Reading ionic www/config.xml file from device

I am having trouble reading the www/config.xml file from Android device. I tried two different approaches. First, I tried using the $http service which was recommended in another thread to do. When that did not work I then tried to use the Cordova file plugin. The reason I am doing this is to try to get the version number from the www/config.xml file in the app. Below are both approaches:

1) $http.get()

 url = 'file:///android_asset/www/config.xml'
 $http.get(url)
    .then ((data) ->
      versionNumber = data.data.match(/<widget\s.*?\sversion=['"]([^'"]+)['"]/)
      verNum = versionNumber[1]
    ), (err) ->
    # {"data": null, "status": 0, .....}
      alert JSON.stringify err

2) Cordova file plugin

   if ionic.Platform.isAndroid()
    path = 'file:///android_asset/www/'
    file = 'config.xml'
    $cordovaFile.readAsText(path, file)
      .then ((data) ->
        alert JSON.stringify data
        return
      ), (error) ->
        # I alert { code: 5 } which is an ENCODING_ERR
        alert JSON.stringify error