Kitematic: Windows Installers

[deinok]

Releases of windows could be in the form of *.msi and *.appx packages.

I think that https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder can do this for you ;)

[FrenchBen]

@deinok it'd be great if you could help out with this!

[deinok]

Yeah, sure. The only condition for *.appx is that we are going to need to enable appveyor. Appx packages can only be built in W10.

Also i think that this way to releasing packages can also benefit linux and mac. (We can also make other package types).

Could you give me more information about how is Kitematic build and other relevant information?

[FrenchBen]

Enabling AppVeyor wouldn't be too bad. Let me know what it takes and we'll see how to make it happen!

Current packages are:

• OSX: Distributed in a Zip but a full App that can be dragged to the Applications folder
• Ubuntu: Distributed in a Zip but a true .pkg underneath it that can be installed via the package manager or dpkg
• Win: Distributed in a Zip with no package installer :(

Everything is built in containers using the mono library

[deinok]

Perfect, can you say me the system dependencies in order to build the electron app?
I supose that in order to build everything i should run npm install and npm run release

• Linux: Node, NPM
• Mac: Node, NPM
• Windows: Node, NPM

[FrenchBen]

There's also a Makefile that allows you to do a simple:
make run or make release

[deinok]

@FrenchBen Hey, im testing some things and seems like i found one strange thing.
Using this SC https://github.com/deinok/kitematic/tree/electron-build

• npm install
• npm release
  Try to execute ./dist/Kitematic-win32-x64/Kitematic.exe -> Dont start properly. Is this normal?

It could be related something called app.asar?

[FrenchBen]

Not too familiar with Electron builder. Can you try to build from master first and confirm that works, then add the builder steps?

[deinok]

I tried it in other computer (master-windows) and do the same. Only a white screen is show.

[FrenchBen]

Any errors shown in the console?

[deinok]

In windows: npm release -> no stderr -> dist exe not working
In windows + electron-builder -> stderr related to .asar
In linux : npm release -> works well
In linux + electron-builder -> stderr related to .asar

You can check it in my fork:electron-build

[deinok]

@FrenchBen Well, seems finished (Tested on Windows)(Linux and Mac are left, but should be okey or only a bit of conf at electron-build.json).
Im facing some issues but master seems to have that same issues.

npm install && npm run release:windows will generate packages at ./dist/ (*.msi and *.appx)

[FrenchBen]

I should have a windows machine to test this after the holidays - I'll merge then.
Thanks again for the help!

[deinok]

Perfect