velopack/samples/UnoSample/README.md

Uno with Velopack

This solution contains an Uno Desktop application that targets both Windows and macOS. Because Velopack does not currently support mobile or web platforms, those are not included.

Prerequisites

This solution will publish the application out to the Velopack Flow service. To test the full publish you will need to create a Velopack Flow account.

The solution assumes that you have downloaded and installed the Velopack CLI (vpk) global tool. This tool can be installed by running dotnet tool install -g vpk. You will then need ot authenticate with the Velopack Flow servie by running vpk login and signing in with your Velopack Flow account.

The Application

Inside of Presentation the MainPage.xaml contains the main UI for viewing the current version, checking for updates, and applying the latest update. The MainViewModel.cs contains the logic for checking for updates and applying them. The key piece of the setup is the initialization of the UpdateManager with the VelopackFlowUpdateSource which provides the interaction with the Velopack Flow service.

The Main methods in the Platforms\Desktop\Program.cs has been updated to contain the Velopack application startup hook.

The Main methods in the Platforms\MacCatalyst\Main.maccatalyst.cs has been updated to contain the Velopack application startup hook.

Finally, for the WinUI platform, a little more work is needed as the Main method is auto-generated by default. First, the generation of the Main method needs to be disabled by defining DISABLE_XAML_GENERATED_MAIN constant in the csproj.

<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(TargetFramework)'=='net8.0-windows10.0.19041'">
  <DefineConstants>$(DefineConstants);DISABLE_XAML_GENERATED_MAIN</DefineConstants>
</PropertyGroup>

Next the Main method needs to be added so a new Platforms\Windows\Program.cs file is added with a standard content, and the Velopack application startup hook:

[STAThread]
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
    // It's important to Run() the VelopackApp as early as possible in app startup.
    VelopackApp.Build()
        .WithFirstRun((v) => { /* Your first run code here */ })
        .Run();

    WinRT.ComWrappersSupport.InitializeComWrappers();

    Application.Start((p) =>
    {
        var context = new DispatcherQueueSynchronizationContext(
            DispatcherQueue.GetForCurrentThread());
        SynchronizationContext.SetSynchronizationContext(context);
        new App();
    });
}

Updating the Project file

There are two properties to set in the csproj file to enable the Velopack Flow integration. These are:

<VelopackPushOnPublish>true</VelopackPushOnPublish>
<VelopackPackId>Velopack.UnoSample</VelopackPackId>

VelopackPackId is the unique identifier for the application. This is used to identify the application in the Velopack Flow service. It must be unique among all applications. VelopackPushOnPublish is a boolean value that determines if the application should be pushed to the Velopack Flow service when it is published. This should be set to true to enable the integration.

Building installers

To build the local installers run the following command replacing <Version> with the desired version number. The -f option is used to specify the target framework. This can be any of the desktop frameworks specified in the csproj file.

dotnet publish -c Release -f net8.0-desktop -p:Version=<Version>