176 lines
5.8 KiB
Markdown
176 lines
5.8 KiB
Markdown
# Application Distribution
|
||
|
||
To distribute your app with Electron, you need to download Electron's [prebuilt
|
||
binaries](https://github.com/electron/electron/releases). Next, the folder
|
||
containing your app should be named `app` and placed in Electron's resources
|
||
directory as shown in the following examples. Note that the location of
|
||
Electron's prebuilt binaries is indicated with `electron/` in the examples
|
||
below.
|
||
|
||
On macOS:
|
||
|
||
```text
|
||
electron/Electron.app/Contents/Resources/app/
|
||
├── package.json
|
||
├── main.js
|
||
└── index.html
|
||
```
|
||
|
||
On Windows and Linux:
|
||
|
||
```text
|
||
electron/resources/app
|
||
├── package.json
|
||
├── main.js
|
||
└── index.html
|
||
```
|
||
|
||
Then execute `Electron.app` (or `electron` on Linux, `electron.exe` on Windows),
|
||
and Electron will start as your app. The `electron` directory will then be
|
||
your distribution to deliver to final users.
|
||
|
||
## Packaging Your App into a File
|
||
|
||
Apart from shipping your app by copying all of its source files, you can also
|
||
package your app into an [asar](https://github.com/electron/asar) archive to avoid
|
||
exposing your app's source code to users.
|
||
|
||
To use an `asar` archive to replace the `app` folder, you need to rename the
|
||
archive to `app.asar`, and put it under Electron's resources directory like
|
||
below, and Electron will then try to read the archive and start from it.
|
||
|
||
On macOS:
|
||
|
||
```text
|
||
electron/Electron.app/Contents/Resources/
|
||
└── app.asar
|
||
```
|
||
|
||
On Windows and Linux:
|
||
|
||
```text
|
||
electron/resources/
|
||
└── app.asar
|
||
```
|
||
|
||
More details can be found in [Application packaging](application-packaging.md).
|
||
|
||
## Rebranding with Downloaded Binaries
|
||
|
||
After bundling your app into Electron, you will want to rebrand Electron
|
||
before distributing it to users.
|
||
|
||
### Windows
|
||
|
||
You can rename `electron.exe` to any name you like, and edit its icon and other
|
||
information with tools like [rcedit](https://github.com/atom/rcedit).
|
||
|
||
### macOS
|
||
|
||
You can rename `Electron.app` to any name you want, and you also have to rename
|
||
the `CFBundleDisplayName`, `CFBundleIdentifier` and `CFBundleName` fields in the
|
||
following files:
|
||
|
||
* `Electron.app/Contents/Info.plist`
|
||
* `Electron.app/Contents/Frameworks/Electron Helper.app/Contents/Info.plist`
|
||
|
||
You can also rename the helper app to avoid showing `Electron Helper` in the
|
||
Activity Monitor, but make sure you have renamed the helper app's executable
|
||
file's name.
|
||
|
||
The structure of a renamed app would be like:
|
||
|
||
```
|
||
MyApp.app/Contents
|
||
├── Info.plist
|
||
├── MacOS/
|
||
│ └── MyApp
|
||
└── Frameworks/
|
||
├── MyApp Helper EH.app
|
||
| ├── Info.plist
|
||
| └── MacOS/
|
||
| └── MyApp Helper EH
|
||
├── MyApp Helper NP.app
|
||
| ├── Info.plist
|
||
| └── MacOS/
|
||
| └── MyApp Helper NP
|
||
└── MyApp Helper.app
|
||
├── Info.plist
|
||
└── MacOS/
|
||
└── MyApp Helper
|
||
```
|
||
|
||
### Linux
|
||
|
||
You can rename the `electron` executable to any name you like.
|
||
|
||
## Packaging Tools
|
||
|
||
Apart from packaging your app manually, you can also choose to use third party
|
||
packaging tools to do the work for you:
|
||
|
||
* [electron-builder](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder)
|
||
* [electron-packager](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-packager)
|
||
|
||
## Rebranding by Rebuilding Electron from Source
|
||
|
||
It is also possible to rebrand Electron by changing the product name and
|
||
building it from source. To do this you need to modify the `atom.gyp` file and
|
||
have a clean rebuild.
|
||
|
||
### grunt-build-atom-shell
|
||
|
||
Manually checking out Electron's code and rebuilding could be complicated, so
|
||
a Grunt task has been created that will handle this automatically:
|
||
[grunt-build-atom-shell](https://github.com/paulcbetts/grunt-build-atom-shell).
|
||
|
||
This task will automatically handle editing the `.gyp` file, building from
|
||
source, then rebuilding your app's native Node modules to match the new
|
||
executable name.
|
||
|
||
### Creating a Custom Electron Fork
|
||
|
||
Creating a custom fork of Electron is almost certainly not something you will
|
||
need to do in order to build your app, even for "Production Level" applications.
|
||
Using a tool such as `electron-packager` or `electron-builder` will allow you to
|
||
"Rebrand" Electron without having to do these steps.
|
||
|
||
You need to fork Electron when you have custom C++ code that you have patched
|
||
directly into Electron, that either cannot be upstreamed, or has been rejected
|
||
from the official version. As maintainers of Electron, we very much would like
|
||
to make your scenario work, so please try as hard as you can to get your changes
|
||
into the official version of Electron, it will be much much easier on you, and
|
||
we appreciate your help.
|
||
|
||
#### Creating a Custom Release with surf-build
|
||
|
||
1. Install [Surf](https://github.com/surf-build/surf), via npm:
|
||
`npm install -g surf-build@latest`
|
||
|
||
2. Create a new S3 bucket and create the following empty directory structure:
|
||
|
||
```
|
||
- atom-shell/
|
||
- symbols/
|
||
- dist/
|
||
```
|
||
|
||
3. Set the following Environment Variables:
|
||
|
||
* `ELECTRON_GITHUB_TOKEN` - a token that can create releases on GitHub
|
||
* `ELECTRON_S3_ACCESS_KEY`, `ELECTRON_S3_BUCKET`, `ELECTRON_S3_SECRET_KEY` -
|
||
the place where you'll upload node.js headers as well as symbols
|
||
* `ELECTRON_RELEASE` - Set to `true` and the upload part will run, leave unset
|
||
and `surf-build` will just do CI-type checks, appropriate to run for every
|
||
pull request.
|
||
* `CI` - Set to `true` or else it will fail
|
||
* `GITHUB_TOKEN` - set it to the same as `ELECTRON_GITHUB_TOKEN`
|
||
* `SURF_TEMP` - set to `C:\Temp` on Windows to prevent path too long issues
|
||
* `TARGET_ARCH` - set to `ia32` or `x64`
|
||
|
||
4. In `script/upload.py`, you _must_ set `ELECTRON_REPO` to your fork (`MYORG/electron`),
|
||
especially if you are a contributor to Electron proper.
|
||
|
||
5. `surf-build -r https://github.com/MYORG/electron -s YOUR_COMMIT -n 'surf-PLATFORM-ARCH'`
|
||
|
||
6. Wait a very, very long time for the build to complete.
|