Ionic-framework: Ionic CLI: missing NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription entry in *-Info.plist file (iOS platform)

[PiiSart]

Ionic version:
[ ] 2.x
[ x] 3.x
[ ] 4.x

I'm submitting a ...
[x ] bug report
[ ] feature request

Current behavior:
Ionic CLI doesn't set the NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription key in *-Info.plist file when adding an ios platform. This will cause malfunction of cordova-plugin-geolocation. The call of the 'getCurrentPosition()' method returns neither resolve nor reject (tested with Simulator target iPad-Air iOS 11.1 and iPad mini device iOS10.3). When passing a timeout option (for example getCurrentPosition({timeout: 15000})) the method provides a timeout error.

Expected behavior:
The call of the getCurrentPosition() method provides a response with latitude and longitude values.

Steps to reproduce:
Start new ionic project with cordova integration:

$ ionic start <project name>

Add cordova-plugin-geolocation plugin:

$ ionic cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-geolocation --variable GEOLOCATION_USAGE_DESCRIPTION="To locate you"
$ npm install --save @ionic-native/geolocation

Add ios platform:

$ ionic cordova platform add ios

The last command creates an ios/project name folder inside platform folder where the *-Info.plist file is located. Unfortunately the NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription key entry is missing here.

<key>NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription</key>
    <string>Description</string>

When manually inserting the key in to the *-Info.plist file the corodva-plugin-geolocation does function without problems.

Related code:

https://github.com/PiiSart/ionic_geolocation.git

// home.ts

import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { NavController } from 'ionic-angular';
import {Geolocation} from "@ionic-native/geolocation";

@Component({
  selector: 'page-home',
  templateUrl: 'home.html'
})
export class HomePage {
  private latitude: number = 0;
  private longitude: number = 0;
  private info: string = '';
  private error: string = '';

  constructor(public navCtrl: NavController, private gelocation: Geolocation) {
    this.info = "try to get current device position...";
    this.gelocation.getCurrentPosition().then((data) => {
      this.info = "receive position data!";
      this.latitude = data.coords.latitude;
      this.longitude = data.coords.longitude;
    }).catch((error) => {
      this.error = error.message;
    });
  }
}

Other information:

Ionic info:

cli packages: (/usr/local/lib/node_modules)

    @ionic/cli-utils  : 1.19.0
    ionic (Ionic CLI) : 3.19.0

global packages:

    cordova (Cordova CLI) : 7.0.1 

local packages:

    @ionic/app-scripts : 3.1.2
    Cordova Platforms  : ios 4.4.0
    Ionic Framework    : ionic-angular 3.9.2

System:

    ios-deploy : 1.9.1 
    ios-sim    : 5.0.13 
    Node       : v7.8.0
    npm        : 4.2.0 
    OS         : macOS Sierra
    Xcode      : Xcode 9.1 Build version 9B55 

Environment Variables:

    ANDROID_HOME : not set

Misc:

    backend : legacy

[JohannesHoffmann]

can confirm this. Just run into the same issue...
ionic 3.7
ionic-native 4.4.2

[PaulWen]

I am also facing the same issue. I believe it occurs in the context of iOS 10+. What fixed it for me was adding the following lines to the config.xml:

<config-file overwrite="true" parent="NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription" platform="ios" target="*-Info.plist"> <string>Allow the app to know your location</string> </config-file>

[cburyta]

There are a couple layers to be aware of here,

1. I believe the cordova-plugin-googlemaps plugin can inject the permission to the ios build settings, but the docs say to use a different variable from what you used in the examples. (per docs at https://github.com/mapsplugin/cordova-plugin-googlemaps at the time of this comment...)

    --variable LOCATION_WHEN_IN_USE_DESCRIPTION="My custom when in use message" \
    --variable LOCATION_ALWAYS_USAGE_DESCRIPTION="My custom always usage message"

1. what @PaulWen says should work, but it's worth looking into what the cordova support is for the config-file tag in the config.xml, as I believe it's either deprecated or will depend on use of another plugin in the future (e.g. this plugin seems to add support for config-file: https://www.npmjs.com/package/cordova-config-utils)

[mhartington]

@PaulWen's approach is close, it's actually edit-config.

https://github.com/apache/cordova-plugin-geolocation#ios-quirks

These are updates needed for iOS 11 security. Please update your plugins and add the appropriate messages. Thanks!

[Klerith]

Just to summarize, add this on your config.xml file

<edit-config target="NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription" file="*-Info.plist" mode="merge">
    <string>need location access to find things nearby</string>
</edit-config>

[ionitron-bot[bot]]

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