Electron app not found in GNOME applications menu after installation

OS: Ubuntu 18 electron: 3.0.10 electron-forge: 5.2.3 electron-prebuilt-compile: 3.0.13

I ran the electron-forge make command. All the operations were completed successfully and the output folder was generated with a .deb file and some other files.

I ran the .deb file and the application got installed successfully but I’m not able to find the application installed anywhere in my system. It’s not there in the Applications menu.

However, under the ‘installed’ section in Ubuntu Software Center, the app is listed under the ‘Add-ons’ subsection. (frappe-accounting is the name of my app)

• package.json

{
  "name": "frappe-accounting",
  "description": "Simple Accounting app for everyone",
  "productName": "Frappe-Accounting",
  "version": "0.0.2",
  "author": {
    "name": "Frappe Technologies Pvt. Ltd.",
    "email": "[e-mail]"
  },
  "config": {
    "forge": {
      "make_targets": {
        "linux": [
          "deb"
        ]
      },
      "electronPackagerConfig": {},
      "electronWinstallerConfig": {
        "name": ""
      },
      "electronInstallerDebian": {},
      "electronInstallerRedhat": {},
      "github_repository": {
        "owner": "",
        "name": ""
      },
      "windowsStoreConfig": {
        "packageName": ""
      }
    }
  },
  "main": "dist/electron/main.js",
  "license": "MIT",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "mocha tests",
    "start": "frappe start",
    "electron": "cross-env ELECTRON=true frappe start electron",
    "postinstall": "electron-builder install-app-deps",
    "dist": "electron-builder"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "frappejs": "github:frappe/frappejs",
    "popper.js": "^1.14.4",
    "vue-color": "^2.7.0",
    "vue-toasted": "^1.1.25"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "electron-prebuilt-compile": "3.0.13"
  }
}

Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

[malept]

I had forgotten about name, mostly because for some reason I couldn’t find it in the API docs.

Forge does use it:

https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-forge/blob/ba612bc460775a9820b413dae064cb1ec291dead/packages/api/core/src/api/make.ts#L150

Perhaps Forge should be smarter about dealing with autoconfiguring executable names in general.

There is a bug in electron-installer-common where it doesn’t check that the symlink is valid. I’ve written a PR in https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-installer-common/pull/6.

Forge should deal with the fact that electron-packager uses the wrong field (productName) from a Linux point of view

I think that it’s much more complicated than that statement makes it out to be, because Packager needs to work for three very different platforms, and so at least 4 different ways of setting the application name have grown out of that. If we want to redesign how names are configured (which is a valid discussion to have), this should be taken to the Packager issue tracker.

[fcastilloec]

@malept I’m sorry but I confused the options. Users (and electron-forge) should use the executableName option with electron-packager, either in the CLI or programatically. I remember that around a year ago (https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-packager/commit/64caae7d5ab6a73e83ab6e3856cb370936fd57be), that option was introduced into electron-packager just so we could address this issues of wrong symlinks and wrong executable names. Rather than using options.bin with this module, use executableName with electron-packager. This way electron-packager will produce a valid executable name following Linux naming conventions.

As an example, using @anto-christo package.json. If we decide to use options.bin and leave electron-packager with its defaults, the executable will be created as Frappe-Accounting which then is used in options.bin, but this doesn’t follow Linux naming conventions. If we use executableName instead and set it as frappe-accounting, then there’s no need to set any options in this module, and we’ve followed naming conventions in Linux.