Cordova Hooks

We can define the Cordova Hooks as the special scripts that allow a user to automate the basic features of your Cordova project by using the Cordova CLI. It is a piece of code that can be added by any application, plugin developers, or even by your own build system to improve the development/deployment lifecycle of Apache Cordova application. However, these scripts of code are executed by the Cordova CLI at certain points in your Cordova application build for customizing the Cordova commands.

These scripts of code can be run many times in the build process.

We can relate these hooks as application activities such as before_build, after_build, etc. Furthermore, it may be related to our application plugins such as before_plugin_add, after_plugin_add, etc.

In general, the "hook" folder is available in our project's root folder that consists of different subfolders like after_platform_add, after_build, before_platform_add, before_build, etc. For running hook scripts, it is being used.

The supported hook types are as follows:

Hook Type	Associated Cordova Commands	Description
before_platform_add	cordova platform add	Before and after adding the platform, this hook type is executed.
after_platform_add	cordova platform add
before_platform_rm	cordova platform rm	Before and after removing a platform, this hook type is executed.
after_platform_rm	cordova platform rm
before_platform_ls	cordova platform ls	Before and after listing the installed and available platforms, this hook type is executed.
after_platform_ls	cordova platform ls
before_prepare	cordova prepare cordova platform add cordova build cordova run	Before and after preparing your application, this hook type is executed.
after_prepare
before_compile	cordova compile cordova build	This hook type is executed before and after compiling your application.
after_compile	cordova compile cordova build
before_deploy	cordova emulate cordova run	Before deploying your application, this hook type is executed.
before_build	cordova build	Before and after building your application, this hook type is executed.
after_build	cordova build
before_emulate	cordova emulate	Before and after emulating your application, this hook type is executed.
after_emulate	cordova emulate
before_run	cordova run	Before and after running your application, this hook type is executed.
after_run	cordova run
before_serve	cordova serve	Before and after serving your application, this hook type is executed.
after_serve	cordova serve
before_clean	cordova clean	Before and after cleaning your application, this hook type is executed.
after_clean	cordova clean
before_plugin_add	cordova plugin add	Before and after adding a plugin, this hook type is executed.
after_plugin_add	cordova plugin add
before_plugin_rm	cordova plugin rm	Before and after removing a plugin, this hook type is executed.
after_plugin_rm	cordova plugin rm
before_plugin_ls	cordova plugin ls	Before and after listing the plugins in the project, this hook type is executed.
after_plugin_ls	cordova plugin ls
before_plugin_install	cordova plugin add	This hook type is executed before and after installing a plugin for the platforms.
after_plugin_install	cordova plugin add
before_plugin_uninstall	cordova plugin rm	Before uninstalling a plugin, this hook type is executed.

Ways to define hooks

Config.xml

The <hook> elements is used to define the Hooks in project's config.xml file for example:

<hook type="before_build" src="scripts/appBeforeBuild.bat" />
<hook type="before_build" src="scripts/appBeforeBuild.js" />
<hook type="before_plugin_install" src="scripts/appBeforePluginInstall.js" />
<platform name="windows">
    <hook type="before_build" src="scripts/windows/appWinBeforeBuild.bat" />
    <hook type="before_build" src="scripts/windows/appWinBeforeBuild.js" />
    <hook type="before_plugin_install" src="scripts/windows/appWinBeforePluginInstall.js" />
    ...
</platform>

Plugin hooks (plugin.xml)

For defining the hook scripts as a plugin developer, we need to use the essential <hook> elements in the plugin.xml file:

<hook type="before_plugin_install" src="scripts/beforeInstall.js" />
<hook type="after_build" src="scripts/afterBuild.js" />
<platform name="android">
    <hook type="before_plugin_install" src="scripts/androidBeforeInstall.js" />
    <hook type="before_build" src="scripts/androidBeforeBuild.js" />
      ...
</platform>

Via/hooks directory (Deprecated)

To execute any custom actions occurred when fired the corresponding hook type, we need to use the hook type. This hook type is used for the subfolder inside 'hooks' directory. Here, we place our script file. It is necessary for the specified action.

Example:

# script file will automatically executed after each build
hooks/after_build/after_build_custom_action.js

Note that your scripts must be executable.

Order of Hooks execution

Based on Hooks Definition

The Hook scripts can be defined by adding the scripts to the special predefined folder i.e. via configuration files config.xml and plugin.xml, or hooks. However, you should know that the order of hooks is executed serially.

Based on internal order of the execution

We can fix the internal order of execution to the hooks.

Suppose, if the hooks are connected with before_compile, after_compile, before_prepare, after_prepare, before_build and after_build, then a build command will run to execute the hooks in the below order:

before_build
before_prepare
after_prepare
before_compile
after_compile
after_build

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