Install the Appflow SDK

In order to take advantage of some of the best Appflow features, like deploying live updates to your app and bypassing the app stores, you'll need to install the Appflow SDK (also known as the Ionic Deploy plugin). The Appflow SDK comes with Ionic Appflow's Deploy feature for detecting and syncing your app with updates that you've pushed to channels.

Installing the Appflow SDK from the Dashboard (Recommended)

To install the Appflow SDK plugin from the Dashboard, follow the instructions provided by clicking "Install Instructions" on the Channels list in the Appflow Dashboard.

Installing the Appflow SDK Manually

To install the plugin manually, run the following command in the root directory of your Ionic app, making sure to substitute the correct values for your app:

cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-ionic --save \
    --variable APP_ID="YOUR_APP_ID" \
    --variable CHANNEL_NAME="YOUR_CHANNEL_NAME" \
    --variable UPDATE_METHOD="background|auto|none" \
    --variable MAX_STORE="3"

NOTE: The plugin delays the cordova ready event until it finish checking for updates and add this preference to the app <preference name="AutoHideSplashScreen" value="false"/>, which makes the Splash Screen to not go away automatically. All Ionic templates run this.splashScreen.hide(); on cordova ready event, but if it was removed it should be added back. Alternatively the app can add <preference name="AutoHideSplashScreen" value="true"/> to override the value added by the plugin, but that can lead to the Splash Screen going away before the download is complete.

Plugin Variables

• YOUR_APP_ID is the ID of the app in Ionic Appflow.
• YOUR_CHANNEL_NAME is the name of the Channel you'd like the app to listen to for updates.
  • Make sure to use the exact name of your Channel, including the exact casing!
• MAX_STORE tells us how many previous versions of code to keep inside your app. This enables you to revert to those versions quickly, or swap between versions if necessary. The default is recommended for most users.
• UPDATE_METHOD is one of background | auto | none. This determines how your application responds when a new live update is available for download.

You can read more about the available plugin variables in our API documentation.

Commit your changes

After you've installed the plugin, be sure to commit the changes made to your config.xml and package.json files.