TheProtonApp.zip file structure

[distributev]

When opening the zip file the user should not see any file/folder which is not directly related with the
TheProtonApp.exe functionality (all the electron/node runtime files / folders / resources i.e. node.dll should be moved under the _internal folder)

[luismanuel001]

I'm not sure this is possible, I searched the electron-builder documentation and issues and I did not find that option, or anybody talking to something related to that.

I made an issue asking directly if it is even possible on the electron-builder repo.

But in the meantime I guess we have to keep it like it is.

[luismanuel001]

OK I got a response to the issue, and they said that this is not supported yet, but they where going to work on this in the near future since it is an easy implementation and others have asked for this feature already.

[luismanuel001]

OK so for now I added the batch file (TheProtonApp.cmd) workaround so the file structure currently looks like this:

release/TheProtonApp-0.0.1-win-ia32
├── TheProtonApp.cmd     <------------------------- batch file shortcut
└── _internal          <----------------------------- _internal folder
    ├── LICENSE
    ├── LICENSES.chromium.html
    ├── TheProtonApp.exe     <------------------------EXE
    ├── blink_image_resources_200_percent.pak
    ├── content_resources_200_percent.pak
    ├── content_shell.pak
    ├── d3dcompiler_47.dll
    ├── ffmpeg.dll
    ├── icudtl.dat
    ├── libEGL.dll
    ├── libGLESv2.dll
    ├── natives_blob.bin
    ├── node.dll
    ├── resources
    │   ├── app       <-------------------- app folder with all the app files already built 
    │   │   ├── 3dbd5b2a8e8d3d0dbede22acf0ffe03c.jpg
    │   │   ├── 448c34a56d699c29117adc64c43affeb.woff2
    │   │   ├── 674f50d287a8c48dc19ba404d20fe713.eot
    │   │   ├── 7799dece2c79854f63f09e7dfa528b88.jpg
    │   │   ├── 89889688147bd7575d6327160d64e760.svg
    │   │   ├── 912ec66d7572ff821749319396470bde.svg
    │   │   ├── af7ae505a9eed503f8b8e6982036873e.woff2
    │   │   ├── app.ecab8d0be0a40943b745.js
    │   │   ├── app.ecab8d0be0a40943b745.js.map
    │   │   ├── b06871f281fee6b241d60582ae9369b9.ttf
    │   │   ├── background.js
    │   │   ├── background.js.map
    │   │   ├── e18bbf611f2a2e43afc071aa2f4e1512.ttf
    │   │   ├── env.json
    │   │   ├── f4769f9bdb7466be65088239c12046d1.eot
    │   │   ├── fa2772327f55d8198301fdb8bcfc8158.woff
    │   │   ├── favicon.ico
    │   │   ├── fee66e712a8a08eef5805a46892932ad.woff
    │   │   ├── index.html
    │   │   ├── package.json
    │   │   ├── polyfills.ecab8d0be0a40943b745.js
    │   │   ├── polyfills.ecab8d0be0a40943b745.js.map
    │   │   ├── robots.txt
    │   │   ├── vendor.ecab8d0be0a40943b745.js
    │   │   └── vendor.ecab8d0be0a40943b745.js.map
    │   └── electron.asar
    ├── snapshot_blob.bin
    ├── ui_resources_200_percent.pak
    ├── views_resources_200_percent.pak
    └── xinput1_3.dll

So the rest of the folders from the screenshot you provided at the top (config, logs, templates, etc), need to be put on the app directory in order for the app files to access their data, so one workaround I'm thinking I want to try, is to add a gulp task that will create symlinks to those folders so the final structure looks exactly like the one you provided, just that those folders on the root will actually be symlinks to the app folder. If this works, the end user could modify the files on lets say on /TheProtonApp-0.0.1-win-ia32/config and the changes will reflect on the /TheProtonApp-0.0.1-win-ia32/_internal/Resources/app/config folder and viceversa.

Please let me know what do you think of this approach.

[distributev]

Does the symlinks work on Windows?
I think symlinks are Linux stuff.

[luismanuel001]

I think they do: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365680(v=vs.85).aspx

I still need to implement and test to make sure it behaves as expected

[distributev]

Why not have ./config (and all other folders from the screenshot) like I put in screenshot and then in the APP code you'll point to these folders with relative paths similar with ../../.. (how many .. parent relatives are necessary).

And of course you'll not hard code in JS code ../../.. you'll have some kind of configuration CONFIG FOLDER which will come from a development.js / production.js where you'll configure all paths (you did something similar in the-app)

check here -

https://github.com/distributev/the-app/blob/master/theapp-template/TheApp/_internal/app/server/config/environment/production.js

theapp-template

Also check the theapp-template/TheApp from here https://github.com/distributev/the-app - you implemented this and it's good. theapp-template/TheApp structure keeps a "template" with all the files / folders which are "static" (not the built code) and this is like a boiler-plate for the package-application.

Do you remember theapp-template/TheApp packaging idea? Do the same now.