Build and Deployment Issues (Windows 8.1 phone)

[A_G_]

Two questions:

1) I was able to build for Windows 8 once. Now when I try again I get "An error occurred while building the application. Verify your build assets are correct and try again." There is no link to get the Build Log. My Android builds still work fine. 

2) For the one Windows build that worked successfully, I try to open the zip file from my email on a new windows 8.1 phone I just purchased for this purpose. Are there step-by-step directions for how to test on a Windows phone? The directions at are vague - the first step for windows RT (which I assume includes Windows 8.1 Phone) is "Extract the application subdirectory contained in the provided zip file to a Windows 8 environment.". However when I click on the zip file is just shows me the files in the zip and if I click on any of them I get a message about needing to find an app in the app store to open it. While I'm clear on the app store thing I'm not all that familiar with Windows Phone. Can someone provide more info on how to get this installed?

Incidentally when I run in App Preview on the Windows phone the buttons in the app don't work even though they do in the emulator on a similar Nokia phone.

[PaulF_IntelCorp]

1) I just tried a test build for Windows8 and I was able to get a full build. Not sure what might be causing this error. Try creating a test project using the blank template and build that. If that works, then double-check all of your Build Settings on the Project tab.

2) The Windows 8 Cordova build will only install and run on a Windows 8 desktop or laptop, it will not run on a Windows 8 phone. The only build we currently have for Windows 8 phone is in the Legacy build section. The instructions you are reading are for Windows 8 "Metro" Cordova apps, not Windows 8 Phone legacy apps. We do plan to include support for Windows phone, just not there, yet.

[A_G_]

Thank you for the very quick response!

1) After building a test app successfully I was again able to build my app. 

2) Makes sense. However I was able to build and deploy the legacy version of the app. I'm not all that clear on the difference between metro and legacy apps for windows phone though (probably because I'm not all that familiar with Windows Phone 8.1). On a Windows 8 computer, I get the difference between metro and legacy (different UI, executed differently) but is it the same for Windows phone? A quick Internet search yielded this: http://www.zdnet.com/article/not-all-apps-that-run-on-windows-8-are-windows-8-apps-got-it/ which doesn't really help...

[PaulF_IntelCorp]

Windows "Metro" apps are only (at this time) for Windows 8 machines. "Metro" refers to the "Windows New" or "Windows Modern" interface that you'll find on a Windows laptop or tablet (there's no official name for it since Microsoft got sued for trademark infringement and dropped the name).

There is a new sort of app that is called a "Windows Universal" app, that will allow building apps that run on both Windows phones and Windows tablets and laptops. This will be available as a Cordova build option, Microsoft has been working to enable this in the Cordova project. My suspicion is that when we finally get the proper Cordova build option for Windows Phone devices it will be for the universal apps, but I'm not positive, depends on if we run into any issues when deploying that version of the build system.

[Bhavya_A_]

Hi Paul,

I am developing an app for windows phone 8.1 . Why the application crashes as its clicked to run .

Am i doing something wrong?

Thank you

[PaulF_IntelCorp]

Sorry, but "crashes" doesn't provide much useful information. Try opening your index.html file with IE 11 and use the IE 11 debugger on your Windows machine to see if there are any telling issues. You cannot execute any Cordova APIs there, but you may find an "undefined" or similar error message that is getting in the way of starting your app. The webview on a Windows Phone and Windows tablet (laptop) are quite different than the Chrome browser used in the Emulate tab. IE 11 is very close to what your app runs in on a real device.

[PaulF_IntelCorp]

Timothee, I see Anusha is helping you with this issue on a different thread > https://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/intel-xdk/topic/600698, so closing this one.