Jul 24, 2020

Troubleshooting Custom Capacitor Plugin: No such module 'PushNotifications'

As a Capacitor hybrid app developer, default plugins offered by Capacitor can be not enough to achieve what we want for our project.

For beginner like me, who hope to create a simple custom plugin, set aside Javascript related code, it can be a tough experience as we have to learn and put into practise for both Android and iOS build.

Building a custom plugin for Capacitor (Ionic)

Fortunately, Capacitor has built-in API we could use to build any custom plugin.

No such module 'PushNotifications' (iOS)

On one of my custom plugin, it has dependency on Pusher's client iOS SDK which is imported through cocoapod. Running app "build" on xcode on this plugin is successful.

On my ionic app project folder, when import the created custom plugin causes error, and I get 
"No such module 'PushNotifications'
for importing the custom plugin. Which it's weird as I've checked and certain PushNotifications plugin installed in pods folder on both the actual app project and in the custom plugin.

When I navigate inside xcode Pods project, I'm able to see PushNotifications library correctly placed under pods folder.



Solution:

1. In the Capacitor custom plugin folder, find the .podspec file (usually located at root folder of your Plugin project), and add s.xcconfig to your podspec file, it's added to tell xcode about where to look the PushNotifications framework required by this plugin in your main project.
	
		
  require 'json'

  package = JSON.parse(File.read(File.join(__dir__, 'package.json')))

  Pod::Spec.new do |s|
    s.name = 'CapacitorPusherBeams'
    s.version = package['version']
    s.summary = package['description']
    s.license = package['license']
    s.homepage = package['repository']['url']
    s.author = package['author']
    s.source = { :git => package['repository']['url'], :tag => s.version.to_s }
    s.source_files = 'ios/Plugin/**/*.{swift,h,m,c,cc,mm,cpp}'
    s.ios.deployment_target  = '11.0'
    s.dependency 'Capacitor'
    s.swift_version = '5.0'
    s.xcconfig = { 'FRAMEWORK_SEARCH_PATHS' => "${PODS_CONFIGURATION_BUILD_DIR}/PushNotifications" }
  end

	

2. Or, alternatively, you can add the PushNotification framework path manually as below (you'll have to do this every time when the plugin get updated or after you run npx cap update)
Steps
  1. Go to Pods project's Build settings, find "Framework Search Paths"
  2. Select your affected plugin (by the missing module error mentioned above)
  3. Add the missing path to both Debug and Release as needed.

May 25, 2020

WebdriverIO - Appium, The "Error: Failed to create session."

Working on a hybrid app built with Ionic4, I've been writing tests with Angular's e2e, cucumber and selenium, now I'm surprised by variety of features & supported services offered by webdriverio.

I first went into the list of boilerplate projects and try to get my hand dirty with first sample project made for hybrid app.

I git cloned this repo - appium-boilerplate, updated capabilities values based on the simulator config available on my dev environment (you have to provide exact to the capabilities based on your AVD Manager - Android Studio).

Next, by running the command "npm run android.app", I'd expected appium magic would works instantly, but if as a first-timer-of-all-stuff, I ran into a little issue (but cost all day to find out the causes).


Troubleshooting

If you run into similar error message as following:

Error: Failed to create session.
read ECONNRESET    
  
    npm run android.app

    appium-boilerplate@5.3.1 android.app ~/appium-boilerplate
    wdio ./config/wdio.android.app.conf.js


    Execution of 6 spec files started at 2020-05-24T05:09:03.689Z

    [0-0] RUNNING in Android - /tests/specs/app.forms.spec.js
    [0-0]  Error:  Failed to create session.
    read ECONNRESET
    [0-0] FAILED in Android - /tests/specs/app.forms.spec.js
    [0-1] RUNNING in Android - /tests/specs/app.login.spec.js
    [0-1]  Error:  Failed to create session.
    read ECONNRESET
    [0-1] FAILED in Android - /tests/specs/app.login.spec.js
    [0-2] RUNNING in Android - /tests/specs/app.navigation.spec.js
    [0-2]  Error:  Failed to create session.
    read ECONNRESET
    [0-2] FAILED in Android - /tests/specs/app.navigation.spec.js
    [0-3] RUNNING in Android - /tests/specs/app.swipe.spec.js
    [0-3]  Error:  Failed to create session.
    read ECONNRESET
    [0-3] FAILED in Android - /tests/specs/app.swipe.spec.js
    [0-4] RUNNING in Android - /tests/specs/app.webview.spec.js
    [0-4]  Error:  Failed to create session.
    read ECONNRESET
    [0-4] FAILED in Android - /tests/specs/app.webview.spec.js
    [0-5] RUNNING in Android - /tests/specs/app.webview.xpath.spec.js
    [0-5]  Error:  Failed to create session.
    read ECONNRESET
    [0-5] FAILED in Android - /tests/specs/app.webview.xpath.spec.js

    Spec Files:  0 passed, 6 failed, 6 total (100% completed) in 00:02:07 

    npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
    npm ERR! errno 1
    npm ERR! appium-boilerplate@5.3.1 android.app: `wdio ./config/wdio.android.app.conf.js`
    npm ERR! Exit status 1
    npm ERR! 
    npm ERR! Failed at the appium-boilerplate@5.3.1 android.app script.
    npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.

    npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
    npm ERR!     ~/.npm/_logs/2020-05-24T05_11_11_738Z-debug.log
  

Solution

I couldn't believe it (that's reason it costed my days to resolve it) until I tried it.
Start and run your virtual device (simulator) first before the webdriverio's command (npm run android.app)

Futhermore, you can always add another logPath as appium services' option, so you can look into the error log for troubleshooting.