiCall(userSessionModelObj,"",'GET',function(model,response,options){console.log(response);});
},
makeApiCall:function(modelObj,dataObject,requestType,successCallback){
modelObj.fetch({data:dataObject,
type:requestType,
success:successCallback,
error:function(){console.log("error")}
});
}
If you observe, I mention URL path is :"http://localhost:3005/api/user/status/". This way it's not working. it's showing This request has no response data available
Now I tried with production domain like
URL path is :"http://xxx.xxxx.com/api/user/status/"
This way it's working fine.
Why localhost was not working, I invoke same url directly in my browser working fine. but it's not working in cordova.
Note : I didn't modify anything in www/config.xml file.
What's the problem how can I fix this.
Thanks.

localhost is an alias of 127.0.0.1 even if you are running on an emulator on the same machine, local host is not real. You have to always make calls to an ipaddress or domain name from a device (even virtual devices). This is because on the device localhost is referring to the device not the machine that it may be running from.

Loading Meteor .js in a local Html file in android

I am trying to work with Meteor. Now I have the entire setup running in my localmachine with apache2 and the meteor.js also works when browsing the same URL from Android Emulator's Browser . Now the main problem is that I need the functionality in my android app from a local URL and here the page is not able to load the remote js. I am loading the following html using WebViews loadURL method after setting the javascript as enabled .The js embedded in the html will be something like this
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://meteor.mywebserver.com/meteor.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
window.onload = function()
{
Meteor.host = "meteor.mywebserver.com";
alert(textStatus);
// Call the test() function when data arrives
Meteor.registerEventCallback("process", commentsUpdate);
// Join the demo channel and get last five events, then stream
Meteor.joinChannel("demo", 0);
Meteor.mode = 'longpoll';
// Start streaming!
Meteor.connect();
// Handle incoming events
function commentsUpdate(data)
{
alert(data);
};});
After searching around a lot I tried this stackoverflow answer
To no avail . Can anybody help me find a work around here , I cant use a local meteor.js as it wont work.
Thanks

This has since been addressed in Meteor by way of integrated Cordova, which you can read about here. Basically, you tell Meteor that you want to add the Android platform to your app, and it builds the Android project files for you. Your app will look as if it's running native, but it's really just running in a light app surrounding a "web view". In iOS this is done using WebKit, but I think in Android it depends on the version of the OS.
You will still need to deploy your app to the Play store, which requires signing the app and all.

appcelerator - convert windows app to mobile app

I made a great app for windows with appcelerator and I want to convert it to mobile (android).
Problem is, unlike creating an app in windows where the default launcher is "index.html" and I can have all my javascript/css/html mixed in together, the mobile default launcher is app.js.
I've tried the following:
var webview = Titanium.UI.createWebView({
url : 'index.html'
});
var window = Titanium.UI.createWindow();
window.add(webview);
window.open({modal:true});
This works great however none of the api's I'm using inside of index.html are being run, it just alerts an error (undefined).
Does anyone know how to fix this issue?
EDIT:
There are only two API's I'm using in my app:
var db = Titanium.Database.open('app_data');
var device_id = Titanium.Platform.id;

you dont have access to all of the API from the webview, see link below
http://developer.appcelerator.com/question/8991/webview-usage-guideline
you will need to do most of your business logic in the js files and through the event mechanisms move data from you app to the ui level