Yesterday I was proof-reading a blog post about an update to the PhoneGap CLI (which you should read - PhoneGap CLI 3.6.3) and I discovered something interesting. For a while now the Cordova CLI has had the ability to create a new project based on another. This is great because the default Cordova/PhoneGap application annoys the heck out of me.

You can see this feature by typing cordova help create. Here is how the feature is documented:

--copy-from|src= ... use custom www assets instead of the stock Cordova hello-world.

Ok, nice and simple, right? So I built my own skeleton application with a minimal amount of code and just carried on my happy way. While reading that article about PhoneGap's update though I discovered this feature actually does two things.

If you point --copy-from at a folder that is not a Cordova application, it will copy the assets into the www folder of your new project.

If you point --copy-from at a folder that is a Cordova application, it will copy the www folder, the hooks folder, and the config.xml file. I had no idea that this was supported, and while I probably won't use the feature that often, it is good to know it exists. (And I'm going to file a bug report right now for the Cordova CLI to update the help text.)

p.s. As a reminder, definitely read that article about the PhoneGap CLI update. I primarily use the Cordova CLI but the PhoneGap one now has some features that Cordova does not. One of them I really like - if you try to run a platform that doesn't exist, it will simply add it for you. Nice.