cordova prepare not resolving platform specification correctly for devDependency

[grunthor]

Bug Report

Problem

when running cordova prepare for a project with a platform as a devDependency in the package.json, the version is not discovered correctly.

The manual moving of the platform from dependencies to devDependencies is suggested by the verbose logging of cordova-fetch and issues apache/cordova-fetch#64 and apache/cordova-electron#88.

And the changes from pull request apache/cordova-fetch#65 will result in the platforms being added to devDependencies by default.

What is expected to #happen?

With

"dependencies": {
},
"devDependencies": {
    "cordova-electron": "^1.1.1"
},

running cordova prepare after removing platforms, should fetch cordova-electron ^1.1.1
expected console log (this occurs if the platform is in dependencies):

Discovered platform "electron@^1.1.1" in config.xml or package.json. Adding it to the project
Using cordova-fetch for cordova-electron@^1.1.1

What does actually happen?

instead, this tries to fetch cordova-electron ^1.0.0
actual console log:

Discovered platform "electron" in config.xml or package.json. Adding it to the project
Using cordova-fetch for cordova-electron@^1.0.0

Information

This seems to be a result of an if else construct the addHelper.js
https://github.com/apache/cordova-lib/blob/master/src/cordova/platform/addHelper.js#L96-L108
It looks like this finds an empty dependencies object, and then does not subsequently check the devDependencies object contents at all.

Command or Code

reproduction method: (courtesy of @erisu )

cordova create electronTest
cd electronTest/
$ cordova platform add electron
Using cordova-fetch for cordova-electron@^1.0.0

$ cordova prepare
[Cordova Electron] The built package size may be larger than necessary. Please run with --verbose for more details.

rm -rf platforms

$ cordova prepare
Discovered platform "electron@^1.1.1" in config.xml or package.json. Adding it to the project
Using cordova-fetch for cordova-electron@^1.1.1

rm -rf platforms

vi package.json
/// HERE I am moving to devDependencies

$ cordova prepare
Discovered platform "electron" in config.xml or package.json. Adding it to the project
Using cordova-fetch for cordova-electron@^1.0.0

Environment, Platform, Device

Running on Windows 7

Version information

Cordova 9.0.0 ([email protected])

Checklist

• I searched for existing GitHub issues
• I updated all Cordova tooling to most recent version
• I included all the necessary information above

[Crono1981]

I think this should be reopened. The same thing happens with [email protected]. The prepare command will go and fetch [email protected].

As a workaround I've added the platform as a runtime dependency rather than a development dependency (using the --save option with cordova platform add).