Upgrade Instructions

To upgrade a NativeScript application you need to upgrade several things: NativeScript CLI Tooling, the iOS and Android runtimes and the cross-platform modules. In the steps below you will see how to do this. Please also keep in mind that you should read the breaking changes for each release.

Upgrading the NativeScript tools

The below command demonstrates how to upgrade your NativeScript tools known also as NativeScript CLI. You should first upgrade your tns (or nativescript) command, so go to a command prompt or bash/terminal prompt and type:

npm install -g nativescript

This will automatically download needed files and will update your computer to the latest version of the NativeScript command line. You can type tns --version to verify that the new version is installed.

Migrate an existing project to {N} 6.0

To migrate an existing NativeScript project to 6.0, you need just to run:

tns migrate

This command will perform all the required updates of packages and changes in the project that are required to adjust a 6.0 project with the latest requirements.

Node: The migrate command will update {N} core packages and the below-listed plugins to their 6.0 compatible version:

 node-sass
 typescript
 less
 nativescript-dev-sass
 nativescript-dev-typescript
 nativescript-dev-less
 nativescript-camera
 nativescript-geolocation
 nativescript-imagepicker
 nativescript-social-share
 nativescript-ui-chart
 nativescript-ui-dataform
 nativescript-ui-gauge
 nativescript-ui-listview
 nativescript-ui-sidedrawer
 nativescript-ui-calendar
 nativescript-ui-autocomplete
 nativescript-datetimepicker
 kinvey-nativescript-sdk
 nativescript-plugin-firebase
 nativescript-vue
 nativescript-permissions
 nativescript-cardview

Note: As soon as you find a problem with the core dependencies - please open an issue in the respective GitHub repository. If unsure, you can open it in the nativescript/nativescript repository. If the problem is related to some of the external plugins, please contact the author by opening a new issue in the plugin's repository.

Upgrading the application

You should execute the update command in the root folder of your project to upgrade it with the latest versions of iOS/Android runtimes and cross-platform modules.

The update command is introduced in version 2.4 of NativeScript CLI. You should update NativeScript CLI before using this command.

tns update

In order to get the latest development release instead, pass next as argument:

tns update next

You can also switch to specific version by passing it to the command:

tns update 2.3.0

Note: The command tns update is updating the tns-core-modules, nativescript-dev-webpack, and the runtimes (tns-android and tns-ios). The command is combining the next three commands in this article (tns platform add, npm i tns-core-modules and npm i nativescript-dev-webpack --save-dev).

Note: After updating the nativescript-dev-webpack, we must update our webpack.config.js as well. To do that we can execute the update-ns-webpack automated script with the following line:

./node_modules/.bin/update-ns-webpack --deps --configs

Important: When using the --configs flag, any previous configuration will be overwritten and lost. Consider saving any custom code that you have introduced in your webpack.config.js and reapplying the code after using the --configs flag.

Upgrading platforms

Follow those steps in order to get the latest versions of Android and/or iOS runtimes. Navigate to the root level folder where your project is, and then if you are working on a Android project, type:

tns platform remove android
tns platform add android

and/or (if you are working on a iOS version on a Mac):

tns platform remove ios
tns platform add ios

Upgrading TNS modules

The cross-platform modules are available as a npm package named tns-core-modules.

In order to use them in your project, you will have to explicitly install the package, for example (assuming you are still in your main app project folder from the steps above):

npm install tns-core-modules@latest --save

This installs the tns-core-modules package to the node_modules folder and adds it as a dependency to the package.json of the project.

Important: The tns create command will create a new project, add the tns-core-modules package as a dependency to its package.json and install it. So each new project you create will have the tns-core-modules package installed and you do not have to install it explicitly.

Another place to find tns-core-modules package is NativeScript Releases, where you can find a collection of the available tns-core-modules-*.tgz packages for every release. You can download a selected release and install it by running: npm install <path to tns-core-modules-*.tgz> --save.

Upgrading Webpack

The Webpack plugin is available as a npm package named nativescript-dev-webpack. To use the plugin in your project, you should explicitly install the package as devDependency.The initial installation of the plugin will install all related development dependencies and will create the default webpack.config.js file. If the webpack.config.js file is already existing it won't be overwritten by the installation of nativescript-dev-webpack.

npm i nativescript-dev-webpack --save-dev

Note: From NativeScript 6.0, all project should be webpack compatible.

Updating Webpack version and configuration

When upgrading an existing version of the Webpack plugin, you should consider that the related development dependencies also have to be updated accordingly. To ease the process, the plugin provides an automated script for that purpose called update-ns-webpack located in <project-folder>/node_modules/.bin folder. The script comes with two flags:

• --deps - this flag will update all related development dependencies.
• --configs - this flag will update the default webpack.config.js file.

npm i nativescript-dev-webpack@latest --save-dev
./node_modules/.bin/update-ns-webpack --deps --configs

Important: When using the --configs flag, any previous configuration will be overwritten and lost. Consider saving any custom code that you have introduced in your webpack.config.js and reapplying the code after using the --configs flag.

Upgrading Angular dependencies

The Angular plugin is available as an npm package named nativescript-angular. To update the version of the plugin and the related dependency, the package should be explicitly installed, and the related Angular dependencies should be updated accordingly. To ease the update process, the plugin comes with an automated script update-app-ng-deps located in <project-folder/node_modules/.bin> folder.

npm i nativescript-angular@latest --save
./node_modules/.bin/update-app-ng-deps
npm i