104 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
104 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
# Updating Applications
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There are several ways to update an Electron application. The easiest and
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officially supported one is taking advantage of the built-in
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[Squirrel](https://github.com/Squirrel) framework and
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Electron's [autoUpdater](../api/auto-updater.md) module.
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## Deploying an update server
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To get started, you first need to deploy a server that the
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[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) – Simple update server for open-source
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apps. Pulls from
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[GitHub Releases](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-releases/)
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and can be deployed for free on [Now](https://zeit.co/now).
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- [Nuts](https://github.com/GitbookIO/nuts) – Also uses
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[GitHub Releases](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-releases/),
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but caches app updates on disk and supports private repositories.
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- [electron-release-server](https://github.com/ArekSredzki/electron-release-server) –
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Provides a dashboard for handling releases
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- [Nucleus](https://github.com/atlassian/nucleus) - A complete update server for Electron apps maintained by Atlassian. Supports multiple applications and channels; uses a static file store to minify server cost.
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If your app is packaged with [electron-builder][electron-builder-lib] you can use the
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[electron-updater] module, which does not require a server and allows for updates
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from S3, GitHub or any other static file host.
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## Implementing updates in your app
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Once you've deployed your update server, continue with importing the required
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modules in your code. The following code might vary for different server
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software, but it works like described when using
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[Hazel](https://github.com/zeit/hazel).
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**Important:** Please ensure that the code below will only be executed in
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your packaged app, and not in development. You can use
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[electron-is-dev](https://github.com/sindresorhus/electron-is-dev) to check for
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the environment.
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```js
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const {app, autoUpdater, dialog} = require('electron')
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```
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Next, construct the URL of the update server and tell
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[autoUpdater](../api/auto-updater.md) about it:
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```js
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const server = 'https://your-deployment-url.com'
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const feed = `${server}/update/${process.platform}/${app.getVersion()}`
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autoUpdater.setFeedURL(feed)
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```
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As the final step, check for updates. The example below will check every minute:
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```js
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setInterval(() => {
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autoUpdater.checkForUpdates()
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}, 60000)
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```
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Once your application is [packaged](../tutorial/application-distribution.md),
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it will receive an update for each new
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[GitHub Release](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-releases/) that you
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publish.
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## Applying updates
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Now that you've configured the basic update mechanism for your application, you
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need to ensure that the user will get notified when there's an update. This
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can be achieved using the autoUpdater API
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[events](../api/auto-updater.md#events):
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```js
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autoUpdater.on('update-downloaded', (event, releaseNotes, releaseName) => {
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const dialogOpts = {
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type: 'info',
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buttons: ['Restart', 'Later'],
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title: 'Application Update',
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message: process.platform === 'win32' ? releaseNotes : releaseName,
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detail: 'A new version has been downloaded. Restart the application to apply the updates.'
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}
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dialog.showMessageBox(dialogOpts, (response) => {
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if (response === 0) autoUpdater.quitAndInstall()
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})
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})
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```
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Also make sure that errors are
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[being handled](../api/auto-updater.md#event-error). Here's an example
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for logging them to `stderr`:
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```js
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autoUpdater.on('error', message => {
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console.error('There was a problem updating the application')
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console.error(message)
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})
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```
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[electron-builder-lib]: https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder
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[electron-updater]: https://www.electron.build/auto-update
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