Apache Cordova hook to automatically timestamp builds for iOS.

automatic_timestamped_builds.js

#!/usr/bin/env node

// Don't forget to install xml2js using npm
// `$ npm install xml2js`

var fs = require('fs');
var xml2js = require('xml2js');

module.exports = function(context) {
  var timestamp = (function() {
    var now = new Date();
    var year = now.getUTCFullYear().toString().substring(2, 4);
    var month = ("0" + (now.getUTCMonth() + 1)).slice(-2);
    var day = ("0" + now.getUTCDate()).slice(-2);
    var hours = ("0" + now.getUTCHours()).slice(-2);
    var min = ("0" + now.getUTCMinutes()).slice(-2);
    return year.toString() + month.toString() + day.toString() + hours.toString() + min.toString();
  })();

  // Read config.xml
  fs.readFile('config.xml', 'utf8', function(err, data) {
    if(err) {
      return console.log(err);
    }
    
    // Get XML
    var xml = data;
    
    // Parse XML to JS Obj
    xml2js.parseString(xml, function (err, result) {
      if(err) {
        return console.log(err);
      }
      
      // Get JS Obj
      var obj = result;
      
      // ios-CFBundleVersion doen't exist in config.xml
      if(typeof obj['widget']['$']['ios-CFBundleVersion'] === 'undefined') {
        obj['widget']['$']['ios-CFBundleVersion'] = timestamp;
      }
      
      // android-versionCode doen't exist in config.xml
      // if(typeof obj['widget']['$']['android-versionCode'] === 'undefined') {
      //   obj['widget']['$']['android-versionCode'] = timestamp;
      // }
      
      // Increment build numbers (separately for iOS and Android)
      obj['widget']['$']['ios-CFBundleVersion'] = timestamp;
      // obj['widget']['$']['android-versionCode'] = timestamp;
      
      // Build XML from JS Obj
      var builder = new xml2js.Builder();
      var xml = builder.buildObject(obj);
      
      // Write config.xml
      fs.writeFile('config.xml', xml, function(err) {
        if(err) {
          return console.log(err);
        }
        
        console.log('Build number successfully incremented to: ' + timestamp);
      });
      
    });
  });
};

config.xml

...

<hook type="before_prepare" src="/path/to/automatic_timestamped_builds.js" />

...

Android versionCode does not support timestamps in the versionCode, thus I am removing android support for now.