node-appdmg

Generate beautiful DMG-images for your OS X applications.

Installation

npm install -g appdmg

Usage

appdmg <json-path> <dmg-path>

• json-path: Path to the JSON Specification file
• dmg-path: Path at which to place the final DMG

Test

To produce a test DMG to your desktop, run the following command:

appdmg test/assets/appdmg.json ~/Desktop/test.dmg

JSON Input

The JSON input for the image follows a simple structure. All paths are relative to the JSON file's path.

Example

{
  "title": "Test Application",
  "icon": "test-app.icns",
  "background": "test-background.png",
  "contents": [
    { "x": 448, "y": 344, "type": "link", "path": "/Applications" },
    { "x": 192, "y": 344, "type": "file", "path": "TestApp.app" }
  ]
}

Specification

• title (string, required) - The title of the produced DMG, which will be shown when mounted
• icon (string, optional) - Path to your icon, which will be shown when mounted
• background (string, optional) - Path to your background
• background-color (string, optional) - Background color (accepts css colors)
• icon-size (number, optional) - Size of all the icons inside the DMG
• window (object, optional) - Window options
  • position (object, optional) - Position when opened
    • x (number, required) - X position relative to left of the screen
    • y (number, required) - Y position relative to bottom of the screen
  • size (object, optional) - Window size
    • width (number, required) - Window width
    • height (number, required) - Window height
• format (enum[string], optional) - Disk image format
  • UDRW - UDIF read/write image
  • UDRO - UDIF read-only image
  • UDCO - UDIF ADC-compressed image
  • UDZO - UDIF zlib-compressed image
  • UDBZ - UDIF bzip2-compressed image (OS X 10.4+ only)
  • ULFO - UDIF lzfse-compressed image (OS X 10.11+ only)
  • ULMO - UDIF lzma-compressed image (macOS 10.15+ only)
• filesystem (enum[string], optional) - Disk image filesystem
  • HFS+
  • APFS (macOS 10.13+ only)
• contents (array[object], required) - This is the contents of your DMG.
  • x (number, required) - X position relative to icon center
  • y (number, required) - Y position relative to icon center
  • type (enum[string], required)
    • link - Creates a link to the specified target
    • file - Adds a file to the DMG
    • position - Positions a present file
  • path (string, required) - Path to the file
  • name (string, optional) - Name of the file within the DMG
• code-sign (object, optional) - Options for codesigning the DMG
  • signing-identity (string, required) - The identity with which to sign the resulting DMG
  • identifier (string, optional) - Explicitly set the unique identifier string that is embedded in code signatures

0.1.x used a different JSON format. This format is still supported but deprecated, please update your json.

Retina background

Finder can display retina backgrounds if packaged correctly into a .tiff file. appdmg will do this for you automatically if it can find a file with the same name as the background appended with @2x.

E.g. if the json contains "background": "TestBkg.png" then add a file with the name TestBkg@2x.png into the same folder.

API

The application can also be called from within another javascript file, example:

const appdmg = require('appdmg');
const ee = appdmg({ source: 'test/appdmg.json', target: 'test.dmg' });

ee.on('progress', function (info) {

  // info.current is the current step
  // info.total is the total number of steps
  // info.type is on of 'step-begin', 'step-end'

  // 'step-begin'
  // info.title is the title of the current step

  // 'step-end'
  // info.status is one of 'ok', 'skip', 'fail'

});

ee.on('finish', function () {
  // There now is a `test.dmg` file
});

ee.on('error', function (err) {
  // An error occurred
});

You can also pass in the specification directly instead of reading it from a file. basepath should be a path which will be used to resolve other paths in the specification.

const ee = appdmg({
  target: 'test.dmg',
  basepath: __dirname,
  specification: {
    "title": "Test Title",
    // ...
  }
});

OS Support

Currently the only supported os is Mac OS X.

Track the status of this here: #14

Hidden files

By default hidden files will show for users with com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles set to TRUE. This can be worked around by moving all hidden files outside the initial window size (using "type": "position"), this has the side-effect of enabling a scrollbar.

Files to usually move:

• .background
• .DS_Store
• .Trashes
• .VolumeIcon.icns

Alternatives

• create-dmg, a Bash script
• dmgbuild, a Python version