Electron-builder: Application entry can't be found

Created on 29 Apr 2016 · 31Comments · Source: electron-userland/electron-builder

Hey,all
I followed the two package.json structure in the document, but when I ran npm run build, it reported an error that Application entry file couldn't be found in package.Seems like a wrong configuration
2016-04-29 10 46 43

the package.json in the root of the project is:

  ...
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1",
    "postinstall": "install-app-deps",
    "clean": "rimraf dist",
    "build": "build"
  },
  "build": {
    "app-bundle-id": "com.smartstudy.toefl",
    "app-category-type": "public.app-category.education"
  },
  ...

and the structure of app directory is:
2016-04-29 10 51 07
the package.json in app directory is:

{
  "name": "toefl",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "description": "this is toefl-pc",
  "main": "./index.js",
  "private": true,
  "author": "caibirdme",
  "license": "ISC",
  "dependencies": {
    "request": "^2.71.0",
    "sequelize": "^3.21.0",
    "sqlite3": "^3.1.3"
  }
}

version:
node 5.10.0
npm 3.8.3
electron 0.37.5
electron-builder 3.13.1

bug

Source

caibirdme

Most helpful comment

Try setting "main" property in your root package.json to be "app/index.js"

Vj3k0 on 29 Apr 2016

👎9 👍5 😄2 ❤1

All 31 comments

Try setting "main" property in your root package.json to be "app/index.js"

Vj3k0 on 29 Apr 2016

👎9 👍5 😄2 ❤1

@Vj3k0 Fix will be tomorrow, for now I suggest just set version to 3.11.0

develar on 29 Apr 2016

@caibirdme Cannot reproduce. Test passed for me.

Notes:
1) "clean": "rimraf dist", Please do not — electron-builder does it for you, — simplify your package.json and reduce build time.
2) Don't specify main explicitly — if file named as index.js, you don't need to specify it at all.

@demetris-manikas Maybe do you have any idea?

develar on 29 Apr 2016

@caibirdme is there an app.asar being built? If so could you provide the output of asar list app.asar?
@develar unfortunately I won't be able to do any tests before Monday.

demetris-manikas on 30 Apr 2016

@caibirdme can you also please explain what is the "electron" listing in your app folder?

demetris-manikas on 4 May 2016

@demetris-manikas I think it maybe a problem of asar...if I add "asar": false in package.json, everything will be ok. My project is divided into three parts,: front_end,back_end and electron.electron is the only directory which has access to electron-api and will export functions that will be used in back_end or front_end

caibirdme on 4 May 2016

@caibirdme can you also answer to my previous question as well?

demetris-manikas on 4 May 2016

You can use externalResources to set data which needs to be accessed outside of asar. Asar is not considered a folder so path is broken to resource which is packed in it.
Does that help?

Vj3k0 on 4 May 2016

@demetris-manikas Sorry for my late reply,I was busy completing my dissertation.There is a app.asar in the foo.app/Contents/Resource.and when I ran ../../../../../node_modules/.bin/asar app.asar there's nothing listed.That is to say the app.asar is empty.

caibirdme on 8 May 2016

@Vj3k0 I use app.getPath to get the appData directory of one user and put all file to that place and app.asar should only contain my code.

caibirdme on 8 May 2016

@caibirdme asar app.asar doesn't output anything anyway. Try running

../../../../../node_modules/.bin/asar list app.asar

demetris-manikas on 9 May 2016

@demetris-manikas list command return an error.

../../../../../node_modules/.bin/asar list app.asar
undefined:1
{"files":{"electron":{"files":{"copyDb.js":{"size":599,"offset":"0"},"storeLocal.js":{"size":7346,"offset":"599"}}},"index.js":{"size":3149,"offset":"7945"},"node_modules":{"files":{"ansi-regex":{"files":{"index.js":{"size":135,"offset":"11094"},"license":{"size":1119,"offset":"11229"},"package.json":{"size":2504,"offset":"12348"},"readme.md":{"size":593,"offset":"14852"}}},"ansi-styles":{"files":{"index.js":{"size":1254,"offset":"15445"},"license":{"size":1119,"offset":"16699"},"package.json":{"size":2438,"offset":"17818"},"readme.md":{"size":1448,"offset":"20256"}}},"asn1":{"files":{".npmignore":{"size":19,"offset":"21704"},".travis.yml":{"size":44,"offset":"21723"},"lib":{"files":{"ber":{"files":{"errors.js":{"size":239,"offset":"21767"},"index.js":{"size":469,"offset":"22006"},"reader.js":{"size":5589,"offset":"22475"},"types.js":{"size":638,"offset":"28064"},"writer.js":{"size":7587,"offset":"28702"}}},"index.js":{"size":320,"offset":"36289"}}},"LICENSE":{"size":1076,"offset":"36609"},"pack

