This project lets you deploy an update server for Electron apps with ease: You only need to run a single command and fill out some text fields.
The result will be faster and more lightweight than any other solution out there! 🚀
- Recommended by Electron here
- Pulls the latest release data from GitHub Releases and caches it in memory
- Refreshes the cache every 15 minutes (custom interval possible)
- When asked for an update, it returns the link to the GitHub asset directly (saves bandwidth)
- Supports macOS, Windows, and Linux apps
You can easily deploy an update server. As the first step, clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/AnimeoTV/hazelNext, move into the directory:
cd hazelInside the directory, copy the .env.EXAMPLE file to .env and fill out the text fields.
Then, to deploy it, run the following command :
npm run start"Once it's deployed, paste the deployment address into your code (please keep in mind that updates should only occur in the production version of the app, not while developing):
const { app, autoUpdater } = require('electron')
const server = <your-deployment-url>
const url = `${server}/update/${process.platform}/${app.getVersion()}`
autoUpdater.setFeedURL({ url })That's it! ✅
From now on, the auto updater will ask your Hazel deployment for updates!
Since Hazel routes all the traffic for downloading the actual application files to GitHub Releases, you can use their API to determine the download count for a certain release.
As an example, check out the latest Hyper release and search for mac.zip. You'll find a release containing a sub property named download_count with the amount of downloads as its value.
We find and cache releases for each platform by the file name and extension. it may be obvious but can save quite some times for those who just getting started.
As you can see in platform.js and aliases.js, for each OS, the extensions are expected as below:
| OS | :platform | .Extension |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | win32, windows, win | .exe |
| macOS | dmg | .dmg |
| macOS | darwin | .zip (only if the file name contains "mac" or "darwin") |
| Linux with RPM package manager | fedora | .rpm |
| Linux with DEB package manager | debian | .deb |
| Linux | appimage | .AppImage |
Displays an overview page showing the cached repository with the different available platforms and file sizes. Links to the repo, releases, specific cached version and direct downloads for each platform are present.
Returns an object with the property uptime which is the uptime of the update server in seconds.
Return an object with
Automatically detects the platform/OS of the visitor by parsing the user agent and then downloads the appropriate copy of your application.
If the latest version of the application wasn't yet pulled from GitHub Releases, it will return a message and the status code 404. The same happens if the latest release doesn't contain a file for the detected platform.
Accepts a platform (like "darwin" or "win32") to download the appropriate copy your app for. I generally suggest using either process.platform (more) or os.platform() (more) to retrieve this string.
If the cache isn't filled yet or doesn't contain a download link for the specified platform, it will respond like /.
Checks if there is an update available by reading from the cache.
If the latest version of the application wasn't yet pulled from GitHub Releases, it will return the 204 status code. The same happens if the latest release doesn't contain a file for the specified platform.
This endpoint was specifically crafted for the Windows platform (called "win32" in Node.js).
Since the Windows version of Squirrel (the software that powers auto updates inside Electron) requires access to a file named "RELEASES" when checking for updates, this endpoint will respond with a cached version of the file that contains a download link to a .nupkg file (the application update).
You can add Hazel to an existing HTTP server, if you want. For example, this will allow you to implement custom analytics on certain paths.
const hazel = require('hazel-server')
http.createServer((req, res) => {
hazel(req, res)
})- Fork this repository to your own GitHub account and then clone it to your local device
- Move into the directory of your clone:
cd hazel - Install the packages with
npm iand run the development server:npm run dev
Huge thanks to my (@leo's) friend Andy, who suggested the name "Hazel" (since the auto updater software inside Electron is called "Squirrel") and Matheus for collecting ideas with me.
Leo Lamprecht (@notquiteleo) - Vercel