Using Electron Forge for Packaging

Now that you've built your Electron application, the next crucial step is to package and distribute it to your users. While Electron provides basic tools for this, a more robust and streamlined solution is Electron Forge. Electron Forge is a modular toolchain that simplifies the entire packaging process, handling everything from creating installers for various operating systems to managing code signing and updating.

Electron Forge offers a comprehensive set of features, making it the go-to choice for most Electron developers. It supports a wide range of packaging targets, including:

• Desktop Installers: For Windows (.exe, .msi), macOS (.dmg), and Linux (.deb, .rpm, .AppImage).
• Self-Contained Binaries: For quick testing and distribution without installers.
• Web Releases: For distributing your app as a set of static assets.

It also integrates with various code signing services and provides hooks for custom build processes.

To start using Electron Forge, you first need to install it as a development dependency in your project.

Once installed, you can initialize Electron Forge in your project. This command will set up the necessary configuration files and directory structure for packaging.

The electron-forge init command will prompt you with a few questions about your project. It will then create a forge.config.js file in your project's root directory. This file is where you'll configure how Electron Forge builds your application.

A typical forge.config.js file might look something like this. This example specifies the packager configuration and the makers for generating installers.