43 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
43 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
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# Updating Applications
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There are several ways to update an Electron application. The easiest and officially supported one is taking advantage of the built-in [Squirrel](https://github.com/Squirrel) framework and the [autoUpdater](../api/auto-updater.md) module that comes with it.
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## Deploying an Update Server
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To get started, you firstly need to deploy an update server (that's where the [autoUpdater](../api/auto-updater.md) module will download new updates from).
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Depending on your needs, you can choose from one of these:
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- [Hazel](https://github.com/zeit/hazel) – Pulls new releases from [GitHub Releases](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-releases/) and is **perfect for getting started**
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- [Nuts](https://github.com/GitbookIO/nuts) – Also uses [GitHub Releases](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-releases/), but caches app updates on disk
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- [electron-release-server](https://github.com/ArekSredzki/electron-release-server) – Provides you with a dashboard for handling releases
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## Implemeting Updates into Your App
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Once you've deployed your update server, continue with importing the required modules in your code (please ensure that the code below will only be executed in production - you can use [electron-is-dev](https://github.com/sindresorhus/electron-is-dev) for that):
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```js
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const { app, autoUpdater } = require('electron')
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```
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Next, put together the URL of the update server:
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```js
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const server = <your-deployment-url>
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const feed = `${server}/update/${process.platform}/${app.getVersion()}`
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```
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As the final step, tell [autoUpdater](../api/auto-updater.md) where to ask for updates:
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```js
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autoUpdater.setFeedURL(feed)
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```
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That's all. Once [built](../tutorial/application-distribution.md), your application will receive an update for each new [GitHub Release](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-releases/) that you create.
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## Further Steps
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Now that you've configured the basic update mechanism for your application, you need to ensure that the user will get notified when there's an update (this can be achieved using [events](../api/auto-updater.md#events)).
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Also make sure that potential errors are [being handled](../api/auto-updater.md#event-error).
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