Is there a difference between PhoneGap and Cordova commands?

Question

I just installed Phonegap for the first time and just browsed through the docs. What confuses me is the fact that some docs are using the command \"phonegap\" and some \"cor

Answer 1

This first choice might be a confusing one but it’s really very simple. PhoneGap is a product owned by Adobe which currently includes additional build services, and it may or may not eventually offer additional services and/or charge payments for use in the future. Cordova is owned and maintained by Apache, and will always be maintained as an open source project. Currently they both have a very similar API. I would recommend going with Cordova, unless you require the additional PhoneGap build services.

Answer 2

http://phonegap.com/blog/2012/03/19/phonegap-cordova-and-whate28099s-in-a-name/

I think this url explains what you need. Phonegap is built on Apache Cordova nothing else. You can think of Apache Cordova as the engine that powers PhoneGap. Over time, the PhoneGap distribution may contain additional tools and thats why they differ in command But they do same thing.

EDIT: Extra info added as its about command difference and what phonegap can do while apache cordova can't or viceversa

First of command line option of PhoneGap

http://docs.phonegap.com/en/edge/guide_cli_index.md.html

Apache Cordova Options http://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/3.0.0/guide_cli_index.md.html#The%20Command-line%20Interface

1. As almost most of commands are similar. There are few differences (Note: No difference in Codebase)

2. Adobe can add additional features to PhoneGap so that will not be in Cordova ,Eg: Building applications remotely for that you need to have account on https://build.phonegap.com

3. Though For local builds phonegap cli uses cordova cli (Link to check: https://github.com/phonegap/phonegap-cli/blob/master/lib/phonegap/util/platform.js)

   Platform Environment Names. Mapping:

   'local' => cordova-cli

   'remote' => PhoneGap/Build

Also from following repository: Modules which requires cordova are:

build
create
install
local install
local plugin add , list , remove
run
mode
platform update
run

Which dont include cordova:

remote build
remote install
remote login,logout
remote run
serve

Answer 3

Here are differences that I have discovered:

I am comparing the phonegap 3.3.0-0.18.0 CLI to the functionality described in the cordova 3.3.0 documentation for that CLI.

1. "ls" is an option for "cordova plugin" but not for "phonegap plugin". You must use "list" instead. e.g.: "phonegap plugin list"

2. "serve" is not documented in "phonegap -help" but it does exist and it does work. It will not find and load phonegap.js so the pages never fully load but it still does provide some value. I'm not sure if this is different than the behavior cordova.

3. "phonegap platform add " does not work in phonegap. You must do a "phonegap build " to add support for a platform.

Note that you may also experience some confusing error messages in phonegap where the suggested solution refers to using the cordova command.

Answer 4

Now a days phonegap and cordova is owned by Adobe. Only name conversation was different. For install plugin functionality , we should use same command for phonegap and cordova too.

Command : cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-photo-library

Here,

• cordova - keyword for initiator
• plugin - initialize a plugin
• cordova plugin photo library - plugin name.

You can also find more plugin from https://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/latest/

Answer 5

I have also noticed that cordova has a "serve" command that Phonegap doesn't. This command launches a local server on port 8000. This is handy for running your app in Chrome and using the Ripple emulator.

Answer 6

they re both identical, except that phonegap cli can help you build your application on PhoneGap Build. My suggestion is to use the cordova CLI if you don't use the PhoneGap build service.