How to include additional files

[boganiLuca]

From what I understood, your package builds the flutter app as if done by the IDE, then using hashes determines which files bust be downloaded in order to update an installation.
But what if I have some additional files to include in the build path? In my case, I have a full-fledged desktop application with PDF manuals, language files (external to flutter) and other stuff unrelated to Flutter's build process that (sometimes) need to be updated: would be possible with your package to put additional files to be updated?
I'm making a wild guess that these files could be added to the dist folder after running desktop_updater:release but before running desktop_updater:archive, so that they can be parsed for hashes, but I have not tested it yet.
This is kinda a crucial feature for me: I'm exploring the possibility to have a macOs version of our windows app, and having an auto-updater feature also on macOs is an important feature

[MarlonJD]

You're absolutely right — the package builds the Flutter app similarly to how the IDE does, then computes file hashes to determine which files need to be downloaded for updates.

Yes, it’s possible to include additional files (such as external PDFs, language files, or other resources) in the update mechanism. Your assumption is correct: you can place these extra files into the dist directory after running desktop_updater:release and before running desktop_updater:archive. This way, they will be included in the hashing process and treated as part of the update package.

If this approach doesn’t fully meet your needs, for example, if you want more granular control over which files are included. we can consider implementing support for a custom-files.json file. This file could explicitly list full file paths like:

[
  "/absolute/path/to/manual.pdf",
  "/absolute/path/to/lang/en-US.json"
]

Let me know if this direction works for you or if you’d prefer a different approach.

[boganiLuca]

Well, that would be nice, especially if it would work with something like "/absolute/path/to/*": in this way, one could simply drop all the needed files in there and run the archive command and have all the files included.
Anyway, for now, simply knowing that we can drop the files in the dist folder will suffice. Thank you very much!

[MarlonJD]

I'm leaving this issue open for now. we can close it once this feature is implemented. Good luck!