Error installing cordova-plugin-inappbrowser: "Error: Expected "*/" or [^*] but "*" found"

Question

When running

cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-inappbrowser

I always get the following errors:

Fetching plugin "cordova-plugin-inappbrowser@~1.2.0" via npm
Installing "cordova-plugin-inappbrowser" for ios
Failed to install 'cordova-plugin-inappbrowser':undefined
Error: Expected "*/" or [^*] but "*" found.

Many of the infos I found are far outdated. I have:

[email protected]
[email protected]

Answer 1

Here are a few different ways you can go about fixing your issue:

1. Check if everything is generating as it should and clean your project.

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Sometimes by logging things and looking at output package you can find that plugin installation is not always reliable. In some cases a couple of plugins might fail to install properly (where you see a "not defined" messages and possibly your undefined message in your logs). Usually removing and (re)adding the failing plugin can fix this issue. Another thing to try is cleaning the project before doing a build - both iOS and Android have a cleanup script available in either ./platforms/ios/cordova/clean and ./platforms/android/cordova/clean respectively which can help sometimes when run between builds.

You can get these bad/incomplete installs sometimes if you have a bad wifi connection. You can test this by checking you the folders thenselves and the plugins/fetch.json,plugins/ios.json and plugins/android.json files.

Your plugins/fetch.json should look like this:

    "cordova-plugin-inappbrowser": {
    "source": {
        "type": "registry",
        "id": "cordova-plugin-inappbrowser@~1.3.0" //or whatever version
    },
    "is_top_level": true,
    "variables": {}
},

When you run cordova build or cordova prepare it should autogenorate a .json for each platform you project has so if you have android and ios it sould create a android.json & ios.json and that should look like this:

"installed_plugins": {
"cordova-plugin-inappbrowser": {
            "PACKAGE_NAME": "com.example.hello"
        },

here try removing the projects build then build it again

 rm -rf platforms/ios/build && cordova build ios

Now test your project, if no luck try some of the following steps.

2. Remove and (re)add your projects platforms and plugins folders.

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in base of your apps folder run

    rm -rf plugins/ && rm -rf platforms/
    cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-inappbrowser
    cordova platform add ios
    cordova run ios

Now test your project if not try steps 3 & 4

3. Test if running cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-inappbrowser will work correctly when in a new project

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Try running:

     cordova create hello com.example.hello "HelloWorld"
     cd hello
     cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-inappbrowser
     cordova platform add ios
     cordova build

If it installed into the new project correctly go into the plugins/ folder then drag and drop the cordova-plugin-inappbrowser plugin folder into your current projects plugins/ folder then test your project again, if your still having an issue double check the make sure the fetch.json or ios.json / android.json files are genorating correctly and they look something like what's in #1.

Also assuming the plugin works in your new app and the new app is using the same app name and package name (when you ran cordova create hello com.example.hello "HelloWorld") you can also simply replace your current www/ in the new project and run it and you shouldn't run into any problems.

4. Similar to step #3, download the plugin not using the cli then add it to your project

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Try downloading the .zip file for the plugin here https://github.com/apache/cordova-plugin-inappbrowser and add it to your plugins folder then test your project

5. Update your project and cli

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Try to be on the current 4.1.0 for ios so in your project folder try running

rm -rf plugins/ && rm -rf platforms/ && cordova platform add ios
cordova platforms update [email protected]
cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-inappbrowser
cordova run ios --device

You can also change your projects version (cordova-ios or cordova-android) versions by specifying in your platforms/platforms.json

e.i.

{
    "ios": "4.1.0"
"android": [version number]
}

Although it is the current version and will hopefully be issue free I have ran into a plugin issue with this where I am currently using a lower version, so if you are still having issues try again with with version @4.0.0 or @3.6.3 you can do so with some of the other useful commands I have provided under #6

6.Make sure you have the right permissions

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There is also a chance you could be having a cordova permissions issue so try checking or changing the following locations

run:

whoami 

to find your user name, use that name here:

sudo chown -R [add your username here] /usr/local/lib/node_modules/cordova

ie

sudo chown -R bobsagit /usr/local/lib/node_modules/cordova


sudo chmod -R 777 /Users/[bobsagit]/.config/
sudo chmod -R 777 ./platforms/ios/

and your project folder, assuming its on the desktop and named ExampleProject

sudo chmod -R 777 ~/Desktop/ExampleProject/platforms/ios

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Other Useful commands

in your apps root folder you can try some of the following
to see the plugins in your current project

cordova plugins list

to check what platforms version in you current project run

cordova platform list

or

 cordova platform version

It will give you the following output

Installed platforms: android 3.5.1, ios 3.5.0
Available platforms: amazon-fireos, blackberry10, browser, firefoxos

check the current platform version of a cordova app

cordova platform version ios

to update your existing version

cordova platform update ios

to change projects version first install globally with the version you'd like then add it to your project

sudo npm install -g [email protected]
cordova platform add [email protected] 

or to update to a specify a specific version

cordova platform update [email protected]

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to see the currently running cordova version on your machine run

cordova --version

for more detail run

npm info cordova

Addition notes:
When you add cordova plugins they are plugins meant for the device and not the browser so make sure you testing on a device by appending --device to your run command like so cordova run ios --device

The old cli you would add plugin with a . syntax ie org.apache.cordova.inappbrowser now you don't, so make sure you are using -'s like you where doing cordova-plugin-inappbrowser

UPDATE: I just read your comment where you said it it works in a different project. I don't know much about http://www.macincloud.com/ but it looks like your problem is an issue from the initial install of the plugin so try cleaning it or remove and adding it back like in step 1 and 2

Answer 2

@GameScripting, if the plugin installs without error on a new project (as you mentioned in a comment), then it should not be an issue with the npm cache or the cordova version.

When I encountered issues adding or removing plugins in the past, it was always related to a corrupt platform plugin json file. These are in a folder called plugins in your app folder. Each platform has its own. I believe you're doing iOS development, so look at the ios.json file in that folder.

First inspect the json in plugins\ios.json to make sure it's well formed (you can compare with a working project, for example, or see the below file). Next, if there's a reference to the cordova-plugin-inappbrowser anywhere, remove the entry, then retry the command:

cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-inappbrowser

{
    "prepare_queue": {
        "installed": [],
        "uninstalled": []
    },
    "config_munge": {
        "files": {}
    },
    "installed_plugins": {
        "cordova-plugin-device": {
            "PACKAGE_NAME": "<YOUR PACKAGE NAME>"
        },
        "cordova-plugin-splashscreen": {
            "PACKAGE_NAME": "<YOUR PACKAGE NAME>"
        },
        "cordova-plugin-whitelist": {
            "PACKAGE_NAME": "<YOUR PACKAGE NAME>"
        },
        "ionic-plugin-keyboard": {
            "PACKAGE_NAME": "<YOUR PACKAGE NAME>"
        },
        "cordova-plugin-inappbrowser": {
            "PACKAGE_NAME": "<YOUR PACKAGE NAME>"
        }        
    },
    "dependent_plugins": {}
}

Answer 3

Update the node.js and npm, create the separate project install platform and plugins paste your www folder into that. Same thing happened to me I did the same, after updating node.jsandnpm resolves the problem.