Cordova/PhoneGap Open Downloaded File (InAppBrowser)

Question

Using Cordova/PhoneGap 3.3.0, I am downloading a file using the FileTransfer plugin, and then trying to open it using the InAppBrowser plugin. I can download the file successfully, and place it in the temp directory. Since the File plugin now uses URL schema, I cannot figure out how to pass the correct url/path to the window.open method of the InAppBrowser plugin. I cannot find any relevant documentation either. All of the "download and open" documentation I can find is out of date and pre-URL-schema.

Relevant links:

• Cordova Release info on New Plugin Versions
• The readme for the FileTransfer plugin
• The readme for the InAppBrowser plugin
• How to open local file with InAppBrowser with recent changes to URL scheme in File plugin - Similar question

Out of date examples I found:

• File-transfer download file issue on Cordova 3.1 - This user downgraded to an earlier version because they couldn't figure it out
• https://gist.github.com/devgeeks/4982983 - This example uses entry.fullPath, which is now deprecated in favor of toURL()

Here is my code:

var uri = encodeURI("http://some.url/file.pdf");
window.requestFileSystem(LocalFileSystem.TEMPORARY, 0,
    function (fileSystem) {
        var fileTransfer = new FileTransfer();
        var filename = fileSystem.root.toURL() + uri.substr(uri.lastIndexOf("/") + 1);
        fileTransfer.download(uri, filename,
            function(entry) { // download success
                var path = entry.toURL(); //**THIS IS WHAT I NEED**
                window.open(path, "_system");
            },
            function(error) {} // irrelevant download error
        );
    },
    function(error) {} // irrelevant request fileSystem error
);

I am currently testing in Android on a Nexus 7 and Nexus 5. The InAppBrowser correctly opens the default pdf launcher (in my case Adobe Reader), but then I get a "The document path is not valid" error.

[Update: showing return values]

I have tried all of the following combinations for the file path:

var path = entry.toURL(); // "cdvfile://localhost/temporary/file.pdf"
var path = entry.fullPath; // "file.pdf"
var path = fileSystem.root.toURL() + filename; // "cdvfile://localhost/temporary/file.pdf"
var path = fileSystem.root.fullPath + filename; // "/file.pdf"

Answer 1

Since Cordova 3.4 the file protocol has changed and instead of using fullPath they now provide the toURL() that returns a cdvfile://path/to/your/file.ext path.

So when you download a file using the filesystem object's callback (with the entry argument) just call the entry.toURL() and open this using the following statement to open it - assuming you have InApBrowser installed and the _blank will open the InAppBrowser's window:

window.open(entry.toURL(), '_blank', 'location=no,closebuttoncaption=Close,enableViewportScale=yes');  

I wrote about it in this post on my blog (if you want all the references and background info).