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.