Tools for Apache Cordova
Build apps for iOS, Android, and Windows using web technologies.

The code you know
Build mobile apps using HTML, CSS, and JS
If you know how to build web apps, you’ll quickly feel at home building mobile apps for iOS, Android and Windows using Apache Cordova. Most developers achieve nearly 100% code re-use by leveraging Cordova’s shared JavaScript API to access native device capabilities like the camera, calendar and contacts.
Plus, because hybrid apps make use of native webviews, you can take your favorite JavaScript framework with you – frameworks like Angular, React and Ionic.
Single install
Everything you need to get started
Our easy-to-use installer performs all the heavy lifting needed to have your computer up and running with the necessary SDKs, tools, libraries, and more for building cross-platform apps.
Create code
Code editing made quick and painless
As applications become more complex, you need more than just a text editor. You need a code editor optimized for refactoring, auto-completion and code comprehension. Visual Studio provides all that and more, including:
- Syntax highlighting to help you visually identify errors
- IntelliSense to help you better understand and code against new APIs
- Code peek for in-line reference review
Learn more about editing in Visual Studio
Preview and test
Ensure your app looks and works exactly as you intended
Whether you’re targeting iOS, Android or Windows, Visual Studio provides preview support for a wide variety of emulators and tethered devices. You can even deploy and debug emulators hosted on a remote or virtual machine (e.g. Parallels).
For developers working in an exclusively Windows-based work environment, Visual Studio offers the ability to build for Mac OS remotely via services like MacInCloud.
Debug and analyze
More time coding, less time finding bugs
Anywhere your code runs, Visual Studio can debug it – whether your code is running on an iOS, Android or Windows device, an emulator or simulator, or a browser-based debug target like Ripple. There’s no need to switch tools when you build for a different platform. Visual Studio connects to almost any deploy target.
Visual Studio’s debugger lets you step through code with breakpoints and automatic exception notifications that expose the run-time state of objects and variables. Advanced features like edit-and-continue, conditional breakpoints, tracepoints and hit counts provide the kind of deep analysis you need to make coding enjoyable and not a merciless game of “find the bug.”
Learn more about debugging in Visual Studio
Web apps evolved
Access native device capabilities
Powered by Apache Cordova, your apps written in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript can easily access native device APIs not yet available to browsers (e.g. camera, calendar, contacts, barcode scanner, and more!).
Best of all, you can access native device capabilities through a common JavaScript API so you get maximum code re-use throughout your application.
Connected to data
Deliver a more personalized app experience
Visual Studio and Azure provide the tools and services necessary to deliver a personalized experience across all your devices – phones, tablets, desktops, TVs and “things” running iOS, Android and Windows.
With just a few lines of code, you can:
- Use push notifications to connect with specific users or entire audiences
- Enable real-time messaging to spark conversation and sharing among your users
- Support offline capabilities for those times when a network connection isn’t available
- Manage Exchange data using Office 365 Service APIs to share and edit calendars, contacts, files and more
Most importantly, you have the backing of Azure to scale to millions of devices on-demand.
Committed to open source
Helping you navigate open source tools, frameworks, and platforms
Did you know that we are committers to Apache Cordova? That we develop and maintain dozens of cross-platform plugins? That we’re collaborating with Google to deliver Angular JS 2.0? This is good news for you. If you run into any issues while building your Apache Cordova app, we have the technical depth and breadth to help you navigate the complexity of open source software. We can share workarounds, provide bug fixes, and lend insight into the roadmap of many open-source projects used for cross-platform and mobile web applications.
You can find the product team on StackOverflow, MSDN Forums or Twitter.
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