operaton / operaton/operaton-modeler

Problem with building current version (1.2.0-dev) using Visual Studio 2026

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bug
Dominant language
JavaScript
Stars
5
Forks
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PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

Describe the bug

npm run build fails on Windows machines that only have Visual Studio 2026
(18.x) installed. electron-builder rebuilds the optional native dependency
vscode-windows-ca-certs and stops at the build:distro step:

• preparing       moduleName=vscode-windows-ca-certs arch=x64
⨯ Error: Could not find any Visual Studio installation to use
⨯ node-gyp failed to rebuild '...\node_modules\vscode-windows-ca-certs'

The lockfile pins @electron/rebuild@4.0.3, which uses node-gyp@11.5.0.
That node-gyp version only detects Visual Studio 2017–2022. Support for
Visual Studio 2026 was added in node-gyp@12.1.0.

This PR updates @electron/rebuild to 4.2.0 in package-lock.json.
Since 4.0.4, @electron/rebuild depends on node-gyp@^12.2.0, so the
lockfile now resolves node-gyp@12.4.0.

  • package.json does not change. 4.2.0 is within the ^4.0.3 range that
    app-builder-lib@26.8.1 requires.
  • The lockfile diff only touches @electron/rebuild, node-gyp and their
    transitive dependencies. It also removes entries that are no longer
    needed.
  • The @electron/rebuild 4.0.4–4.2.0 release notes list only bug fixes and
    new features, with no breaking changes.

0001-fix-build-update-electron-rebuild-to-support-Visual-.patch

Steps to reproduce

On Windows, with only Visual Studio 2026 and the C++ build tools installed:

npm ci
npm run build
  • Before: build:distro fails with
    Could not find any Visual Studio installation to use.
  • After: vscode-windows-ca-certs is rebuilt for x64 and ia32. Both
    operaton-modeler-*-win-{x64,ia32}.zip archives are created and
    test-distro reports SUCCESS.

Tested on Windows 11 with Node.js 24.20.0, npm 12.0.2, and Visual Studio
Build Tools 2026 / Community 2026.

Note: a separate problem can show up on Windows accounts that aren't allowed
to create symbolic links (no Developer Mode and no elevated shell).
electron-builder 26.8.1 fails to extract winCodeSign-2.6.0.7z because the
archive contains macOS symlinks. This PR does not change that. Enabling
Developer Mode avoids it. electron-builder 26.11.0 and later avoid it too,
because they edit resources with resedit instead of rcedit.exe.

I am attaching patch file to resolve the problem.

Expected behavior

Proper build process on Windows 11 machine with Visual Studio 2026 installed.

Environment
  • OS: [Windows 11]
  • Operaton Modeler Version: [e.g. 1.2.0-dev]
Additional context

No response

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with package-lock.json and the @electron/rebuild dependency resolved for the build:distro step. Run npm ci and npm run build on Windows 11 with Visual Studio 2026, then run test-distro. Done means vscode-windows-ca-certs rebuilds for x64 and ia32 and both Windows ZIP archives are created successfully.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
electron, javascript, node.js
Domain
build-system, desktop
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
88/100

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