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docs / getting-started / 2-packaging.md

Step 2. Packaging

Packaging is the process of building, packing, and preparing MyApp release packages for distribution.

Building

The first step in preparing the application for distribution is to build the application.

  1. Set MyApp Version - set the initial application version.

    Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs

    [assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.0")]
[assembly: AssemblyFileVersion("1.0.0")]

  2. Switch to Release - switch your build configuration to Release.

  3. Build MyApp - build your application to ensure the latest changes are included in the package we will be creating.

Packing

Squirrel uses NuGet for bundling application files and various application properties (e.g., application name, version, description) in a single release package.

Section NuGet Package Metadata provides additional details on using NuGet and .nuspec files to automate the packing of your application. We will be going through the process using the NuGet Package Explorer to manually create a NuGet package.

  1. Creating a New NuGet Package - the first step is to create a new NuGet package.
  2. Edit Metadata - update package metadata for MyApp.
    • Id - name of the application (no spaces)
    • Version - version specified in Properties\Assembly.cs
    • Dependencies - Squirrel expects no dependencies in the package (all files should be explicitly added to the package)
  3. Add lib & net45 - add the lib folder and the net45 folder to the project. Squirrel is expecting a single lib / net45 directory provided regardless of whether your app is a net45 application.
  4. Add Release Files - add all the files from bin\Release needed by MyApp to execute (including the various files required by Squirrel).
    • Include MyApp Files: MyApp.exe, MyApp.exe.config, any non-standard .NET dll's needed by MyApp.exe.
    • Include Squirrel Files: Squirrel.dll, Splat.dll, NuGet.Squirrel.dll, Mono.Cecil.*, DeltaCompressonDotNet.*, ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.*
    • Exclude: *.vshost.*, *.pdb files
  5. Save the NuGet Package File - save the NuGet package file to where you can easily access later (e.g., MyApp.sln directory). Follow the given naming format (e.g., MyApp.1.0.0.nupkg).

Releasifying

Releasifying is the process of preparing the MyApp.1.0.0.nupkg for distribution.

Using Releasify

You use the Squirrel.exe tool that was included in the Squirrel.Windows package you installed in the MyApp.sln previously.

Use the Package Manager Console to execute Squirrel.exe --releasify command.

PM> Squirrel --releasify MyApp.1.0.0.nupkg

Tip: If you get an error stating that ...'Squirrel' is not recognized... then you may simply need to restart Visual Studio so the Package Manager Console will have loaded all the package tools.

Releasify Output

The Squirrel --releasify command completes the following:

  • Create Releases Directory - creates a Releases directory (in the MyApp.sln directory by default).
  • Create Setup.exe - creates a Setup.exe file which includes the latest version of the application to be installed.
  • Create RELEASES File - creates a file that provides a list of all release files for MyApp to be used during the update process
  • Create MyApp.1.0.0-full.nupkg - copies the package you created to the Releases directory.
  • Create MyApp.*.*.*-delta.nupkg - if you are releasing an update, releasify creates a delta file package to reduce the update package size (see Updating for details).

C:\Projects\MyApp\Releases

See Also

Previous: 1. Integrating Next: 3. Distributing