programmatically_change_configxml.md

Programmatically change the config.xml

The gulp config task changes and reads the contents of the config.xml programmatically which is essential for Continuous Integration and delivery purposes. Consult our Continuous Integration Guide for a full sample use case.

gulp config

Set arbitrary attributes in the <widget> tag

# version
gulp config --setWidgetAttr="version=1.0.0.93"
# android-versionCode
gulp config --setWidgetAttr="android-versionCode=93"
# ios-CFBundleVersion
gulp config --setWidgetAttr="ios-CFBundleVersion=3.3.3"
# id / bundle identifier, USE WITH CARE! (see below)
gulp config --setWidgetAttr="id=com.new.bundle"

Output:

<widget version="1.0.0.93"
  android-versionCode="93"
  ios-CFBundleVersion="3.3.3"
  id="com.new.bundle"
  ...>

Set other tags!

# <description>
gulp config --setDescription="a small app to make the world a happy place"
# <author>
gulp config --setAuthor="Your Name---your@mail.com---http://yourwebsite.com"
# <name>
gulp config --setName="hello world" # USE WITH CARE! (see below)

Output:

<description>a small app to make the world a happy place</description>
<author email="your@mail.com" href="http://yourwebsite.com">Your Name</author>
<name>hello world</name>

Important: When changing the name or bundle identifier of your project, it may lead to problems with the platform projects. If you have your plugins and platforms managed in the config.xml you can avoid this by deleting your plugins/ and platforms/ folders and installing them again using gulp --cordova 'prepare'. For more information consult the Git integration guide.

Retrieving arbitrary attributes from the <widget> tag

In other cases it's sometimes useful to retrieve said information from the config.xml. When doing so, it's often necessary to add the --silent tag to prevent gulp from outputting unnecessary task information. Thus your output can serve as input to other scripts unaltered.

Let's assume the content's of the config.xml we set earlier:

<widget version="1.0.0.93"
  android-versionCode="93"
  ios-CFBundleVersion="3.3.3"
  id="com.new.bundle"
  ...>

This is the output when running the individual tasks:

# version
gulp config --silent --getWidgetAttr=version
1.0.0.93
# android-versionCode
gulp config --silent --getWidgetAttr=android-versionCode
93
# ios-CFBundleVersion
gulp config --silent --getWidgetAttr=ios-CFBundleVersion
3.3.3
# id
gulp config --silent --getWidgetAttr=id
com.new.bundle