Q:

Difference between ionic and cordova plugin install

When working with ionic, what is the difference between 
ionic plugin install ...

and
cordova plugin install

Which one should be used? And why?
Thx!

A:

There is a difference
Ionic create some files in the project, such as ionic.project and package.json.
Each time you add a plugin with Ionic using the command ionic plugin add ... , Ionic updates package.json.
Ionic CLI uses package.json to manage Cordova app state in terms of platforms and plugins.
package.json has two sections, cordovaPlatforms and cordovaPlugins that allows a ionic state restore to get the Cordova environment ready for build, run, etc...
More explanations here : https://stackoverflow.com/a/30192417/3096087

