with the previous Phonegap version, I used to open google maps from the app simply opening with an href an url, like this https://www.google.com/maps/dir/?api=1&origin=43.9815648,7.5328161&destination=41.802425,12.6021389
But I noticed, with Phonegap 7, that when I tap on the href element, nothing happens. Why?
How can I fix this and open google maps with a given itinerary?
The pages you can load, scripts you can load, etc, are now controlled by CSP (Content Security Policy), rather than just the old WhiteList mechanism in the config.xml. So, if you want to access pages you have to setup your Content Security Policy appropriately. To use Google maps you at least need to add google.com to the default src, gstatic.com to data. These may not be enough, and if you they aren't probably the only option is looking at the errors in the developer console, see here how to get Chrome Developers console on Android, and here to see it on iOS. I always find a bunch of trial and error is required to CSP set just right.
<meta http-equiv="Content-Security-Policy" content="default-src 'self' google.com data: gap: https://ssl.gstatic.com; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' google.com; media-src *">
That said, you probably don't want Google Maps taking control of your application (or maybe you do?) so other recommendations to use the In App Browser plugin would recommended. It's only adding one plugin and using some javascript to open the window:
cordova.InAppBrowser.open('https://www.google.com/maps/dir/?api=1&origin=43.9815648,7.5328161&destination=41.802425,12.6021389', '_blank', 'location=yes');