Capacitor 3 live reload with capacitor.config.ts not working

Description:

Ionic and Capacitor have built-in support for live reload: https://capacitorjs.com/docs/v3/guides/live-reload#using-with-ionic-cli. The live reload functionality leverages the capacitor.config.json file to set the server parameter, so that the Android and iOS builds know which server to use for live reload.

Capacitor v3 (currently in beta) adds support for a TypeScript configuration file (capacitor.config.ts). However, Ionic has capacitor.config.json hardcoded in two places:

https://github.com/ionic-team/ionic-cli/blob/85097593e45837e1a0bdef8f3e20a5f44f6cd1e6/packages/%40ionic/cli/src/lib/integrations/capacitor/config.ts#L4

https://github.com/ionic-team/ionic-cli/blob/77b02a39d08fb369c6b95b5f3b0c255370e9fc23/packages/%40ionic/cli/src/commands/deploy/manifest.ts#L22

Because of this, even if a .ts config file is present, Ionic will write the server parameters to a newly created capacitor.config.json, because of which the config never reaches the android and ios folders. Capacitor prefers the .ts file and therefore doesn’t look for a .json file anymore.

Steps to Reproduce:

• Install Capacitor 3 beta
• Ensure you have a TypeScript config file, not a JSON one
• Run a live reload command, e.g. ionic cap run android -l --external
• Notice a new file capacitor.config.json is created alongside the existing capacitor.config.ts, therefore the server parameter never reaches the Android and iOS builds

Output:

n/a

My ionic info:

Ionic:

   Ionic CLI                     : 6.12.4 (C:\Users\Dennis\AppData\Roaming\nvm\v14.15.5\node_modules\@ionic\cli)
   Ionic Framework               : @ionic/angular 5.5.5
   @angular-devkit/build-angular : 0.1100.7
   @angular-devkit/schematics    : 11.0.7
   @angular/cli                  : 11.0.7
   @ionic/angular-toolkit        : 2.3.3

Capacitor:

   Capacitor CLI   : 3.0.0-beta.6
   @capacitor/core : 3.0.0-beta.6

Utility:

   cordova-res : not installed
   native-run  : 1.3.0

System:

   NodeJS : v14.15.5 (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe)
   npm    : 6.14.11
   OS     : Windows 10

Other Information:

N/A

[codercodingthecode]

Furthermore, if you update from 2 to 3 today as I did. You will run into the same issue. The .json file keeps getting recreated instead of using the .ts version with base settings.

From this guide: https://capacitorjs.com/docs/updating/3-0

[adamschoenemann]

Same problem here (on android, haven’t tried IOS).

Ubuntu 20 Node v16.13.2 NPM 8.1.2 @capacitor/core 3.2.5