deviceready

This is an event that fires when PhoneGap is fully loaded.

document.addEventListener("deviceready", yourCallbackFunction, false);

Details

This is a very important event that every PhoneGap application should use.

PhoneGap consists of two code bases: native and JavaScript. While the native code is loading, a custom loading image is displayed. However, JavaScript is only loaded once the DOM loads. This means your web application could, potentially, call a PhoneGap JavaScript function before it is loaded.

The PhoneGap deviceready event fires once PhoneGap has fully loaded. After the device has fired, you can safely make calls to PhoneGap function.

Typically, you will want to attach an event listener with document.addEventListener once the HTML document's DOM has loaded.

Supported Platforms

  • Android
  • BlackBerry WebWorks (OS 5.0 and higher)
  • iOS

Quick Example

document.addEventListener("deviceready", onDeviceReady, false);

function onDeviceReady() {
    // Now safe to use the PhoneGap API
}

Full Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>PhoneGap Device Ready Example</title>

    <script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="phonegap.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">

    // Call onDeviceReady when PhoneGap is loaded.
    //
    // At this point, the document has loaded but phonegap.js has not.
    // When PhoneGap is loaded and talking with the native device,
    // it will call the event `deviceready`.
    //
    function onLoad() {
        document.addEventListener("deviceready", onDeviceReady, false);
    }

    // PhoneGap is loaded and it is now safe to make calls PhoneGap methods
    //
    function onDeviceReady() {
        // Now safe to use the PhoneGap API
    }

    </script>
  </head>
  <body onload="onLoad()">
  </body>
</html>

BlackBerry (OS 4.6) Quirks

Custom events are not supported in the RIM BrowserField (web browser view), so the deviceready event will never fire.

A workaround is to manually query PhoneGap.available until PhoneGap has fully loaded.

function onLoad() {
    // BlackBerry OS 4 browser does not support events.
    // So, manually wait until PhoneGap is available.
    //
    var intervalID = window.setInterval(
      function() {
          if (PhoneGap.available) {
              window.clearInterval(intervalID);
              onDeviceReady();
          }
      },
      500
    );
}

function onDeviceReady() {
    // Now safe to use the PhoneGap API
}