Sunbird desktop app build automation

Owned by Harish Kumar Gangula
Last updated: Sept 30, 2019
2 min read


Background

To build the desktop app to supported operating systems in the supported format in 32bit and 64bit  we need  Windows 32bit and 64bit systems with build setup which includes softwares
Node js, Editor and Git and same need to be installed in Linux to build for it and it is a manual process and requires manual distribution of the app which
is error-prone.

Introduction

The wiki details the automated build process to distribute the desktop application to the users who use the different operating systems and this process will provide the app in different formats for different operating which are mentioned below 


Operating systemFormat64bit32bit
Windows.exeyesyes
Ubuntu.debyesNA
CentOS/Redhat.rpmyesNA
Mac.dmgyesNA


Distribution Formats and arches

Windows

For windows build we need to 32bit and 64bit app since we are using pouch DB as database which is having native node modules are dependencies we need to rebuild the native dependencies per OS and arch and we don't have cloud provider who provides 32bit windows machine still the automation is pending for the 32bit build.

Linux 

Initially, we planned to go with appImage format which doesn't need installation but since it doesn't support features like

1. opening content from file browser which will be the most use case from user to play the content

2. User may think appImage as an installed app from Pendrive if it is there or he can easily delete the app unlike an installed app

3. Logo of the app is not shown so it looks like a software instead of desktop application

we went will deb and rpm format with which can be installed as other apps and also provides features like open content or any other files associated with the app.


Design



Build process steps

  1.  The Jenkins job will clone the repos mentioned in the above diagram to the build server
  2.  It reads the configuration for the build which includes below variables
    1. GITHUD_PRIVATE_REPO // Example: PROJECT_SUNBIRD/PRIVATE_ASSETS
    2. TARGET_ENVIRONMENT // Example: staging, pre-prod, prod
    3. GITHUB_PRIVATE_REPO_ACCESS_TOKEN 
  3. It installs the dependencies which are in the form of node modules for the app
  4. The app triggers angular build script to build the UI which includes the desktop app modules as a dependency
  5. The script will update the package.json and env.json and updates the assets
  6. Electron builder will build the app based on the configuration provided to it 



Limitations


Since we have the native node module(pouch DB) dependency we need to build the app for 32bit and 64bit systems we need to build the app  separately