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Using a Live Update Provider

An app's live update source isn't limited to Appflow. A Live Update Provider lets an app sync its web assets from any other update service that supports it instead, whether that's a third-party update service or infrastructure your own organization runs.

note

This is for syncing an app's web assets from an update service other than Appflow. If you're using Appflow, see Live Updates instead.

Configure​

Your update service ships its own Capacitor plugin that implements the provider contract. Add it to your project the way you would any other Capacitor plugin, following that plugin's own installation instructions, then reference it by name in capacitor.config.ts using liveUpdateProvider in place of liveUpdateConfig:

FederatedCapacitor: {
  apps: [
    {
      name: 'helpinfo',
      webDir: 'microfrontends/helpinfo',
      liveUpdateProvider: {
        pluginName: 'MyUpdateServicePlugin',
        autoUpdateMethod: 'background',
        config: {
          // whatever your update service's plugin expects
        },
      },
    },
  ],
},
  • pluginName: the Capacitor plugin name your update service registers under. Federated Capacitor looks this plugin up at startup and uses it as the provider for this app.
  • config: passed straight through to your update service's plugin unchanged. Consult that plugin's own documentation for what it expects here.
  • autoUpdateMethod: 'none' or 'background', same meaning as it has for Appflow. 'background' triggers a sync automatically once the provider is resolved at startup.
tip

Building your own Live Update Provider plugin instead of using an existing update service's? See the Live Update Provider SDK documentation.

caution

On Android specifically, a provider-backed shell app doesn't have the same first-load guarantee an Appflow-backed shell has: resolving a provider requires looking it up on the Capacitor bridge by name, which is only possible once the bridge exists, and Android starts the WebView's first request around the same time it finishes registering plugins. In practice resolution happens well before that first request is handled, but it isn't a hard guarantee the way it is on iOS.

Syncing​

Provider-backed apps use the exact same syncOne, syncSome, syncAll, and reload functions as Appflow-backed apps. See the Reference for the full API. There's nothing provider-specific to call; a given app's name is all that ties a sync call to whichever source (Appflow or provider) that app is actually configured with.

import { syncOne } from '@ionic-enterprise/federated-capacitor';

const result = await syncOne({ name: 'helpinfo' });

If a sync succeeds, SyncResult.metadata will contain whatever sync metadata your provider's plugin returns, if any.

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