Approov Quickstart: Cordova

This quickstart is written specifically for Android and iOS apps that are implemented using Cordova and the Cordova Advanced HTTP networking plugin. If this is not your situation then check if there is a more relevant quickstart guide available.

The version of Cordova Advanced HTTP networking plugin provided is based on version 3.3.1.

This page provides all the steps for integrating Approov into your app. Additionally, a step-by-step tutorial guide using our Shapes App Example is also available.

To follow this guide you should have received an onboarding email for a trial or paid Approov account.

Note that the minimum OS requirement for iOS is 12 and for Android the minimum SDK version is 21 (Android 5.0). You cannot use Approov in apps that need to support OS versions older than this.

ADDING THE APPROOV PLUGIN

It is assumed that your starting point is an app that already uses the Cordova Advanced HTTP networking plugin plugin. You must first remove it from your project as follows:

cordova plugin remove cordova-plugin-advanced-http

It is not possible to have this plugin in your project at the same time as the Approov enabled one. However, you can control which domains are protected using Approov via its configuration.

Next add the Approov capable version of the advanced HTTP plugin:

cordova plugin add @approov/cordova-plugin-advanced-http

This installs the Approov capable plugin from npm. The plugin provides exactly the same interface but with some additional methods to control the Approov integration. Thus there is no need to change the API request in your app. If Approov is not initialized then these are performed as normal without attempting to add any Approov capabilities.

Please read this section of the reference documentation if targeting Android 11 (API level 30) or above.

INITIALIZING THE APPROOV PLUGIN

In order to use Approov you must initialize it when your app is created, probably as a result of a deviceready event that indicates that the Cordova environment is fully loaded.

For instance, you may wish to call the initialization as follows:

document.addEventListener('deviceready', onDeviceReady, false);

function onDeviceReady() {
    cordova.plugin.http.approovInitialize("<enter-your-config-string-here>",
        () => {},
        (err) => {
            console.log("Approov initialization error: " + err.message);
        });
}

The <enter-your-config-string-here> is a custom string that configures your Approov account access. This will have been provided in your Approov onboarding email.

The approovInitialize method provides a success and failure function. It should only fail if the configuration provided is invalid in some way. We suggest you provide a logging error callback as shown.

CHECKING IT WORKS

Once the initialization is called, it is possible for any requests using cordova.plugin.http to have Approov tokens or secret substitutions made. Initially you won't have set which API domains to protect, so the requests will be unchanged. It will have called Approov though and made contact with the Approov cloud service. You will see ApproovService logging indicating UNKNOWN_URL (Android) or unknown URL (iOS).

On Android, you can see logging using logcat output from the device. You can see the specific Approov output using adb logcat | grep ApproovService. On iOS, look at the console output from the device using the Console app from MacOS. This provides console output for a connected simulator or physical device. Select the device and search for ApproovService to obtain specific logging related to Approov.

Your Approov onboarding email should contain a link allowing you to access Live Metrics Graphs. After you've run your app with Approov integration you should be able to see the results in the live metrics within a minute or so. At this stage you could even release your app to get details of your app population and the attributes of the devices they are running upon.

NEXT STEPS

To actually protect your APIs and/or secrets there are some further steps. Approov provides two different options for protection:

• API PROTECTION: You should use this if you control the backend API(s) being protected and are able to modify them to ensure that a valid Approov token is being passed by the app. An Approov Token is short lived crytographically signed JWT proving the authenticity of the call.

• SECRETS PROTECTION: This allows app secrets, including API keys for 3rd party services, to be protected so that they no longer need to be included in the released app code. These secrets are only made available to valid apps at runtime.

Note that it is possible to use both approaches side-by-side in the same app.

See REFERENCE for a complete list of all of the Approov related methods supported by the plugin. Also see README for a reference on how to use the HTTP networking plugin functionality.