Create a melonDS Updater

[RayyanAnsari]

This adds support for downloading the latest melonDS.

• It uses the GitHub Artifacts API to get the latest release for the current platform. If it is newer than the current version, it downloads the latest release. It uses Qt's Network module and it's JSON support.

To-do list

• [x] Get the GitHub access token from users
• [x] Add Azure Pipelines support
• [x] Figure out a way to get the current artifact version - maybe use commit hash?
• [x] Add support for getting stable updates.

[rzumer]

Get the GitHub access token from users

It should be seamless IMO. If GitHub can't offer that then better host the current version + release packages on the official site.

[RayyanAnsari]

Found a way to get commit messages and other info, and make sure that the build is from this repository, not any forks. Will do this tomorrow.

• cURL https://api.github.com/repos/Arisotura/melonDS/actions/runs (Workflows API)
• Parse it
• Interate over json[workflow_runs]
• see if obj[head_repositry][name] is Arisotura/melonDS if not, skip.
• cURL obj[artifacts_url], parse, and see if name is current platform. If not, skip.
• If name is current platform, get obj[head_commit][message]. This is the commit message.
• Now prompt user to update, if yes, use the old obj[artifacts_url] and cURL the file.

Note: outdated, GitHub has API parameters.

[Arisotura]

I have two main concerns over this:

1. make it optional and opt-in. I abhor forced updates.
2. there is a security concern with this, we need to ensure it's not possible for an attacker to feed bogus binaries through the updater.

[RayyanAnsari]

I have two main concerns over this:

1. make it optional and opt-in. I abhor forced updates.

2. there is a security concern with this, we need to ensure it's not possible for an attacker to feed bogus binaries through the updater.

It only checks for updates when the menu item is clicked. It downloads the melonDS.zip for the user to extract later. Currently this only downloads from GitHub Actions, but I will add stable releases and Azure soon.

[RayyanAnsari]

~~only thing that's needed now is to get the current commit. perhaps #1117 could be useful.~~ done.

[KostaSaizo7]

As an average user, I am not really a fan of this PR in its current state. Here's a comparison with Dolphin's updater from a user perspective, in order to update to the latest dev version:

Dolphin

1. After opening Dophin, the below window pops up:

2. The user clicks the "Install update" button and after that the updater does everything it is needed (downloads the latest dev version, extracts and replaces the old files and launches Dolphin again).

So, it is just one click.

MelonDS

1. After opening MelonDS, the user navigates to About>Update Channel and select "Development".

2. About>Check for updates, the below window pops up:

3. The average user won't know what this means. So the user either gives up or googles it (I googled). So, to create the token you need a Github account (the average user won't have one), then go to Github Settings>Developer settings>Personal access tokens>Generate new token, then give a name, then change the expiration to "no date" (so it will not expire in the future), then select the "public_repo" scope, then "Generate token" and finally copy the token to the updater.

4. After all that, the below window pops up: Click "Yes"

5. So now in the melonDS directory there are these: The user needs to extract the exe from the zip and replace the old one. Finally, we made it!

PS: Do you want to update melonDS again in the future? You should have kept the token! MelonDS does not save it and github only shows it once when you generate it. So If you didn't kept it, you must generate a new one.

TLDR: It is easier to just download from Github the latest dev version than using the updater. The user should be able to update with just a few clicks, not creating accounts, generating tokens and extracting zips.

I really hope I am not being too harsh on this, I am just trying to help :)

[RayyanAnsari]

PS: Do you want to update melonDS again in the future? You should have kept the token! MelonDS does not save it and github only shows it once when you generate it. So If you didn't kept it, you must generate a new one.

I was planning on adding that, but I have been busy the past few days.

[KostaSaizo7]

Error when trying to update to stable It creates a 0kb melonDS_0.9.3_win64.7z file in the directory

[RayyanAnsari]

Arisotura changed the naming scheme.

[RainbowTabitha]

nightly.link would bypass the need for a token