How do I use the private github auto update feature?

[akorchev]

• Version:
  15.6.4

1.10.4

• Target:
  Windows 32 bit

How does one enable private github API support? It seems that GH_TOKEN is the only thing required but for some reason my app continues to make HTTP requests to the repo URL instead of api.github.com. Do I need to use setFeedURL?

[AlienHoboken]

Hi @akorchev. You just need to set the GH_TOKEN environment variable. Please confirm that it is being picked up by your app by checking process.env.GH_TOKEN in your app. You can also set GH token programmatically using the same process.env.GH_TOKEN = your_gh_token if it works better for you.

N.B. private Github auto update is not yet working on Mac OSX, but I see you're on Windows so it should be fine

[akorchev]

Hi @AlienHoboken. Do you mean to set GH_TOKEN during build time? If yes - I was setting it but it wasn't being picked up when the application was running. I checked the implementation and it looks as if the application needs GH_TOKEN at runtime which I don't know how to set on the client machine.

I ended up using setFeedUrl:

autoUpdater.setFeedURL({
   token: '***',
   owner: '***',
   repo: '***'
})

When I did that auto updates started working. BTW I tried on macOS and it also worked there. The only thing that didn't was starting the new version after the update was downloaded. But when I started it manually it was the latest version! Thanks for the great work!

[develar]

which I don't know how to set on the client machine.

This provider ONLY if you have org and create DEDICATED user — only in this case you can share access token somehow. Otherwise you should use or proxy (#1370 (comment)), or s3.

[develar]

We should add note that private GitHub provider only for very special cases and not intended/suitable for all users.

[AlienHoboken]

You got it, @akorchev. Glad its working.

@develar agreed. My org actually have a separate release-only repository to distribute releases so source is locked down, and we distribute to controlled machines. It is a useful feature since no server is required, but special use case

[akorchev]

Does electron-updater work with update servers such as https://github.com/GitbookIO/nuts? If yes do I just need to call setFeedURL? I have a nuts server deployed already. I just want to get rid of Squirrel for Windows.

[develar]

My org actually have a separate release-only repository to distribute releases so source is locked down

Why not use s3 in this case? because github storage is free?

[develar]

Does electron-updater work with update servers such as https://github.com/GitbookIO/nuts

Yes. Use generic provider and set url to https://YOUR_SERVER_URL/download as first provider (for auto-update), and second github (to publish to private repo).

update: downside is that url https://YOUR_SERVER_URL/download always points to a latest release files. So... well, yeach, we need to support nuts server explicitly — but for now no such requests.

[AlienHoboken]

The adoption of additional platforms is not preferred within the org.

Also, can you use S3 with credentials through electron-updater?

[develar]

can you use S3 with credentials through electron-updater

I suppose yes, since we use AWS SDK. You can set aws credentials env. But I am not sure.

[develar]

The adoption of additional platforms is not preferred within the org.

+1 That's why I didn't reject your PR :)

[noahprince22]

@akorchev Did you ever get the NSIS installer working with Nuts? I've got a private repository, so I wanted to control distribution through Nuts.

[akorchev]

Yes, I did. Here is how I configured it (I am using the programming API):

  builder.build({
   config: {
      publish: [
        {
          provider: 'generic',
          url: 'http://example.com/download'
        },
        {
          provider: 'github'
        }
      ],

[marceloavf]

@akorchev Can you tell me about the use of the server when using Nuts to distribute the releases, please? Do you get any overload or everything just worked fine?