Getting Started: Uno Platform

Applies to

Windows

MacOS

Linux

The Uno Platform provies .NET developers with an open-source platform for building single codebase native mobile, web, desktop and embedded apps quickly. Velopack offers a cross platform solution for deploying the desktop (Windows, macOS, and Linux) versions of those applications. For publishing other platforms see Uno Platform's documentation.

Start by creating a new Uno application following Uno Platform's Getting Started guide.
Add the Velopack NuGet package to the Uno project by running
```
dotnet add package Velopack
```

Inside of the App.xaml.cs add the following lines to the beginning of the constructor.

public App()
{
    // It's important to Run() the VelopackApp as early as possible in app startup.
    VelopackApp.Build()
        .WithFirstRun((v) => { /* Your first run code here */ })
        .Run();
    this.InitializeComponent();
}

Add automatic updating somewhere in your app:

private static async Task UpdateMyApp()
{
    var mgr = new UpdateManager("https://the.place/you-host/updates");

    // check for new version
    var newVersion = await mgr.CheckForUpdatesAsync();
    if (newVersion == null)
        return; // no update available

    // download new version
    await mgr.DownloadUpdatesAsync(newVersion);

    // install new version and restart app
    mgr.ApplyUpdatesAndRestart(newVersion);
}

Compile the artifacts to be deployed. Though it is not strictly necessary to set an assembly version, it is best practice to version the application to match the installer version.
```
dotnet publish -f net8.0-desktop -p:Version=1.0.0 -o .\publish
```
This will create the artifacts to be installed inside of the publish directory. If you are targeting Windows or Mac Catalyst separately this process will need to be repeated for each of those platforms. For additional information on publishing your Uno application see the Uno publishing guides
Install the Velopack command line utility. This is installed as a dotnet global tool. Install it by running
```
dotnet tool install -g vpk
```
Build the installer. For this example, we will provide the same version number for the installer as we did above for the application version.
```
vpk pack --packId <AppId> --packVersion 1.0.0 --packDir .\publish --mainExe <MyUnoApp>.exe
```
The AppId can be any unique application identifier that you wish to use. Typically this will be the same as the name as your application. The --mainExe option is only required if your executable name is different than the --packId of your application.

tip
VPK will produce the following warning that can safely be ignored: VelopackApp.Run() was found in method 'System.Void <YourAppName>.App::.ctor()', which does not look like your application's entry point. It is strongly recommended that you move this to the very beginning of your Main() method.

For more information on this warning see Integration Overview By default, Velopack will create the installers and the needed installer files inside of a Release directory. This can be configured with the --outputDir option.

✅ You're Done! These files can then be uploaded it a variety of locations for distribution.