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Release to the catalogue

A release is a build of one channel, written into the sibling game-automation-catalogue checkout as the files the app's index is built from. Three commands, one per channel:

npm run release:alpha
npm run release:beta
npm run release:production
npm run release:alpha -- --dry-run   # show the entry, write nothing
npm run release:alpha -- --yes       # skip the note review (for scripts; needs no terminal)

Before you start​

  1. package.json carries the version. Bump it (npm version 0.13 --no-git-tag-version, or edit it) — it is the one place the version lives.
  2. CHANGELOG.md has a ## [<that version>] section with a ### Summary block. There is no [Unreleased]: the section named for the version is the one that ships, and a missing section or an empty Summary fails the release before anything is built. The Summary is the player-facing note — one line per feature, not per change, and only what a player sees. Later work on a feature folds into its existing line.
  3. The catalogue checkout is beside this repository, at the path config.json's Catalogue names (../../game-automation-catalogue/Official/LineTsumTsum).

What config.json says​

FieldMeaning
GameCopied into every entry.
PublisherThe catalogue this ships under, and the first segment of the on-device folder.
CatalogueWhere a release is written, relative to the package.
Channels.<name>Name (what the app shows), Archive (the zip's base name), Directory (under Catalogue), Note (appended to every release note on that channel), Status (the lowest ReleaseStatus the channel offers: 0 Alpha, 1 Beta, 2 Production).
MessageMaxCharsThe note is read on a phone; over this, the release refuses.
HistoryLimitHow many builds stay installable (5); older archives are deleted from the catalogue on the next release.
app.gap.Tsum/config.json
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What happens​

  1. The note is proposed, not taken. The release prints the Summary bullets exactly as the app will render them — a numbered list, the channel's note, the character count — and waits: a approve, e edit in $VISUAL / $EDITOR, d deny (nothing is built). A note over the limit or with no bullets cannot be approved; edit it until it can. An approved edit is offered back to CHANGELOG.md, so what shipped and what the repo says shipped stay the same text.

  2. The channel is built.

  3. Four things are written into <Catalogue>/<Directory>/:

    ../game-automation-catalogue/Official/LineTsumTsum/Beta/
    ├── TsumTsum-Beta-0.12.zip     the build
    ├── TsumTsum-Beta-0.11.zip     and the ones before it, up to HistoryLimit
    ├── metadata.json              describes the newest build and lists the rest
    └── CHANGELOG.md               every release cut on this channel, newest first

    metadata.json's top-level fields describe this build — Game, Name, Version, Date, Hash (taken from the bytes just written, so the entry cannot describe a different build), File, Message — and its Versions array lists this build and the ones before it, so a player can roll back from the script's card in the app. Re-publishing a version replaces its row and its changelog section rather than adding a second. Archives past HistoryLimit are deleted; stage those deletions when you commit.

  4. The release tells you what to do next: run the catalogue's own build-official script there and commit.

app.gap.Tsum/tools/release/release.js
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Finish in the catalogue​

cd ../../game-automation-catalogue
bash build-official.sh        # or build-official.ps1; regenerates official.json locally
git add -A && git commit -m "Tsum Tsum Beta 0.12" && git push

official.json itself is git-ignored there: the catalogue's GitHub Actions workflow rebuilds it on every push that touches a metadata.json and publishes it to GitHub Pages, which is the URL the app fetches. Running the script locally is a check that the entry folds in cleanly, not the publish.

Within a few minutes the app's Library shows the new version — with an UPDATE badge on devices that have an older one installed, unless that install was pinned by choosing its version by name.

Two paths onto a device, and they are not the same​

  • npm run release:* publishes an archive for the app to install from the catalogue. This is what a user gets.
  • debug_deploy.ps1 and npm run adb push dist/ straight over the installed script's folder, skipping the catalogue. This is the debug loop.