Improve auto updater #869

adlk · 2018-09-20T14:06:00Z

This PR replaces the built in electron auto updater withelectron-updater. One of the major benefits is added support for windows updates (nsis) and works perfectly in sync with the electron-builder binaries.

We also don't longer need to maintain a custom API to manage releases. Releases are now handled directly via Github releases that are automatically created whenever a new tag is pushed.

How to do dev/ux-testing

Make sure your package.json has a version lower than 1.2.0

In project root, create the file dev-app-update.yml with the following content:

# dev-app-update.yml
owner: adlk
repo: simplenote-test
provider: github

Run make start – assuming you have already built the web app once. Otherwise, run make dev

Watch the console output of the main process to see something like.

Checking for update
Found version 1.2.0 (url: Simplenote-macOS-1.2.0.zip, Simplenote-macOS-1.2.0.dmg)
Downloading update from Simplenote-macOS-1.2.0.zip, Simplenote-macOS-1.2.0.dmg

Please keep in mind that you can't actually update the app as you are running a local and unsigned binary of electron. So in any case, you'll most likely get an error when closing the update dialog. Even though we are in dev mode, all status events will be triggered.

How to do "production" testing

Grab a built binary for Mac or Windows from CircleCI > Workflows > Automattic > simplenote-electron > test/auto-updater (latest build) > artifacts (job) > artifacts
Install the app to e.g. /Applications
Launch the app and wait for the auto updater to prompt
Update and check that you are on Simplenote 1.2.0 (via menu: Simplenote > About Simplenote)

More infos about electron-updater can be found here.

desktop/updater/auto-updater/index.js

roundhill · 2018-09-24T23:44:00Z

Everything seemed to work OK for me until I tried the production testing. The app never updated on macOS. I got the prompt but the update didn't appear to install.

@adlk How can I get access to an AppVeyor build to test on Windows?

mirka · 2018-09-25T10:31:05Z

desktop/updater/auto-updater/index.js

+const { dialog } = require('electron');
+const { autoUpdater } = require('electron-updater');
+const sanitizeHtml = require('sanitize-html');
+const TurndownService = require('turndown');


I wondered if we could do the HTML to MD conversion with showdown (the MD converter we're already using), but it looks like the feature hasn't shipped yet 🤷‍♀️ We'll replace it when it's released.

mirka · 2018-09-25T14:24:41Z

Are these the correct artifacts for Windows?
https://ci.appveyor.com/project/adlk/simplenote-electron/build/1.0.147/artifacts

Production tests:

Mac... Works as long as the app is in the Applications folder. However, there is quite a long period of no feedback during the download, which will worry the user. We should probably get in an enhancement PR with the download-progress (example) before we release this feature.
Linux (Ubuntu Bionic)... I could not get it to trigger an update dialog.
Windows (10)... Apps installed with both the .exe and .appx from the artifacts above did not trigger an update dialog. But more importantly, the app launches to a white screen of death 😱 Can you reproduce? Btw when building from source on Windows, npm run build → npx electron . works, but both npm start and npm run dev results in a white screen.

roundhill · 2018-09-25T16:02:36Z

Works as long as the app is in the Applications folder.

Ah this must have been my issue, I had it in a subfolder in Applications because I already had the native macOS app there.

adlk · 2018-09-26T13:48:52Z

@mirka @roundhill thanks for your review. I'll check your issues to figure out what's going on.

In the meantime, here are a few answers:

Are these the correct artifacts for Windows?
https://ci.appveyor.com/project/adlk/simplenote-electron/build/1.0.147/artifacts

yep, that's the one.

Windows (10)... Apps installed with both the .exe and .appx from the artifacts above did not trigger an update dialog.

The updater now prompts as expected, for whatever reasons, the windows config + artifacts were missing on the test repo.
Ad appx: the updater is disabled as the Windows Store has its own update mechanism.

...there is quite a long period of no feedback during the download, which will worry the user.

👍 In general, I'm a big fan of giving the user more feedback of what's happening – even if it's just a simple spinner. IMO, Github for Desktop does a great job (even though they just inform the user about the update once it's already downloaded)

Linux (Ubuntu Bionic)... I could not get it to trigger an update dialog.

🤦‍♂️ This is actually a stupid thinking error I've made. As the electron-updater checks Github for new releases. Everything that is using the manual updater (linux) is still accessing the old API.

adlk · 2018-09-26T15:46:49Z

The white screen of death is fixed in #885

adlk · 2018-10-08T09:34:44Z

@mirka @roundhill I've now added support for the manual updater and did a refactor of the updater code base as this will be used for wp-desktop as well.

