Build modes

Before we go much further, we need to define some terms when it comes to building your app for deployment. There are several variations, and it is important to understand them well.

There are typically two build modes: debug and release. Depending on your needs, you may actually have more. For this chapter, we'll focus only on these two. Let's go over what they are used for and the differences between them.

A debug build is the default build generated by Cordova. It's loaded with debugging information (hence the name), which is extremely useful during the development and debugging phases. Your app might have additional debugging aids as well. For example, there might be a simple tool to query a local database. The output might be ugly, but it doesn't matter much while debugging.

A debug build is never ever meant for typical end users. This means that you should never have debug code in an app deployed to an app store (your app may be rejected because of it...