How is JavaScript code in OData offline plugin delegated to native Java code in Android

[JerryWang]

• Key logic of androidExec implementation

In previous blog How is OData request routed to Offline data store by OData offline plugin , according to comment, the Offline store will only be available once it is opened successfully. The open operation is done in Device native API, delegated in line 232.



The exec is available in exported module returned by require(‘cordova/exec'):

And now I would like to understand how this exec is delegated to Java Native API in Android platform.

In folder android I have found this cordova.js:

The exec call is implemented by module defined in cordova.js:

Here means the exec is implemented by androidExec:

Key logic of androidExec implementation

1. meaning of parameters success, fail, service, action, args

• success & fail: JavaScript callback function after the specified Java API is called


• service: Java class name


• action: Java class method name


• args: arguments passed from JavaScript to Java

2. There are two technical approaches for communication from JavaScript to Java in Android platform, see them in constant jsToNativeModes:

Example of JS_OBJECT, or called JavaScript interface:

Java code:

import android.app.Activity;

import android.os.Bundle;

import android.webkit.WebView;

public class WebViewGUI extends Activity {

  WebView mWebView;

  public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    mWebView = new WebView(this);

    mWebView.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);

    mWebView.addJavascriptInterface(new JavaScriptInterface(), "jsinterface");

    mWebView.loadUrl("file:///android_asset/www/index.html");

    setContentView(mWebView);

  }

  final class JavaScriptInterface {

    JavaScriptInterface () { }

    public String getSomeString() {

      return "string";

    }

  }

}

In JavaScript code, consume Java method getSomeString as below:

<script>

var String = window.jsinterface.getSomeString();

</script>

Back to implementation of AndroidExec:

var msgs = nativeApiProvider.get().exec(bridgeSecret, service, action, callbackId, argsJson);

it will again delegate the call to exec method of instance returned by nativeApiProvider.get().

Again look at implementation in nativeapiprovider.js, from the comment in line 21 we can know the currentApi returned by get comes from either ExposedJsApi.java or PromptBasedNativeAPI.

The ExposedJsApi.java could be found from this location:

It is a Java interface with method exec defined:

The call from JavaScript to Java is done via prompt call:

And the Java class SystemExposedJsApi implements the interface, delegates call to the instance of class CordovaBridge.

CordovaBridge will delegate to PluginManager:

Plugin manager first gets responsible plugin Java class by name, then perform the execute method of plugin.

For example this is OData offline plugin service class, in its execute method we can find there are lots of IF-ELSE branch to implement different offline operation.