Cordova Interview Questions & Answers

Question 1. What Is Cordova?

Answer :

Cordova is also called as Phone Gap. It is a platform to develop Mobile Applications using the coding languages like HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript.

In other words, it acts as a processor for running a web application written in HTML, CSS, JavaScript. Many typical Web applications are unable to use the native device functionality like Camera, GPS, Contacts etc.

With the help of Cordova, we can very much achieve the feature and package of the web application in the devices installer format.

Question 2. Explain The Mechanism Of Cordova?

Answer :

Cordova application’s user interface is technically and effectively a webview that engages the entire screen and runs in the native container. So, basically, it is the same webview that the native operating system is using.

Therefore, it means that an only a native container gets modified according to the operating system and internally the web pages remain the same. Since the web browser relinquishing the web pages vary from one operating system to other.

UIWebView class is for iOS android.webkit.webview is for android, WebViewClass is for windows.

Question 3. What Does Operating Systems It Support?

Answer :

All major platforms are supported. Here is the list of the major platforms:

• Amazon Fire OS
• BlackBerry 10
• Android
• Firefox OS
• Ubuntu
• Windows 8
• iOS
• Windows Phone
• Tizen

Before developing any platform listed above, the user has to install the Cordova’s command line Interface (CLI).

Question 4. Explain What Are The Limitations Of Cordova?

Answer :

The Cordova comes with both benefits as well as drawbacks.

The limitations of Cordova are:

• The Hybrid applications are slower than native ones so it is not a great idea to use Cordova for large applications that need lots of data and functionality.
• The Cross-browser compatibility can create lots of issues. Most of the time we are developing apps for different platforms, so the testing and optimization can take a lot of time and effort as we need to cover a large number of devices and OS.
• Some plugins also have compatibility issues with the varying devices and platforms. There are also native APIs that are not yet supported by Cordova.PhoneGap Build: It is a cloud-based service built on top of the PhoneGap framework.

Question 5. What Are The Device Installer Formats?

Answer :

The device installer formats also vary from one operating system to other.

The device installer formats for some operating systems are:

• Android – .apk (Android Application Package)
• IOS – .ipa (iPhone Application Archive)
• Windows Phone .xap (Silverlight Application Package)

Question 6. What Can You Say About Phonegap And Cordova?

Answer :

PhoneGap and Cordova are same and actually, the Apache Cordova can be considered as an engine that powers PhoneGap, like how Webkit is an engine that powers Chrome. Both of them belong to the same domain.

Question 7. What Are Cordova Events?

Answer :

Cordova events are an activity performed. There are various events that can be used in Cordova projects.

• DeviceReady: This event is caused when the Cordova gets completely loaded. This also helps to get confirmed that no Cordova functions are called before it is completely loaded.
• Pause: This event is caused when the application is put into the background.
• Resume: This event is caused when the application is returned from the background.
• Backbutton: This event is caused when the backbutton gets pressed.
• Menu button: This event is caused when the menu button gets pressed.
• Search button: this event is caused when the search button on Android is pressed.
• Startcall button: This event is caused when the startcall button gets pressed.
• Endcall button: This event is caused when the endcall button gets pressed.
• Volumedown button: This event is caused when the volumedown button gets pressed.
• Volumeup button: This event is caused when the volumeup button gets pressed.

Question 8. What Is Cordova Plugman?

Answer :

Cordova plugman is a command line tool that is used for installing and managing plugins.

The user should use plugman if the user wants the application to run on one particular platform.

If the user wants to create a cross-platform app, then it should use Cordova-cli which can modify plugins for different platforms.

Question 9. What Are The Features Of Cordova?

Answer :

Command Line Interface (Cordova CLI):

Comand Line Interface is the tool that can be used for starting the projects, developing the processes for different platforms, installing plugins and many other useful things that make the development process easier.

Cordova core components:

Cordova provides set of core components that every mobile application requires. All these components are used for creating the base of the application.

Cordova Plugins:

It provides API (Application Programming Interface) that will be used for implementing native mobile functions to our JS app.

Licence:

Cordova is licensed under the Apache License, version 2.0. Apache and the Apache feather logos are the trademarks of The Apache software foundation.

Question 10. What Are The Advantages Of Cordova?

Answer :

Cordova features many benefits to the users.

Below are the advantages of Cordova:

• Cordova provides one platform for developing hybrid mobile applications. The user can develop one application that will be used on different mobile platforms like IOS, Android, windows phone, Amazon-fireos, blackberry, Firefox OS, Ubuntu, and tizien.
• Cordova is faster to build hybrid application then its native application. So, Cordova can save a lot of time.
• Using JavaScript while working with Cordova, the user does not need to analyze platform specific programming languages.
• There are large amounts of community add-ons that can be used with Cordova. Lots of libraries and frameworks are optimized for working with it.

Question 11. Explain Phonegap Architecture?

Answer :

PhoneGap has a plugin-based architecture. Each device-specific feature is a plugin, which consists of javascript and native sides. Js side should be as cross-platform as possible, whereas native side can be implemented only once, for 1 device. Nevertheless built-in plugins are developed for all of the most popular platforms, so no need to reinvent the wheel.

This architecture, together with open source code, not only allows a developer to fix their bugs, but also allows them to tweak their plugins for as per requirements. Also, a developer can build his own plugin, and support any platform of his choice.

Question 12. What Is The Difference Between Phonegap And Cordova?

Answer :

PhoneGap is a distribution of Apache Cordova. You can think of Apache Cordova as the engine that powers PhoneGap, similar to how WebKit is the engine that powers Chrome or Safari.

Question 13. How Phonegap Simplifies Mobile Application Development?

Answer :

Mobile development is a huge task. When we try to build applications for each device--iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, we require different frameworks and languages.

Till the time, the big players in mobile may decide to work together and unify third-party app development processes, we can use PhoneGap which will use standards-based web technologies to bridge web applications and other mobile devices. Also, since PhoneGap apps are standards compliant, they're future-proofed to work with browser.

PhoneGap is an open source implementation of open standards. That means developers and companies can use PhoneGap for mobile applications that are free, commercial and open source.

Question 14. Explain What Is The Best Way For Phonegap Developers To Handle Device-specific Needs?

Answer :

It all depends on the feature set. Most mobile applications don’t need many device-specific features other than the user interface, but there are numerous plugins which can be very helpful. The best way is to decide what features you need and to use only those specific features. There are many applications that have permissions turned on even if they are not required.

Question 15. Name Some Of The Limitations Of Phonegap?

Answer :

1. Complex games, intensive graphics. Use OpenGL for that, not PhoneGap.
2. For slower phones (not iPhone, not Nexus One, not Xperia X10), PhoneGap apps using the latest interactive Google Maps APIs tend to be slow. Static maps OK, though.

Question 16. What Are The Phonegap Supported Platforms?

Answer :

• iPhone / iPhone 3G and Higher
• Blackberry OS 5.x and Newer
• Android
• Web OS
• Tizen
• Windows Phone 7
• Symbian
• Bada