SyntaxError: Unexpected end of input
    at Object.parse (native)
    at Object.module.exports.readArchiveHeaderSync (/Users/deenjun/TOEFL-PC/node_modules/asar/lib/disk.js:97:20)
    at Object.module.exports.readFilesystemSync (/Users/deenjun/TOEFL-PC/node_modules/asar/lib/disk.js:105:21)
    at Object.module.exports.listPackage (/Users/deenjun/TOEFL-PC/node_modules/asar/lib/asar.js:175:17)
    at Command.<anonymous> (/Users/deenjun/TOEFL-PC/node_modules/asar/bin/asar:42:23)
    at Command.listener (/Users/deenjun/TOEFL-PC/node_modules/commander/index.js:301:8)
    at emitTwo (events.js:100:13)
    at Command.emit (events.js:185:7)
    at Command.parseArgs (/Users/deenjun/TOEFL-PC/node_modules/commander/index.js:615:12)
    at Command.parse (/Users/deenjun/TOEFL-PC/node_modules/commander/index.js:458:21)

caibirdme on 9 May 2016

@caibirdme So it seems that electron-builder error message is misleading and should be fixed (I 'll create a PR soon).
Can you confirm that the problem still arises on the latest stable release of electron-builder (3.17.1)?
Can also you clarify the OS on which your build fails? The output shows building on darwin but in 366 you mention that the error occurs when building on win7-x64. Thanks

demetris-manikas on 11 May 2016

👍1

Still get that error.
https://ci.appveyor.com/project/gamestailer94/quest-editor/build/1.0.42#L336
https://travis-ci.org/gamestailer94/quest-editor/jobs/131848606#L545

and the asar file is empty, if I run asar list app.asar I get an new Line and thats all

gamestailer94 on 21 May 2016

@gamestailer94 I saw that you reverted to electron-builder 3.11.
What is the result of asar list app.asar now?

demetris-manikas on 21 May 2016

Still empty, was just somethink i tryed in hope that it will wor.
https://travis-ci.org/gamestailer94/quest-editor/jobs/131896362#L906
https://travis-ci.org/gamestailer94/quest-editor/jobs/131896363#L617
no windows build, because no find on win ....

gamestailer94 on 21 May 2016

@gamestailer94 Good. This is why the warning is there. To safeguard you from publishing a "successful" build. I 'll try to reproduce and I' ll get back to you.

demetris-manikas on 21 May 2016

@gamestailer94 Can you please try setting the packageName equal to name in app/package.json and try again? There is an open bug (#360) when defining different values for the two.

demetris-manikas on 21 May 2016

@develar I reproduced the problem on linux and solved it as described above. I would be happy to create a PR to solve #360 but I will need some guidance. It is not very clear to me when to use name and when productName during the build process.

demetris-manikas on 21 May 2016

@demetris-manikas We should use productName in all cases except publish (we provide special names for publisher) and specific Linux cases. In the code this.appName it is a productName.

If we have myapp.app as result, but product name is MyApp, it means that we don't pass product name to electron-packager correctly — see https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/blob/master/src/platformPackager.ts#L126 Maybe we should pass productName as well here (we use my fork — https://github.com/develar/electron-packager).

develar on 21 May 2016

Can Confirm if ProductName and name are indetical it works

gamestailer94 on 22 May 2016

@demetris-manikas I will do it. name is build will be prohibited. I don't want configuration hell. It is not what users want. Why it is was allowed before? My mistake — forgot to forbid.

It will be not warning, but error — just because it doesn't work in any case.

develar on 23 May 2016

Duplicate #360

@demetris-manikas Thanks for investigation.

develar on 23 May 2016

@develar gamestailer94's problem has to do with another thing. gamestailer94 used as productName a value like "[QS] blah blah" and after investigating it turned out that the directory name is used by asar as a RegExp to find the files to add in the asar ( if [] exists the RegEpx fails to list anything and thus the empty asar file.
The fix can be applied at electron-builder or electron-packager-tf or asar itself and consists in escaping the src dir for RegExp usage (escape-string-regexp package did the trick for me).
I will file a PR soon at asar. but for fast usage the electron-packager-tf or electron-builder would do.