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For up-to-date product documentation, see the IBM MobileFirst Foundation Developer Center.


Develop Cordova applications

To develop cross-platform MobileFirst applications, we use the open-source Apache Cordova tooling and framework. Certain MobileFirst features specifically support integration with Cordova apps.

Apache Cordova provides a web-based platform for developing apps using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript within the application WebView interface. The WebView is started by the native SDK. MobileFirst SDKs provide functionality for both stages of the runtime, with a minimal number of necessary functions built on the native MobileFirst SDK. In Cordova apps, we can write JavaScript code by using standard web technologies such as CSS, HTML, and JavaScript, without requiring recoding in each native mobile platform's development language. Instead, applications execute within native wrappers targeted to each native platform. The Crosswalk WebView, which can replace the native Cordova WebView, is newly supported by the MobileFirst SDK in V8.0.0. .

To create Cordova apps that are enabled for MobileFirst features, we use your preferred development tools that support Cordova such as the Apache Cordova CLI, Ionic, or IntelliJ. You obtain some software, such as plug-ins, code to support various target platforms, command-line tools, or an IDE directly from the supplier of your development tools. Then, to use MobileFirst capabilities, such as back-end services of MobileFirst Server, you add Cordova plug-ins that support MobileFirst features. These plug-ins are included in the IBM MobileFirstâ„¢ Platform Foundation Developer Kit. We can also download these plug-ins from npm or JazzHub. see

Important: Cordova development tools are not provided with IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation.

After installing all necessary plug-ins, register your app on the server.

Develop your own application code in your chosen IDE and view it by using built-in emulators in Xcode, Android Studio, and Cordova (cordova emulate).

The following topics provide details for each stage of development.

Parent topic: Develop the client side of a MobileFirst application