How to check Ionic Framework version

Tadashi Shigeoka ·  Sat, April 15, 2017

I was taught that Ionic Framework has different versions for the main framework and CLI, so I’ll introduce how to check the versions.

Background on wanting to check Ionic version

It started when I read Ionic 3.0 has Arrived! and thought I’d like to try Ionic 3.0.

How to check Ionic CLI version

How to check before npm install

You can check dist-tags and versions with npm info.

dist-tags: latest: ‘2.2.2’, so if you npm install without specifying a version, ionic cli version 2.2.2 will be installed.

npm info ionic
 
{ name: 'ionic',
  description: 'A tool for creating and developing Ionic Framework mobile apps.',
  'dist-tags': 
   { latest: '2.2.2',
     unzip: '1.3.1-1.alpha.0',
     serve: '1.3.12',
     server: '1.3.1-3.beta.4',
     link: '1.3.14-beta.1',
     readline: '1.3.15-beta.4',
     resources: '1.3.1-7.beta.4',
     nohooks: '1.3.18-beta.3',
     docs: '1.3.19-beta.2',
     extlib: '1.4.0-beta.7',
     'hook-hotfix': '1.3.21-beta.1',
     beta: '3.0.0-beta7',
     testing: '1.7.15-beta.3',
     livereload: '2.0.0-alpha.11',
     generate: '2.0.0-alpha.15',
     bundle: '2.0.0-alpha.17',
     quickstart: '2.0.0-alpha.20',
     'beta-test': '2.0.0-beta.20',
     test: '2.1.18',
     nightly: '2.1.18-201701110338',
     canary: '3.0.0-beta.5-alpha.c9d454fd' },
  versions: 
   [ '0.9.6',
     '0.9.8',
// Omitted in the middle
     '1.2.9',
     '1.2.10',
     ... 292 more items ],

As a side note, if you want to install by specifying a version:

npm install -g ionic@beta

or

npm install -g [email protected]

You can npm install by specifying @version_number.

How to check after npm install

To check the version of ionic cli installed after npm install, you can check the ionic command version in the terminal.

$ ionic --version
2.2.2

How to check Ionic main framework version

I was taught that after npm install -g ionic, the version of ionic-angular listed in the package.json created by ionic start is the version of the main framework.

(Example) When doing ionic start myApp --v2

package.json

{
  "name": "ionic-hello-world",
  "author": "Ionic Framework",
  "homepage": "http://ionicframework.com/",
  "private": true,
  "scripts": {
    "clean": "ionic-app-scripts clean",
    "build": "ionic-app-scripts build",
    "ionic:build": "ionic-app-scripts build",
    "ionic:serve": "ionic-app-scripts serve"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    /* Omitted */
    "ionic-angular": "3.0.1",
    /* Omitted */

In this example, “ionic-angular”: “3.0.1” means Ionic Framework version 3.0.1 is being used.

Summary

If you confuse the versions of Ionic main framework and CLI, you might get confused about which version you’re using.

I think it’s essential to properly understand the version of Ionic Framework you’re using when checking the official documentation, so I hope this is helpful.

That’s all from the Gemba.