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@@ -4,15 +4,48 @@ 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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+
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+<summary>Alternative tooling</summary>
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+
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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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+
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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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+
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+**Electron Builder**
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+
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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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+
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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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+
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+**Hydraulic Conveyor**
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+
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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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+
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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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+
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+</details>
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+
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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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+- 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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@@ -20,11 +53,11 @@ and want to start on packaging and distribution, start from [step 5][] of the tu
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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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+- 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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Erick Zhao