Electron client

Sources

The development team mainly uses the dev branch to develop new features and fix bugs. The main branch is updated for main releases.

TLDR

git clone https://github.com/SAGE-3/next
cd next
git checkout dev
cd webstack/clients/electron
npm install
npx electron electron.js -s https://mini.sage3.app

Running

You can run the Electron client from sources, the main source file is electron.js (in webstack/clients/electron folder).

npx electron electron.js -h

Usage: electron [options]

Options:
  -V, --version              output the version number
  -d, --display <n>          Display client ID number (int) (default: 0)
  -f, --fullscreen           Fullscreen (boolean) (default: false)
  -m, --monitor <n>          Select a monitor (int) (default: null)
  -n, --no_decoration        Remove window decoration (boolean) (default: false)
  -s, --server <s>           Server URL (string) (default: "https://minim1.evl.uic.edu/#/home")
  -x, --xorigin <n>          Window position x (int) (default: 226)
  -y, --yorigin <n>          Window position y (int) (default: 38)
  -c, --clear                Clear window preferences (default: false)
  --allowDisplayingInsecure  Allow displaying of insecure content (http on https) (default: true)
  --allowRunningInsecure     Allow running insecure content (scripts accessed on http vs https) (default:
                             true)
  --cache                    Clear the cache at startup (default: false)
  --console                  Open the devtools console (default: false)
  --debug                    Open the port debug protocol (port number is 9222 + clientID) (default:
                             false)
  --experimentalFeatures     Enable experimental features (default: false)
  --height <n>               Window height (int) (default: 944)
  --disable-hardware         Disable hardware acceleration (default: false)
  --show-fps                 Display the Chrome FPS counter (default: false)
  --profile <s>              Create a profile (string)
  --width <n>                Window width (int) (default: 1061)
  -h, --help                 display help for command

Build

You can generate binaries from Electron using the electron-packagerpackage.

Mac

npx electron-packager ./ --platform=darwin --arch=x64 --icon=s3.icns --overwrite --protocol=sage3 --protocol-name="SAGE3 application"

Windows

npx electron-packager . --platform=win32 --arch=x64 --icon=s3.ico --overwrite

Sign

To distribute binaries, they should be notarized and signed so they can be installed smoothly on users' machines. We provide a series of build_* scripts, that you can use starting points. You will need a developer certificate for the operating system you want to target (macOS developer certificate, Windows developer certificate, ...).

Mac

Using a combination of electron-packager, electron-notarize, electron-osx-sign and electron-installer-dmg we can build installable binaries (DMG file containing a signed binary application). This is currently automated using GitHub actions on github.com.

We use the update-electron-app package to trigger an update check, download and restart. Internally, that uses the 'autoUpdater' API from Electron to check for an update.

Win

Packages used: electron-packager, electron-winstaller

TODO: signed binary steps (need help)

Deploy

We trigger a new version of the binaries but committing sources in webstack/clients/electron

• Automatic updates (macOS only for now) are handled by creating a git tag in the dev branch.
• Edit the package.json to increase the version number
• git tag 1.0.10
• git push origin 1.0.10
• Find the new update in the github release page: https://github.com/SAGE-3/next/releases