Capacitor: A Cross-Platform Runtime for Ionic Apps

If you are an Ionic developer who wants to build native apps for different platforms like iOS, Android, desktop and web, you might have heard of Capacitor. Capacitor is a cross-platform runtime created by the Ionic team that allows you to access native APIs such as Camera, File System, Notifications, Network, GPS and more using JavaScript. In this blog post, I will tell you more about Capacitor, how you can use Cordova plugins inside a Capacitor application and why you should consider using React with Capacitor instead of building separate iOS and Android applications.

Table of contents

What is Capacitor?

Capacitor is a successor of Cordova, which was the original way of building hybrid apps with Ionic. Cordova allowed you to write web code (HTML, CSS and JavaScript) and run it inside a native web view on different platforms. However, Cordova had some limitations such as poor support for the web platform, outdated native project templates and dependency on third-party plugins for accessing native features.

Capacitor aims to solve these problems by providing a modern and flexible runtime that works seamlessly with any web framework (not just Ionic) and supports all major platforms (including web). Capacitor also offers a better developer experience by allowing you to use your favorite IDEs (Xcode for iOS and Android Studio for Android) instead of relying on CLI commands. Additionally, Capacitor has a core set of plugins that cover most common native features and are maintained by the Ionic team.

How to use Cordova plugins inside a Capacitor application?

One of the advantages of Capacitor is that it is compatible with most existing Cordova plugins. This means that you can leverage the huge ecosystem of Cordova plugins without having to rewrite them or wait for them to be ported to Capacitor. However, there are some steps that you need to follow in order to use Cordova plugins inside a Capacitor application.

First, you need to install the Cordova plugin using npm or yarn in your project directory:

`npm install cordova-plugin-name`

or

`yarn add cordova-plugin-name`

Then, you need to sync your project with your native platforms using this command:

`ionic capacitor sync`

This will copy your web assets and configuration into your native projects and install any dependencies required by the plugin.

Finally, you need to import the plugin in your code using either ES6 modules or CommonJS syntax:

`import { Plugins } from '@capacitor/core';``const { PluginName } = Plugins;`;

or

`const { PluginName } = require('@capacitor/core').Plugins;`;

Now you can use the plugin methods as documented by its author. For example:

`PluginName.methodName(options).then(result => {
  // do something with result
}).catch(error => {
  // handle error
});`;

Why should one using React prompt into Capacitor instead of building separate iOS and Android applications?

If you are using React as your web framework of choice, you might be wondering why you should use Capacitor instead of building separate iOS and Android applications using React Native or other native technologies. Here are some reasons why Capacitor might be a better option for you:

• You can reuse most of your web code across all platforms without having to rewrite it in different languages or frameworks.
• You can take advantage of Ionic UI components that provide a consistent look-and-feel across different devices and platforms.
• You can access more native features than React Native through Capacitor plugins or custom native code.
• You can benefit from faster development cycles by using hot reloads and live reloads on both web and native platforms.
• You can deploy your app as a progressive web app (PWA) that works offline and can be installed on any device through a browser.

Of course, there are also some trade-offs that come with using Capacitor over native technologies such as performance differences or platform-specific UI guidelines. However, these trade-offs might not be significant enough for most use cases where speed-to-market and cross-platform compatibility are more important than pixel-perfect design or optimal performance.

Conclusion

In this blog post, I have introduced you to Capacitor: a cross-platform runtime created by the Ionic team that allows you to build native apps for different platforms using web technologies