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Using a Live Update Provider

A Portal's live update source isn't limited to Ionic Appflow. A Live Update Provider lets a Portal instead sync its web assets from any external update service, by wiring up an implementation of that service's ProviderManager interface.

note

This is for teams who want to sync Portal web assets from their own update infrastructure instead of Appflow. If you're using Appflow, see Adding Live Updates instead.

Install​

io.ionic:liveupdateprovider defines the ProviderManager/ProviderSyncResult contracts a provider implements, and is already pulled in transitively by io.ionic:portals. If you need to reference its types directly (for example, to implement a ProviderManager), add it explicitly:

build.gradle
dependencies {
  implementation 'io.ionic:liveupdateprovider:1.0.0'
}

Your update service's own SDK will depend on this library and supply a concrete ProviderManager implementation — consult that SDK's documentation for how to construct one.

Configure​

Use PortalBuilder.setLiveUpdateProviderManager(manager) to configure a Portal with a ProviderManager, in place of the setLiveUpdateConfig(...) call used for Appflow:

import android.app.Application
import io.ionic.portals.PortalManager

class MyApplication : Application() {
    override fun onCreate(): Unit {
        super.onCreate()

        PortalManager.newPortal("portal1")
            .setLiveUpdateProviderManager(MyUpdateProviderManager())
            .create()
    }
}

This sets the Portal's liveUpdateSource to LiveUpdateSource.Provider(manager). A Portal can only have one live update source configured — either LiveUpdateSource.Ionic(liveUpdateConfig) from setLiveUpdateConfig(...), or LiveUpdateSource.Provider(manager) from setLiveUpdateProviderManager(...).

caution

Unlike an Ionic (Appflow) source, a Provider source is not synced automatically when a Portal is created or loaded, regardless of the provider's own internal behavior. Your app must explicitly trigger a sync through the Portals API, as shown below.

Syncing​

Call syncProvider() (Kotlin) or syncProviderAsync() (Java) to trigger a sync manually:

val portal = PortalManager.getPortal("portal1")
val result = portal.syncProvider()

The returned ProviderSyncResult? is defined by your provider's SDK, since providers can attach their own sync metadata. If the Portal isn't configured with a LiveUpdateSource.Provider, both methods throw Portal.LiveUpdateNotConfigured.

Reloading After a Sync​

Portal.latestAppDirectory(context) resolves the latest synced asset directory regardless of whether the Portal is configured with an Ionic or Provider source, so a Portal can be reloaded the same way once a sync completes. See Reload Portals with Live Updates for the reload pattern — substitute the syncProvider()/syncProviderAsync() call shown above wherever that guide calls LiveUpdateManager.sync(...).

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