Android M (API 23) - Phonegap Permission Issues

Question

I upgraded my application to support Android M (6), but I have an issue that I could not overcome even though I am aware of the requirements regarding permissions in Android 6 (API 23).

I'm using PhoneGap 6.2.6 with the geolocation plugin in place, which is supposed to provide (as far as I see) ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION and ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION permissions.

However when I run my applications and make a call for scanning the BLE supported devices around, I get the following error .

Caught a RuntimeException from the binder stub implementation.
java.lang.SecurityException: Need ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION or ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION permission to get scan results
at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:1620)
at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:1573)
at android.bluetooth.IBluetoothGatt$Stub$Proxy.startScan(IBluetoothGatt.java:772)
at android.bluetooth.le.BluetoothLeScanner$BleScanCallbackWrapper.onClientRegistered(BluetoothLeScanner.java:324)
at android.bluetooth.IBluetoothGattCallback$Stub.onTransact(IBluetoothGattCallback.java:56)
at android.os.Binder.execTransact(Binder.java:453)

One thing I cannot get is that how am I supposed to ask user to give permissions ? Is not it the task of the plugin, geolocation?

PS : When I manually give "geolocation" permission from the application settings, everything works just fine.

I have the Geolocation feature in my config.xml;

config.xml

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<widget id="com.apps.poc1" version="1.0.0" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/ns/widgets" xmlns:gap="http://phonegap.com/ns/1.0">
    <preference name="loglevel" value="DEBUG" />
    <feature name="Battery">
        <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.batterystatus.BatteryListener" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="Camera">
        <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.camera.CameraLauncher" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="File">
        <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.file.FileUtils" />
        <param name="onload" value="true" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="Capture">
        <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.mediacapture.Capture" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="Contacts">
        <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.contacts.ContactManager" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="Device">
        <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.device.Device" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="Accelerometer">
        <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.devicemotion.AccelListener" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="Compass">
        <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.deviceorientation.CompassListener" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="Notification">
        <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.dialogs.Notification" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="FileTransfer">
        <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.filetransfer.FileTransfer" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="Geolocation">
        <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.geolocation.Geolocation" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="Globalization">
        <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.globalization.Globalization" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="InAppBrowser">
        <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.inappbrowser.InAppBrowser" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="Media">
        <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.media.AudioHandler" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="NetworkStatus">
        <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.networkinformation.NetworkManager" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="SplashScreen">
        <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.splashscreen.SplashScreen" />
        <param name="onload" value="true" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="StatusBar">
        <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.statusbar.StatusBar" />
        <param name="onload" value="true" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="Vibration">
        <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.vibration.Vibration" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="Whitelist">
        <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.whitelist.WhitelistPlugin" />
        <param name="onload" value="true" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="AndroiDiamond">
        <param name="android-package" value="com.androidiamond.AndroiDiamond" />
    </feature>
    <feature name="FileOpener2">
        <param name="android-package" value="io.github.pwlin.cordova.plugins.fileopener2.FileOpener2" />
    </feature>
    <icon density="ldpi" src="www/res/icon/android/drawable-ldpi-icon.png" />
    <icon density="mdpi" src="www/res/icon/android/drawable-mdpi-icon.png" />
    <icon density="hdpi" src="www/res/icon/android/drawable-hdpi-icon.png" />
    <icon density="xhdpi" src="www/res/icon/android/drawable-xhdpi-icon.png" />
    <icon density="xxhdpi" src="www/res/icon/android/drawable-xxhdpi-icon.png" />
    <icon density="xxxhdpi" src="www/res/icon/android/drawable-xxxhdpi-icon.png" />
    <splash density="land-ldpi" src="www/res/screen/android/drawable-land-ldpi-screen.png" />
    <splash density="land-mdpi" src="www/res/screen/android/drawable-land-mdpi-screen.png" />
    <splash density="land-hdpi" src="www/res/screen/android/drawable-land-hdpi-screen.png" />
    <splash density="land-xhdpi" src="www/res/screen/android/drawable-land-xhdpi-screen.png" />
    <splash density="land-xxhdpi" src="www/res/screen/android/drawable-land-xxhdpi-screen.png" />
    <splash density="land-xxxhdpi" src="www/res/screen/android/drawable-land-xxxhdpi-screen.png" />
    <splash density="port-ldpi" src="www/res/screen/android/drawable-port-ldpi-screen.png" />
    <splash density="port-mdpi" src="www/res/screen/android/drawable-port-mdpi-screen.png" />
    <splash density="port-hdpi" src="www/res/screen/android/drawable-port-hdpi-screen.png" />
    <splash density="port-xhdpi" src="www/res/screen/android/drawable-port-xhdpi-screen.png" />
    <splash density="port-xxhdpi" src="www/res/screen/android/drawable-port-xxhdpi-screen.png" />
    <splash density="port-xxxhdpi" src="www/res/screen/android/drawable-port-xxxhdpi-screen.png" />
    <allow-intent href="market:*" />
    <name>poc1</name>
    <description>
        Hello World sample application that responds to the deviceready event.
    </description>
    <author email="support@phonegap.com" href="http://phonegap.com">
        PhoneGap Team
    </author>
    <content src="index.html" />
    <preference name="DisallowOverscroll" value="true" />
    <preference name="android-minSdkVersion" value="14" />
    <icon src="icon.png" />
    <access origin="*" />
    <allow-intent href="http://*/*" />
    <allow-intent href="https://*/*" />
    <allow-intent href="tel:*" />
    <allow-intent href="sms:*" />
    <allow-intent href="mailto:*" />
    <allow-intent href="geo:*" />
</widget>

Answer 1

The link you've given to Phonegap Build documentation is for v2.9.0 which is really old and out-of-date. If you check the latest documentation, you'll see that the feature tag has been deprecated. <feature> only adds the permission to your AndroidManifest.xml, which is not enough to use Android M runtime permissions. As indicated, you need to replace the <feature> tags with the equivalent plugins which also include code to handle requesting Android M runtime permissions as appropriate.

So, for example, replace:

<feature name="Geolocation">
    <param name="android-package" value="org.apache.cordova.geolocation.Geolocation" />
</feature>

with:

<plugin name="cordova-plugin-geolocation" spec="*"/>

You will also want to add <preference name="phonegap-version" value="cli-6.1.0" /> which will instruct Phonegap Build to use Phonegap CLI v6.1.0. This is important for Android M runtime permissions, because the CLI version affects the platform version which is to build the app. Android M support was only added in Android platform v5 but the current default for Phonegap Build is CLI v5.2.0 which defaults to Android platform v4.1.1

Answer 2

With android 6 there were some changes to the permission system:

Check the documentation about them and this related article on android security and permissions.