Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
40 lines (24 loc) · 2.01 KB

getting-started.md

File metadata and controls

40 lines (24 loc) · 2.01 KB
Raw

Quick Start (for the impatient)

  • Install-Package squirrel.windows, or grab the binaries from the Releases section

  • Use NuGet Package Explorer (or any other way) to create a NuGet package for your app. Make sure that package doesn't have any dependencies. Here's a good example package:

  • Open the NuGet Package Console, and type Squirrel --releasify path/to/the/nuget/package.nupkg

  • In your app at an appropriate time (not at startup, don't interrupt the user's work), call:

// NB: For this version, always say your app is using .NET 4.5, even if it's
// totally not
using (var mgr = new UpdateManager("https://path/to/my/update/folder", "nuget-package-id", FrameworkVersion.Net45)) 
{
    await mgr.UpdateApp();
}

You should have a folder called Releases with three files in it. Publish those all to S3 in the same folder and you've now got an installer.

BETA: Some hacky notes that will go away soon

  1. Make sure your NuGet package doesn't have any <Dependency> tags.

  2. Use the <File> tag to include all of your app's dependencies, even ones that for a normal NuGet package wouldn't be there. Make sure to include Squirrel.dll and its dependencies too! Every file in the References section of your app should be there.

  3. Put all of your app files in lib/net45. I don't care if your app isn't actually a .NET 4.5 app, just do it. Even if your app is written in COBOL, put it in lib/net45.

What about shortcuts?

Every EXE in your package will automatically get a shortcut. If you don't want this to be the case, follow the steps for handling Squirrel events below.

Handling Squirrel events

Squirrel events are optional, but they can be super useful, as it gives you a chance to do "custom install actions" on install / uninstall / update. Most production applications will end up doing this, but simple applications can accept the default behavior without any problems.

Check out the article on Squirrel Events to get started.