mirror of https://github.com/electron/electron
70 lines
3.0 KiB
Markdown
70 lines
3.0 KiB
Markdown
# Distributing Apps With Electron Forge
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Electron Forge is a tool for packaging and publishing Electron applications.
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It unifies Electron's build tooling ecosystem into
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a single extensible interface so that anyone can jump right into making Electron apps.
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<details>
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<summary>Alternative tooling</summary>
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If you do not want to use Electron Forge for your project, there are other
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third-party tools you can use to distribute your app.
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These tools are maintained by members of the Electron community,
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and do not come with official support from the Electron project.
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**Electron Builder**
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A "complete solution to package and build a ready-for-distribution Electron app"
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that focuses on an integrated experience. [`electron-builder`](https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder) adds a single dependency and manages all further requirements internally.
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`electron-builder` replaces features and modules used by the Electron
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maintainers (such as the auto-updater) with custom ones.
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**Hydraulic Conveyor**
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A [desktop app deployment tool](https://hydraulic.dev) that supports
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cross-building/signing of all packages from any OS without the need for
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multi-platform CI, can do synchronous web-style updates on each start
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of the app, requires no code changes, can use plain HTTP servers for updates and
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which focuses on ease of use. Conveyor replaces the Electron auto-updaters
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with Sparkle on macOS, MSIX on Windows, and Linux package repositories.
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Conveyor is a commercial tool that is free for open source projects. There's
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an example of [how to package GitHub Desktop](https://hydraulic.dev/blog/8-packaging-electron-apps.html)
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which can be used for learning.
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</details>
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## Getting started
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The [Electron Forge docs][] contain detailed information on taking your application
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from source code to your end users' machines.
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This includes:
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- Packaging your application [(package)][]
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- Generating executables and installers for each OS [(make)][], and,
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- Publishing these files to online platforms to download [(publish)][].
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For beginners, we recommend following through Electron's [tutorial][] to develop, build,
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package and publish your first Electron app. If you have already developed an app on your machine
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and want to start on packaging and distribution, start from [step 5][] of the tutorial.
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## Getting help
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- If you need help with developing your app, our [community Discord server][discord] is a great place
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to get advice from other Electron app developers.
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- If you suspect you're running into a bug with Forge, please check the [GitHub issue tracker][]
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to see if any existing issues match your problem. If not, feel free to fill out our bug report
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template and submit a new issue.
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[Electron Forge Docs]: https://www.electronforge.io/
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[step 5]: ./tutorial-5-packaging.md
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[(package)]: https://www.electronforge.io/cli#package
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[(make)]: https://www.electronforge.io/cli#make
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[(publish)]: https://www.electronforge.io/cli#publish
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[GitHub issue tracker]: https://github.com/electron/forge/issues
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[discord]: https://discord.gg/APGC3k5yaH
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[tutorial]: ./tutorial-1-prerequisites.md
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