Customize installer for Mac

[aishahsofea]

I am using electron-builder to package my electron app for Mac. I would like to allow my user to choose whether they can run the launcher app after installation is successful. Probably something like a checkbox. If it is being checked, and user click Close, the launcher will run. Is it possible at all to customize this? I can't find it anywhere in the documentation.

[mmaietta]

Is this a .pkg target? I don't think that's possible to do so on mac, at least for .app within a .dmg since the process requires the user manually drag-dropping the .app into /Applications or other directory.

[aishahsofea]

@mmaietta yes, it is a .pkg target, and it does not require drag-dropping. I will need to go through these installation steps and clicking Close at the end will just close the installer. I'd like to add a checkbox at this step. Another alternative could be to automatically launch the launcher when closing the installer.

[mmaietta]

Can you try writing a postinstall file to be included with the .pkg? I found this resource on a simple implementation https://stackoverflow.com/a/42850950

It doesn't seem possible to change the installer dialog AFAICT. (Happy to be proven wrong though 🙂 )

[KaminoRyo]

@aishahsofea Oh, The approach suggested by mmaietta should be fine, but there is another problem. Also see #8063

[aishahsofea]

@mmaietta

Can you try writing a postinstall file to be included with the .pkg? I found this resource on a simple implementation https://stackoverflow.com/a/42850950

It doesn't seem possible to change the installer dialog AFAICT. (Happy to be proven wrong though 🙂 )

That works, I could automatically run the launcher post installation. But i still want to give user the choice whether to run it or not. I'm thinking that maybe it's possible to create a script inside postinstall file, where it will open a small popup window, and handles the UI & logic in this new window. @KaminoRyo do you know if this is possible?

[KaminoRyo]

Sorry, but I don't know about that. After searching, I found the following articles to be helpful.

• How to show GUI dialog window from shell script on a Mac by Artem Sapegin
• macos - How do I make a Mac Terminal pop-up/alert? Applescript? - Stack Overflow

[aishahsofea]

@KaminoRyo that's helpful, but i'm facing another problem. Scripts inside postinstall is actually triggered during installation step. This makes user experience not smooth, because at installation step, a popup will appear that allows user to run launcher, and launcher will run. But seconds after, summary is shown saying "The installation was successful". I foresee this will create bad user experience

@mmaietta is there any alternative to postinstall that will make sure script run at summary step, or better yet, once we click on Close button.

[mmaietta]

Well, pkg scripts only allow a pre/postinstall hook, so it makes sense that it's running as part of the "install" phase. pkg installers are purely handled by macos system, I don't think it's possible to have it run after hitting the close confirmation on the installer dialog

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