Doc - Release using channels

docs/SUMMARY.md

@@ -26,8 +26,9 @@
   * [Loading App Dependencies Manually](tutorials/loading-app-dependencies-manually.md)
   * [Two package.json Structure](tutorials/two-package-structure.md)
   * [macOS Kernel Extensions](tutorials/macos-kernel-extensions.md)
+  * [Release using channels](tutorials/release-using-channels.md)
 
 * Programmatic API
   * [electron-builder](api/electron-builder.md)
 
-* [Donate](donate.md)
+* [Donate](donate.md)

docs/tutorials/release-using-channels.md

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+> !!! This documentation is in "beta" and needed to be tested !!!
+
+# Release using channels / Auto-updates with channels
+
+## Description
+Channels are useful to distribute "beta" or "alpha" releases of your application to a choosen set of users. This allow to test an application before release it as "stable".
+
+Users which receive "beta" version will get "stable" versions too. Otherwise users who doesn't wanna "beta" will only get "stable" releases.
+
+They are tree channels level ordered by stability :
+1. "stable", your application is stable and this is the default one (example: 1.3.2)
+2. "beta" which mean your application works, but should have some bugs (example: 1.3.2-beta)
+3. "alpha" which mean your application is not stable and in active development (example: 1.3.2-alpha)
+
+
+## Configuration
+To release using channels, you should config electron-builder and define the channels to use in client side.
+
+### Electron-Builder
+By default (without using channels), all application releases use the "stable" channel.
+
+If you want to use channels, you should add this to your package.json:
+
+```
+"version": "x.x.x-beta",
+...
+"build": {
+  "generateUpdatesFilesForAllChannels": true,
+  ...
+}
+```
+
+> Note: `allowDowngrade` is automatically set to `true` when `generateUpdatesFilesForAllChannels = true`, so you doesn't need to set it.
+
+All you have to do to release using channels is to define the channel in the version tag of the `package.json`. Add "-beta" or "-alpha" (nothing for stable) to automatically build for the related channel.
+
+
+### Your application
+All you need to do here is to define which channel the user will receive.
+
+`autoUpdater.setFeedURL({url: 'https://www.yoursite.com', channel: 'beta'});`
+
+> note: remove the need to define url !
+
+The following versions will be distributed to the users according to the channel you set in `setFeedURL()` :
+- "stable": users will only get "stable" versions
+- "beta": users will get "beta" and "stable" version
+- "alpha": users will get "alpha", "beta" and "stable" version
+
+
+### Advanced (optional)
+todo:
+- allow downgrade
+- 
+
+## How to use it / Example
+Imagine your application version is 1.0.1 (stable).
+
+If you want to release a beta for the 1.1.0 version, you only need to update the package.json "version" with "1.1.0-beta".
+
+And when your application is stable enouth and you want to release it to all users, only remove the "-beta" tag from the package.json "version" tag.
+
+