Together with Lena, we've decided to move away from parsing the changelog and showing it in the popup. Instead, we'll show a button to open the changelog.

mirka · 2018-10-15T08:46:31Z

Thank you @adlk !

Production build tests

Updated artifacts for testing

https://circleci.com/gh/Automattic/simplenote-electron/703#artifacts/containers/0
https://ci.appveyor.com/project/Automattic/simplenote-electron/builds/19476778/artifacts

Works on Mac
Works on Windows, however there seems to be an escaping issue with the Update & Restart button label:
Still could not get it to trigger on Ubuntu... Can you reproduce?

mirka · 2018-10-19T10:27:59Z

@adlk I was able to confirm it working on Ubuntu! Thanks.

adlk · 2018-10-30T15:13:45Z

@mirka the & issue on Windows is fixed. We now just need to wait for #971 to be resolved to get this landed 🎉

desktop/config-updater.json

Co-Authored-By: adlk <stefan@adlk.io>

This reverts commit 0edacd0.

adlk added 4 commits September 17, 2018 15:05

Auto format file

31670f6

Replace auto-updater with electron-updater

bbe46d2

Ignore dev-app-update.yml

5339a11

Reset version

2f69ad5

dmsnell reviewed Sep 20, 2018

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desktop/updater/auto-updater/index.js Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

adlk added 2 commits September 20, 2018 17:41

Merge branch 'master' into chore/improve-auto-updater

9def683

Format releaseNotes to markdown

87e81b3

adlk requested review from roundhill, dmsnell and mirka September 21, 2018 14:12

adlk self-assigned this Sep 21, 2018

adlk added the [Status] Needs Review label Sep 21, 2018

mirka reviewed Sep 25, 2018

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adlk mentioned this pull request Sep 26, 2018

Fix Appveyor builds #885

Merged

adlk added 2 commits September 27, 2018 09:35

Merge branch 'master' into chore/improve-auto-updater

64e84e2

Replace manual updater & refactoring

c917101

mirka added this to the 1.2.1 milestone Oct 10, 2018

adlk added 2 commits October 19, 2018 09:38

Trigger build

be78949

Fix downloadUrl

1fe3965

adlk added 3 commits October 25, 2018 11:02

Retrigger build

77e45ba

Merge branch 'master' into chore/improve-auto-updater

a11e328

Fix & in onConfirm button on Windows

d0e7c77

Set autoInstallOnAppQuit to false

0759ad0

mirka approved these changes Nov 1, 2018

View reviewed changes

mirka mentioned this pull request Nov 1, 2018

Add CHANGELOG.md #982

Merged

1 task

mirka reviewed Nov 1, 2018

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desktop/config-updater.json Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

mirka and others added 11 commits November 2, 2018 16:12

Update url to changelog

d52b824

Co-Authored-By: adlk <stefan@adlk.io>

Merge branch 'master' into chore/improve-auto-updater

3c21a39

Bring package-lock in sync

b06d5bd

Merge branch 'master' into chore/improve-auto-updater

c988bf8

To revert: set version to 1.0.0

0edacd0

Revert "To revert: set version to 1.0.0"

39b89da

This reverts commit 0edacd0.

Fix path

c1dcbe3

Fix changelog URL

e928faf

Update electron-updater (fix macOS timing issue)

0bab1e5

Remove appdmg as an optional dependency

d7fb161

Use npm ci

b6affad

adlk force-pushed the chore/improve-auto-updater branch from c38298b to b6affad Compare November 8, 2018 15:04

adlk merged commit c9b8d4a into master Nov 12, 2018

adlk deleted the chore/improve-auto-updater branch November 12, 2018 15:18

adlk removed the [Status] Needs Review label Nov 12, 2018

mirka mentioned this pull request Nov 21, 2018

Linux update always picks .deb regardless distribution #674

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Improve auto updater #869

Improve auto updater #869

adlk commented Sep 20, 2018 •

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mirka Sep 25, 2018

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Improve auto updater #869

Improve auto updater #869

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adlk commented Sep 20, 2018 • edited Loading

How to do dev/ux-testing

How to do "production" testing

roundhill commented Sep 24, 2018 • edited Loading

mirka Sep 25, 2018

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mirka commented Sep 25, 2018

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adlk commented Oct 8, 2018

mirka commented Oct 15, 2018

Production build tests

Updated artifacts for testing

mirka commented Oct 19, 2018

adlk commented Oct 30, 2018

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roundhill commented Sep 24, 2018 •

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