Atom Shell Installer

Can be used with Gulp build system.

Module that builds Windows installers for Atom Shell apps using Squirrel.

Installing

npm install --save-dev atom-shell-installer

Configuring

In your gulpfile.js add the following:

var gulp = require('gulp');
var atomShellInstaller = require('atom-shell-installer');

gulp.task('create-windows-installer', function (done) {
  atomShellInstaller({
    appDirectory: 'path/to/atom-shell',
    outputDirectory: 'installer',
    exe: 'atom.exe'
  }).then(function () {
    done();
  });
});
}

This assumes you have an Atom Shell app built at the given appDirectory, and your application files are available at ${appDirectory}/resources/app/ or ${appDirectory}/resources/app.asar.

Then run gulp create-windows-installer and you will have an .nupkg, a RELEASES file, and a .exe installer file in the outputDirectory folder.

##Advanced Configuring

So you build an Atom-Shell application, and you want to start distributing it, you can add following tasks to your gulpfile:

// Npm modules required for this setup.
var gulp = require('gulp');
var downloadatomshell = require('gulp-download-atom-shell');
var rimraf = require('rimraf');
var asar = require('gulp-asar');
var atomShellInstaller = require('atom-shell-installer');

// A task to download Atom-Shell utilizing https://github.com/r0nn/gulp-download-atom-shell
// It downloads atom-shell with the specified version, and unpacks it to a provided directory.
gulp.task('download', function (cb) {
  downloadatomshell({
    version: '0.22.3',
    outputDir: 'cache'
  }, cb);
});

// A cleanup task to keep our distribution preparation fresh.
// It cleans a directory that is next used as a start position to creating an installer.
gulp.task('clean-dist', function (cb) {
  rimraf('./dist', cb);
});

// Task to copy the downloaded atom-shell into the distribution directory.
gulp.task('copy-atom', ['clean-dist'], function () {
  return gulp.src('./cache/**/*')
      .pipe(gulp.dest('dist/'));
});

// Task that copies all necessary app files into atom-shell resources/app directory.
// This is a default directory used by atom-shell.
// Copy there all files that your application needs to run properly.
gulp.task('prepFiles', ['clean-dist', 'copy-atom'], function () {
  return gulp.src(['./node_modules/**/*', './resources/**/*', './build/**/*', './package.json'], { base: './'})
    .pipe(gulp.dest('dist/resources/app'));
});

// Task to create an asar archive out of files required to run the application.
// This solves too long path issues on Windows.
gulp.task('create-archive', ['clean-dist', 'prepFiles'], function() {
  return gulp.src('dist/resources/app/**/*')
    .pipe(asar('app.asar'))
    .pipe(gulp.dest('dist/resources'));
});

// Task to clean no longer required resources/app folder as we now have the asar package.
gulp.task('clean-app', ['clean-dist', 'create-archive'], function (cb) {
  rimraf('./dist/resources/app', cb);
});

// Final task to create the installer and save it in the ./installer/ directory.
gulp.task('create-windows-installer', ['clean-app'], function (done) {
  atomShellInstaller({
    appDirectory: 'dist',
    outputDirectory: 'installer',
    exe: 'atom.exe'
  }).then(function () {
    done();
  });
});

Configuration parameters

There are several configuration settings supported:

| Config Name | Required | Description | | --------------------- | -------- | ----------- | | appDirectory | Yes | The folder path of your Atom Shell-based app | | outputDirectory | No | The folder path to create the .exe installer in. Defaults to the installer folder at the project root. | | loadingGif | No | The local path to a .gif file to display during install. | | authors | Yes | The authors value for the nuget package metadata. Defaults to the author field from your app's package.json file when unspecified. | | owners | No | The owners value for the nuget package metadata. Defaults to the authors field when unspecified. | | exe | No | The name of your app's main .exe file. This uses the name field in your app's package.json file with an added .exe extension when unspecified. | | description | No | The description value for the nuget package metadata. Defaults to the description field from your app's package.json file when unspecified. | | version | No | The version value for the nuget package metadata. Defaults to the version field from your app's package.json file when unspecified. | | title | No | The title value for the nuget package metadata. Defaults to the productName field and then the name field from your app's package.json file when unspecified. | | certificateFile | No | The path to an Authenticode Code Signing Certificate | | certificatePassword | No | The password to decrypt the certificate given in certificateFile | | signWithParams | No | Params to pass to signtool. Overrides certificateFile and certificatePassword. | | setupIcon | No | The ICO file to use as the icon for the generated Setup.exe | | remoteReleases | No | A URL to your existing updates. If given, these will be downloaded to create delta updates |

Sign your installer or else bad things will happen

For development / internal use, creating installers without a signature is okay, but for a production app you need to sign your application. Internet Explorer's SmartScreen filter will block your app from being downloaded, and many anti-virus vendors will consider your app as malware unless you obtain a valid cert.

Any certificate valid for "Authenticode Code Signing" will work here, but if you get the right kind of code certificate, you can also opt-in to Windows Error Reporting. This MSDN page has the latest links on where to get a WER-compatible certificate. The "Standard Code Signing" certificate is sufficient for this purpose.