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Creating Releases

Structure of a Release

The following diagram shows a high level overview of the files/components involved in each release.

                      +--------------------+       +-------------------+
                      | RELEASE MANIFEST   |       | DELTA MANIFEST    |
                      +--------------------+       +-------------------+
                      | A list of:         |       | Used if Package   |
                      | - Package FileName +-------+ Type is Delta     |
          +-----------+ - Package Version  |       +-------------------+
          |           | - Package Type     |       | - Expected Hashes |       
+---------+--------+  | - Target Version   |       +-------------------+
| RELEASE          |  +--------------------+
+------------------+
| Release Manifest |
| Package 1        +----+
| Package 2        |    |
+------------------+    |                       +------------------------+
                      +-+-----------------+     | PACKAGE MANIFEST       |
                      | PACKAGE           |     +------------------------+
                      +-------------------+     | - Package Type         |
                      | Package Manifest  +-----+ - Package Version      |
                      | <Package Files>   |     | - List of Files        |
                      +-------------------+     | - Cleanup/Ignore Regex |
                                                | - Custom Extra Data    |
                                                +------------------------+

A package contains an individual version of a program; a release is a collection of packages storing multiple versions. Packages you install, Releases you upload/publish to the web.

Creating Packages

For creating fully featured update packages using CLI, a separate program called Sewer56.Update.Tool is provided.
This tool is cross-platform and should be usable from any environment if .NET Core itself is available.

You can find the tool in the releases section of the official GitHub repository.

Using the CLI

// Create a Copy Package (files are copied directly to destination).
dotnet Sewer56.Update.Tool.dll CreateCopyPackage --folderpath "Files/NewVersion" --version "1.0" --outputpath "Files/Packages/1.0"

// Create a Delta Package from Previous to New Version.
dotnet Sewer56.Update.Tool.dll CreateDeltaPackage --folderpath "Files/NewVersion" --lastversionfolderpath "Files/LastVersion" --version "1.0.1" --lastversion "1.0" --outputpath "Files/Packages/1.0_to_1.0.1"

You can access help with e.g. dotnet Sewer56.Update.Tool.dll CreateCopyPackage --help.

Using the API

Note: You can also automatically create packages as part of the release process by using the ReleaseBuilder<T> api (see below). Only use this API if you wish to create packages without making a release.

Consider using the Package<T> API.
Example: 

// Create Regular Package
await Package<Empty>.CreateAsync(PackageContentFolder, OutputFolder, "1.0");

// Create Delta Package
await Package<Empty>.CreateDeltaAsync(LastVersionFolder, CurrentVersionFolder, OutputFolder, "1.0", "1.0.1");

Creating Releases

Using the CLI

Create a text file containing a list of all packages in the release (one package per line). Each line should contain a relative or full path to the package to be included.

Example:

  • Packages.txt 

    Files/Packages/1.0
Files/Packages/1.0.1
Files/Packages/1.0_to_1.0.1

  • Command 

    // Create a simple release, with existing packages sourced from Packages.txt
// Output the release in `Files.release` and call the package files "Poems".
dotnet Sewer56.Update.Tool.dll --existingpackagespath "Files/Packages.txt" --outputpath "Files/Release" --packagename Poems

Using the API

You can build a fresh release by using the ReleaseBuilder<T> API. Here is an example:

// Arrange
var builder = new ReleaseBuilder<Empty>();
builder.AddCopyPackage(new CopyBuilderItem<Empty>()
{
    FolderPath = Assets.ManyFileFolderOriginal,
    Version = "1.0"
});

// Act
var metadata = await builder.BuildAsync(new BuildArgs()
{
    FileName     = "Package",
    OutputFolder = this.OutputFolder
});

This will build a release with 1 package at Assets.ManyFileFolderOriginal and place the release into OutputFolder.

Support for Legacy Releases

For legacy reasons, packages without a manifest are also supported.
This is to make moving from older update systems easier; however you lose the support for automatic cleanup of leftover files from old versions.