There are a number of ways to create a mobile app with PhoneGap. We will be using the Cordova command-line-interface or CLI. The CLI provides cross-platform support, meaning that we can generate hybrid apps for all supported platforms. Our focus in this chapter is to build and deploy an Android-specific mobile ArcGIS app.
We will spend some time in this section walking through the initial Cordova setup. This is a little time consuming, but it needs to be done only once. The following instructions walk you through a Windows setup:
First, install node.js. Go to http://nodejs.org/ and select the Install button that will download the .msi file. Double-click and proceed with the setup.
Ensure that you have installed both a Java SDK (Software Development Kit) and the JRE (Java Runtime Environment). Check that your JAVA and JAVA_HOME variables are correctly set.