ZIP

Create a ZIP archive for your Electron app using Electron Forge.

The ZIP target builds basic .zip archives containing your packaged application. There are no platform-specific dependencies for using this maker and it will run on any platform.

Installation

npm install --save-dev @electron-forge/maker-zip

Usage

To use @electron-forge/maker-zip, add it to the makers array in your Forge configuration.

forge.config.js

module.exports = {
  makers: [
    {
      name: '@electron-forge/maker-zip'
    }
  ]
};

All configuration options are optional, and options are documented in the API docs for MakerZIPConfig.

Static file auto-updates (macOS)

On macOS, the ZIP maker can be configured to generate update manifests to use with Electron's autoUpdater module.

forge.config.js

module.exports = {
  makers: [
    {
      name: '@electron-forge/maker-zip',
      config: (arch) => ({
        macUpdateManifestBaseUrl: `https://my-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/my-app-updates/darwin/${arch}`
      })
    }
  ]
};

macUpdateManifestBaseUrl should be a path to an object storage bucket where you are storing your release assets. This bucket needs to be organized in folders by platform, then architecture.

The first time you run make with this parameter configured, an architecture-specific RELEASES.json manifest will be generated. For example, if you are building v1.2.1 of my-app for arm64 (Apple Silicon):

forge.config.js

{
  "currentRelease": "1.2.1",
  "releases": [
    {
      "version": "1.2.1",
      "updateTo": {
        "version": "1.2.1",
        "pub_date": "2013-09-18T12:29:53+01:00",
        "name": "my-app v1.2.1",
        "url": "https://my-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/my-app-updates/darwin/arm64/my-app-1.2.1-darwin-arm64.zip"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Once this asset is uploaded to the bucket, subsequent runs will read from the existing manifest at https://my-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/my-app-updates/darwin/arm64/RELEASES.json and modify it to update the currentRelease property to the next version that is built.

For end-to-end instructions on this process, including how to publish assets to S3 and set up the autoUpdater to read the RELEASES.json manifest, see the Auto updating from S3 guide.