Cordova Windows Phone 8.1 Builds Now Available

On July 28, 2015 we enabled an Early Access build system for Windows Phone 8.1 Cordova apps. Despite the reference to "Early Access," this build option is not limited to use with the Intel XDK Early Access edition; it can be used with any current version of the Intel XDK.

This release requires some extra steps to perform a build, because there are no Build Settings on the Projects tab in the current releases of the Intel XDK to support building a Windows Phone 8.1 Cordova app and there is no corresponding build tile on the Build tab. A future release of the Intel XDK will provide these missing features.

Building a Windows Phone 8.1 Cordova application with the current release of the Intel XDK involves the following basic steps:

1. Create an xdk.config.wp81.xml file.
2. Locate that xdk.config.wp81.xml file in your “source” directory.
3. Instruct the Intel XDK to perform a Windows 8 build.

If you want to then perform a Windows 8 build:

1. Remove (or rename) the xdk.config.wp81.xml file from your “source” directory.
2. Instruct the Intel XDK to perform a Windows 8 build.

NOTE: we are using the presence of the xdk.config.wp81.xml file to tell the build system “I want to build for Windows Phone 8.1” instead of saying “I want to build for Windows 8” (which is what you normally get when you push the Windows 8 build tile on the Build tab). So you must remove the xdk.config.wp81.xml file from your “source” directory if you want to perform a Windows 8 build. Universal Windows builds will be available in a future version of the Intel XDK.

A detailed explanation of the steps follows:

1. Use the Windows 8 Build Settings section of the Projects tab to set your build options. Be sure to specify CLI 4.1.2 in the CLI field.
    
2. IMPORTANT: Switch to the Test tab and push the green > button (PUSH FILES). This will force the Intel XDK to create a new intelxdk.config.windows8.xml build file, in the project root directory, based on the build settings you specified in the Build Settings section of the Projects tab.
    
3. Use the Develop tab (or your favorite editor) to copy the contents of the intelxdk.config.windows8.xml located in your project’s root directory into a file named xdk.config.wp81.xml located in your project’s source directory (normally named “www”). Note that the Windows Phone 8.1 config file does not have an “intel” prefix like the automatically generated config.*.xml build files that are located in your project root directory.
    
4. Select the Build tab and push the Windows 8 build tile. Instead of building a Windows 8 Cordova application, the build server will build a Windows Phone 8.1 Cordova application. IMPORTANT: push the “Upload Project” button, do not push the “Use Existing” button.

To build a Windows 8 Cordova application:

1. Remove or rename the xdk.config.wp81.xml file that is located in your source directory.
    
2. Push the Windows 8 build tile, just as you normally would do to build a Windows 8 Cordova app.
    
3. IMPORTANT: push the “Upload Project” button, do not push the “Use Existing” button, when you start the Windows 8 build. Failing to push “Upload Project” will cause the build server to use the previously uploaded source bundle that contains the special xdk.config.wp81.xml file and signals the build server to perform a Windows Phone 8.1 build.

You can verify that you built a Windows Phone 8.1 Cordova app by checking the last line of the detailed build log. If you find --phone it means you have built for Windows Phone 8.1 If you see --win you have built a Windows 8 Cordova application.

Watch for a future Intel XDK release with build configuration screens that will support Windows Phone 8.1 Cordova apps.

Thanks,

--the Intel XDK Team