CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidcordovaionic-frameworkphonegap
Scott Saunders
Scott Saunders

Reputation: 30414

CSS and Javascript features available in Cordova/Ionic/PhoneGap apps?

When writing CSS and JS for Cordova apps, how do I figure out which features are available to use? When I go to caniuse.com, am I looking at iOS Safari and Android Browser or Chrome? Is there a table somewhere that will help me map Cordova versions, OS versions, and browser versions?

I've been stung once by the JS await operator not working in an app that I thought would work in iOS 10.1. I'm now not sure how to tell what's the oldest Android version on which that app will work. And I'd like to be able to figure out which features are usable based on an OS decision predetermined by my clients or managers.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 105

Answers (1)

andypotato
andypotato

Reputation: 722

This is a very good question and one that cannot be answered with a single sentence. I can share some experience though:

Android vs. IOS

IOS is the most predictable as all Apps have to use the same WebView that comes with the OS. When you set a minimum IOS version (for example 10.0) you can look up supported features for Mobile Safari on caniuse.com.

Android is a completely different story as there is absolutely no way to predict which WebView the user is using. It will usually be some version of Chromium but starting from Android 5 it can be updated independent from the OS via the Play store. If you absolutely must support Android 4 you could create a separate build and using Crosswalk (unmaintained but still working) to get a predictable WebView.

JavaScript / CSS

If you're using Ionic then JS will usually be less of a headache as you develop in TypeScript and transpile to ES5. For CSS on the other hand you will have to resort to the usual browser checks / hacks / fallbacks as we did back in the days when we had to deal with browsers like IE6.

Upvotes: 1

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