FileSystem on Cordova 3.4.0 fails “Could not create target file”

Question

I recently upgraded my iOS Cordova project from 2.7.0 to 3.4.0.

After upgrading filesystem access is broken. (seems to work in the simulator though?)

I get an error message stating "Could not create target file", I googled around and thought to change my "fullpath" to "toURL()" but to no avail. I really don't know what to try next?

here's my download code

window.requestFileSystem(
LocalFileSystem.PERSISTENT, 0,

function onFileSystemSuccess(fileSystem) {
fileSystem.root.getFile(
    "dummy.html", {
    create: true,
    exclusive: false
},

function gotFileEntry(fileEntry) {
    var sPath = fileEntry.toURL().replace("dummy.html", "");
    var fileTransfer = new FileTransfer();
    fileEntry.remove();

    fileTransfer.download(
        "https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13253550/db02.xml",
    sPath + "database.xml",

    function (theFile) {
        console.log("download complete: " + theFile.toURI());
        showLink(theFile.toURI());
        setTimeout(function () {
            checkConnection();
        }, 50);
    },

    function (error) {
        console.log("download error source " + error.source);
        console.log("download error target " + error.target);
        console.log("upload error code: " + error.code);
    });
},
fail);
},
fail);

Answer 1

I found the documentation for both the file plugin ( link) and the fileTransfer plugin ( link)

After making the change noted in the original question, I wondered if the file plugin part was OK and started looking for discrepancies between my fileTransfer code and the examples provided.

Turns out I wasn't doing encodeURI() on my download source url (doh)

so the complete, working code:

window.requestFileSystem(
LocalFileSystem.PERSISTENT, 0,

function onFileSystemSuccess(fileSystem) {
fileSystem.root.getFile(
"dummy.html", {
create: true,
exclusive: false
},

function gotFileEntry(fileEntry) {
var sPath = fileEntry.toURL().replace("dummy.html", "");
var fileTransfer = new FileTransfer();
fileEntry.remove();
var DBuri = encodeURI("https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13253550/db02.xml");
fileTransfer.download(
    DBuri,
sPath + "database.xml",

function (theFile) {
    console.log("download complete: " + theFile.toURI());
    showLink(theFile.toURI());
    setTimeout(function () {
        checkConnection();
    }, 50);
},

function (error) {
    console.log("download error source " + error.source);
    console.log("download error target " + error.target);
    console.log("upload error code: " + error.code);
});
},
fail);
},
fail);

Answer 2

Actually,

encodeURI("https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13253550/db02.xml") === "https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13253550/db02.xml"

so your solution must have another factor ;) . I had the same problem when upgrading. fileEntry.toURL() appeared to be the solution, just as file plugin upgrade notes mentioned.

To secure your code against this in future don't use

fileSystem.root.getFile(
  "dummy.html", {
...
var sPath = fileEntry.toURL().replace("dummy.html", "");
...
fileTransfer.download(
  DBuri,
  sPath + "database.xml"

. instead go directly for

fileSystem.root.getFile(
  "database.xml", {
...
fileTransfer.download(
  DBuri,
  fileEntry.toURL()

and let cordova/phonegap do the lifting when it comes to transforming platform specific urls.