[jira] [Created] (CB-11795) Introduce cordovaDependencies to all core plugins

["Vladimir Kotikov (JIRA)" <ji...@apache.org>]

Vladimir Kotikov created CB-11795:
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             Summary: Introduce cordovaDependencies to all core plugins
                 Key: CB-11795
                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CB-11795
             Project: Apache Cordova
          Issue Type: Task
      Security Level: Public (Anyone can view this level - this is the default.)
          Components: AllPlugins
            Reporter: Vladimir Kotikov
            Assignee: Vladimir Kotikov


We've been researching ways to prevent cordova workflow breakages, caused by installing edge versions of the plugins, which possibly could be incompatible with cordova version, used by user. This is IMO a very nasty sort of problems, because it might cause unpredictable build- and runtime failures of cordova setup which has been working perfectly previously.

A typical example of this scenario is when some plugin introduces a change incompatible w/ some particular cordova version and doesn't update {{cordovaDependencies}} property in its' package.json correspondingly.

To prevent such breakages and avoid negative user experience I propose to start using {{cordovaDependencies}} in core plugins in a following way:
# For every plugin we maintain, we add `cordovaDependencies` to its'
package.json w/ the following entry
{noformat}
    CURRENT_PLUGIN_VERSION: { cordova: >= LATEST_SUPPORTED_CORDOVA_VERSION }
{noformat}
We will try to determine the {{LATEST_SUPPORTED_CORDOVA_VERSION}} based on release
notes and most significant changes in plugins, but probably we can safely use 6.1.0 here because new version choosing logic for {{plugin add}} was introduced in this version and older versions of cordova will not use {{cordovaDependencies}} anyway.

Also for some plugins adding such entry doesn't make sense because they will work with any version of cordova, so for these plugins this step could be omitted.
# For every plugin we add additional 'protective' entry
{noformat}
    NEXT_MAJOR_PLUGIN_VERSION: { cordova: >= 100 }
{noformat}
  There are 2 purposes for this:
  - if there is a major plugin update that potentially would broke compatibility
with some cordova versions, this will protect users against installing this
major update, unless plugin maintainers update `cordovaDependencies` by adding
corresponding entry for this plugin version.

    In other words, if we've introduced a breaking change and forgot to update {{cordovaDependencies}} correspondingly to reflect that the change requires a specific cordova version, user will not get this plugin update.

  - By some reason without such 'protective' entry in case if
NEXT_MAJOR_PLUGIN_VERSION gets released without adding corresponding entry to {{cordovaDependencies}} (i.e. we don't have any restrictions for this version in {{cordovaDependencies}}) - cordova will fetch that version without any checks.
This is sounds non-obviously for me and probably there is some reason behind installing plugin version, which we can't verify requirements for, but this is how it works.

3. When we introduce a change that requires us to change plugin version to {{NEXT_MAJOR_PLUGIN_VERSION}}, we go and fix {{cordovaDependencies}} by changing
cordova requirement for {{NEXT_MAJOR_PLUGIN_VERSION}} to actual value instead of 100 and introducing {{ANOTHER_NEXT_MAJOR_PLUGIN_VERSION: { cordova: >= 100 } }}
entry.



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