I try to do remote debugging using Chrome (version 44) and my code running in Ionic View, on Android 5.1 Google Nexus 5.
I have debugging enabled.
I can connect to the device and see tabs of my chrome browser available for debugging - and in fact debugging is working when I run ionic powered code as a webapp.
What I can not see is the webview of Ionic View.
If I fail with this, I am going to use PhoneGap Build and their remote debugging abilities. But they use a server in the middle, which seems inferior than direct-over-USB debugging chrome offers.
Why not just use “ionic run” with live reload?
Almost as easy as Ionic View and remote debugging will work for sure.
The purpose of Ionic View is to let other people beta-test your app, for yourself “ionic run” is much better.
That is because I develop on a machine where android SDK is not installed. ionic run requires SDK, presumably for adb, but I am not sure about it.
To me a major point of developing with cordova and therefore ionic is to not having to set up the build environment and use phonegap build, and, in the future, a similar ionic service, to outsource build process.
Okay I understand, the situation is even worse if you need to develop for iOS and don’t have a Mac with Xcode.
Installing the Android SDK is easy compared to the Apple/iOS hassle.
Anyway this is why developing an app is still harder than developing a website.
Would be nice if Ionic would offer a build service like Phonegap, but Phonegap is so cheap, maybe it’s not possible to compete.
An update.
Compiled with PhoneGap build using latest cordova cli 5.1.1
The app is NOT visible from Chrome Developer Tools, UNLESS compiled with the crosswalk engine.
However there is a free tool called GapDebug, installable on either Windows (my case) and Mac, which does all Chrome Dev tools were supposed to do - connects to the device, shows running hybrid app, connects to it and shows what visually appears to be Chrome Dev Tools :). It does so in either with or without crosswalk version
I think I read somewhere about ionic possible competitor to PGB, but now looking at ionic.io I don’t see it. Guess I was day dreaming
My best guess is that Ionic View does not implement support for android remote debugging, which is 3 lines of code on android, per:
They have “ionic.io deploy” but that’s something totally different than PGB (at first I was misled to believe it’s PGB-like).
However recently I saw a service specific to iOS which looks quite interesting: https://www.bitrise.io/
They promise to fix a number of iOS specific hassles especially the requirement to have a Mac.
(if not for builds then still for certificates etc)
Anyone has experience with that service (www.bitrise.io) ?
I would not recommend GapDebug, for me it was working randomly.
In an ideal world maybe, but in real world where you may want to use a cordova plugin that may not be yet supported by your build service or to debug it because it is crashing, you will always need the SDK on your machine and know how to build your app.
ionic deploy, IMHO, is like PhoneGab Build Hydration - ability to send changes in JS/HTML to the already installed app on the device, bypassing the Google Play/Appstore update process.
Not disagreeing with you, dear sir, not at all. In the long run I plan to have my onw build servers. Right now, however, PGB presents itself as a convenient shortcut. PhoneGap’s library of supported plugins is very extensive, surely covers my current needs.
By the way, what is extremely “interesting” is that, less than half a year ago, there WAS an “ionic package” command which did exactly what PGB does, namely it performed an Android or iOS build “in the cloud” (on Ionics servers):
However this feature/service has been removed or ‘suspended’:
There’s not much of an explanation about the reason for this decision, but a reasonable guess is that the build service isn’t “ready” yet.
Right, this is one that I remember having seen. Anyway, as of righ now, phonegap build is ok for my needs.
Yes, I remember having seen that command too. And it’s “mysteriously” disappeared, for reasons we can guess at.
Hope it will come back when they have a service that’s ready for prime time!
Sorry to bring this old thread back to life. But I cannot debug my ionic app that runs in ionic view from my laptop at chrome://inspect/devices#devices Did you find a solution?