/cordova-plugin-crosswalk-webview

Crosswalk WebView Cordova Plugin

Primary LanguageJavaApache License 2.0Apache-2.0

cordova-plugin-crosswalk-webview

Makes your Cordova application use the Crosswalk WebView instead of the System WebView. Requires cordova-android 4.0 or greater.

Benefits

  • WebView doesn't change depending on Android version
  • Capabilities: such as WebRTC, WebAudio, Web Components
  • Performance improvements (compared to older system webviews)

Drawbacks

  • Increased memory footprint
    • An overhead of ~30MB (as reported by the RSS column of ps)
  • Increased APK size (about 17MB)
  • Increased size on disk when installed (about 50MB)
  • Crosswalk WebView stores data (IndexedDB, LocalStorage, etc) separately from System WebView
    • You'll need to manually migrate local data when switching between the two (note: this is fixed in Crosswalk 15)

Install

The following directions are for cordova-cli (most people). Alternatively you can use the Android platform scripts workflow.

  • Open an existing cordova project, with cordova-android 4.0.0+, and using the latest CLI. Crosswalk variables can be configured as an option when installing the plugin
  • Add this plugin
$ cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-crosswalk-webview
  • Build
$ cordova build android

The build script will automatically fetch the Crosswalk WebView libraries from Crosswalk project download site (https://download.01.org/crosswalk/releases/crosswalk/android/maven2/) and build for both X86 and ARM architectures.

For example, building android with Crosswalk generates:

/path/to/hello/platforms/android/build/outputs/apk/hello-x86-debug.apk
/path/to/hello/platforms/android/build/outputs/apk/hello-armv7-debug.apk

Note that you might have to run cordova clean before building, if you previously built the app without cordova-plugin-crosswalk-webview. Also, manually uninstall the app from the device/emulator before attempting to install the crosswalk-enabled version.

Also note that it is also possible to publish a multi-APK application on the Play Store that uses Crosswalk for Pre-L devices, and the (updatable) system webview for L+:

To build Crosswalk-enabled apks, add this plugin and run:

$ cordova build --release

To build System-webview apk, remove this plugin and run:

$ cordova build --release -- --minSdkVersion=21

Configure

You can try out a different Crosswalk version by specifying certain variables while installing the plugin, or by changing the value of xwalkVersion in your config.xml after installing the plugin. Some examples:

<!-- These are all equivalent -->
cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-crosswalk-webview --variable XWALK_VERSION="org.xwalk:xwalk_core_library:14+"
cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-crosswalk-webview --variable XWALK_VERSION="xwalk_core_library:14+"
cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-crosswalk-webview --variable XWALK_VERSION="14+"
cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-crosswalk-webview --variable XWALK_VERSION="14"
<preference name="xwalkVersion" value="org.xwalk:xwalk_core_library:14+" />
<preference name="xwalkVersion" value="xwalk_core_library:14+" />
<preference name="xwalkVersion" value="14+" />
<preference name="xwalkVersion" value="14" />

You can also use a Crosswalk beta version. Some examples:

<!-- These are all equivalent -->
cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-crosswalk-webview --variable XWALK_VERSION="org.xwalk:xwalk_core_library_beta:14+"
<preference name="xwalkVersion" value="org.xwalk:xwalk_core_library_beta:14+" />

You can set command-line flags as well:

<!-- This is the default -->
cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-crosswalk-webview --variable XWALK_COMMANDLINE="--disable-pull-to-refresh-effect"
<preference name="xwalkCommandLine" value="--disable-pull-to-refresh-effect" />

You can use the Crosswalk shared mode which allows multiple Crosswalk applications to share one Crosswalk runtime downloaded from the Play Store.

<!-- These are all equivalent -->
cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-crosswalk-webview  --variable XWALK_MODE="shared"
<preference name="xwalkMode" value="shared" />

You can also use a Crosswalk beta version on shared mode, e.g.:

<!-- Using a Crosswalk shared mode beta version -->
cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-crosswalk-webview --variable XWALK_VERSION="org.xwalk:xwalk_shared_library_beta:14+"

You can use the Crosswalk lite mode which is the Crosswalk runtime designed to be as small as possible by removing less common libraries and features and compressing the APK.

<!-- These are all equivalent -->
cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-crosswalk-webview  --variable XWALK_MODE="lite"
<preference name="xwalkMode" value="lite" />

You can set background color with the preference of BackgroundColor.

<!-- Set red background color -->
<preference name="BackgroundColor" value="0xFFFF0000" />

You can also set user agent with the preference of xwalkUserAgent.

<preference name="xwalkUserAgent" value="customer UA" />

Release Notes

1.7.0 (May 4, 2016)

  • Uses the latest Crosswalk 18 stable version by default
  • Support to use Crosswalk Lite, It's possible to specify lite value with the variable of XWALK_MODE at install plugin time.
  • Cordova screenshot plugin can capture the visible content of web page with Crosswalk library.

1.6.0 (March 11, 2016)

  • Uses the latest Crosswalk 17 stable version by default

  • Support to package apps for 64-bit devices, it's possible to specify 64-bit targets using the --xwalk64bit option in the build command:

      cordova build android --xwalk64bit

1.5.0 (January 18, 2016)

  • Uses the latest Crosswalk 16 stable version by default
  • The message of xwalk's ready can be listened

1.4.0 (November 5, 2015)

  • Uses the latest Crosswalk 15 stable version by default
  • Support User Agent and Background Color configuration preferences
  • Compatible with the newest Cordova version 5.3.4

1.3.0 (August 28, 2015)

  • Crosswalk variables can be configured as an option via CLI
  • Support for Crosswalk's shared mode via the XWALK_MODE install variable or xwalkMode preference
  • Uses the latest Crosswalk 14 stable version by default
  • The ANIMATABLE_XWALK_VIEW preference is false by default
  • Doesn't work with Crosswalk 14.43.343.17 and earlier

1.2.0 (April 22, 2015)

  • Made Crosswalk command-line configurable via <preference name="xwalkCommandLine" value="..." />
  • Disabled pull-down-to-refresh by default

1.1.0 (April 21, 2015)

  • Based on Crosswalk v13
  • Made Crosswalk version configurable via <preference name="xwalkVersion" value="..." />

1.0.0 (Mar 25, 2015)

  • Initial release
  • Based on Crosswalk v11