MicroDrop-Squirrel

Tool to bundle a MicroDrop executable release as a Squirrel Windows app.

• Build
  • Prerequisites
    • Conda environment
  • Build release
    • What does the build do?
  • Version convention
• Publish

Build

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio. Tested with Visual Studio 2017 Community.
• Conda environment (see below)

Conda environment

Create a Conda environment with required packages:

conda env create -n <env name> --file environment.yaml

Build release

A Squirrel MicroDrop release may be built within an activated development Conda environment by running the following command:

python build.py <micrdrop-exe release location> <NuGet MicroDrop release version> [-f]

where:

• <micrdrop-exe release location> is either: (a) a remote MicroDrop executable release URL, e.g., https://github.com/sci-bots/microdrop-exe/releases/download/v2.34.1rc17/microdrop-2.34.1rc17.exe; or (b) a local microdrop-exe/dist directory (see microdrop-exe README).
• <NuGet MicroDrop release version> is a valid NuGet package version string, e.g., 2.34.1-rc17alpha0. Note that, for example, release candidate NuGet versions require a ”-” (i.e., hyphen) character between the main version and the release candidate tag.
• -f is an optional flag to force overwriting of existing output files

What does the build do?

The build.py script referenced above performs the following steps:

1. Download the specified MicroDrop executable release.
2. Package the contents of the MicroDrop executable release into a NuGet package (required by Squirrel).
3. Generate Squirrel release, e.g., MicroDrop.2.34.1-rc16alpha0.nupkg.
4. Update the Releases directory:
   1. Update the Releases/RELEASES file with details of the new release.
   2. Copy the Squirrel release into the Releases and generate a "delta" package (unless --no-delta flag was used), e.g., MicroDrop-2.34.1-rc16alpha0-delta.nupkg.
   3. Update/create Releases/Setup.exe as installer for new release.

Example contents of output Releases directory after several builds (new builds are appended to RELEASES text file):

Releases/
  MicroDrop-2.28.0-rc0alpha0-full.nupkg
  MicroDrop-2.28.1-rc0alpha0-full.nupkg
  MicroDrop-2.28.2-rc0alpha0-full.nupkg
  MicroDrop-2.28.3-rc0alpha0-full.nupkg
  MicroDrop-2.28.3-rc2alpha0-full.nupkg
  MicroDrop-2.28.3-rc4alpha0-full.nupkg
  MicroDrop-2.30.0-rc1alpha0-full.nupkg
  MicroDrop-2.30.0-rc3alpha0-full.nupkg
  MicroDrop-2.30.0-rc4alpha0-full.nupkg
  MicroDrop-2.32.0-rc1alpha0-full.nupkg
  MicroDrop-2.32.0-rc2alpha0-full.nupkg
  MicroDrop-2.32.0-rc3alpha0-full.nupkg
  MicroDrop-2.32.0-full.nupkg
  MicroDrop-2.34.1-rc16alpha0-delta.nupkg
  MicroDrop-2.34.1-rc16alpha0-full.nupkg
  RELEASES
  Setup.exe

Version convention

When assigning a version to a Squirrel MicroDrop release, we currently use the following conventions:

• Pre-release Squirrel MicroDrop builds:

  microdrop-<patched micrdrop-exe version>alpha<i>
  

  • For example, for microdrop-exe version microdrop-2.34.1rc16 (note the hyphen added between the main version and the release candidate tag to comply with the NuGet version scheme):

    microdrop-2.34.1-rc16alpha0
    microdrop-2.34.1-rc16alpha1
    ...
    

• Squirrel MicroDrop release builds:

  microdrop-<patched micrdrop-exe version>
  

  • For example:
    • For microdrop-exe version microdrop-2.34.1rc16:

      microdrop-2.34.1-rc16
      

    • For microdrop-exe version microdrop-2.34.1:

      microdrop-2.34.1
      

Publish

Once one or more releases have been built, publish the contents of the Releases directory at a http:// URL.

When the Setup.exe file is launched, the URL used for updates is resolved in the following order:

1. update-url.rc file located in same directory as installed app .exe
2. MICRODROP_UPDATE_URL environment variable.
3. Default of https://sci-bots.com/microdrop-releases.