Upgrading from Briefcase v0.2#

Briefcase v0.2 was built as a setuptools extension. The configuration for your project was contained in a setup.py or setup.cfg file, and you invoked Briefcase using python setup.py <platform>.

Briefcase v0.3 represents a significant change in the development of Briefcase. Briefcase is now a PEP518-compliant build tool. It uses pyproject.toml for configuration, and is invoked using a standalone briefcase command. This change gives significantly improved flexibility in configuring Briefcase apps, and much better control over the development process.

However, this change is also backwards incompatible. If you have a project that was using Briefcase v0.2, you’ll need to make some major changes to your configuration and processes as part of upgrading to v0.3.

Configuration#

To port your application’s configuration to Briefcase v0.3, you’ll need to add a pyproject.toml file (in, as the extension suggests, TOML format). This file contains similar content to your setup.py or setup.cfg file.

The following is a minimal starting point for your pyproject.toml file:

[tool.briefcase]
project_name = "My Project"
bundle = "com.example"
version = "0.1"
author = "Jane Developer"
author_email = "jane@example.com"
requires = []

[tool.briefcase.app.myapp]
formal_name = "My App"
description = "My first Briefcase App"
requires = []
sources = ['src/myapp']

[tool.briefcase.app.myapp.macOS]
requires = ['toga-cocoa==0.3.0.dev15']

[tool.briefcase.app.myapp.windows]
requires = ['toga-winforms==0.3.0.dev15']

[tool.briefcase.app.myapp.linux]
requires = ['toga-gtk==0.3.0.dev15']

[tool.briefcase.app.myapp.iOS]
requires = ['toga-iOS==0.3.0.dev15']

The configuration sections are tool specific, and start with the prefix tool.briefcase. Additional dotted paths define the specificity of the settings that follow.

Most of the keys in your setup.py will map directly to the same key in your pyproject.toml (e.g., version, description). However, the following pointers may help port other values.

  • Briefcase v0.2 assumed that a setup.py file described a single app. Briefcase v0.3 allows a project to define multiple distributable applications. The project_name is the name for the collection of apps described by this pyproject.toml; formal_name is the name for a single app. If your project defines a single app, your formal name and project name will probably be the same.

  • There is no explicit definition for the app’s name - the app name is derived from the section header name (i.e., [tool.briefcase.app.myapp] defines the existence of an app named myapp).

  • version must be defined as a string in your pyproject.toml file. If you need to know the version of your app (or the value of any other app metadata specified in pyproject.toml) at runtime, you should use importlib.metadata. Briefcase will create myapp.dist-info for your application (using your app name instead of myapp).

  • Briefcase v0.3 configuration files are heirarchical. [tool.briefcase] describes configuration arguments for the entire project; [tool.briefcase.app.myapp] describes configuration arguments for the application named myapp; [tool.briefcase.app.myapp.macOS] describes configuration arguments for macOS deployments of myapp, and [tool.briefcase.app.myapp.macOS.dmg] describes configuration arguments for DMG deployments of myapp on macOS. The example above doesn’t contain a dmg section; generally, you won’t need one unless you’re packaging for multiple output formats on a single platform.

    For most keys, the “most specific” value wins - so, a value for description defined at the platform level will override any value at the app level, and so on. The two exceptions are requires and sources, which are cumulative - the values defined at the platform level will be appended to the values at the app level and the project level.

  • The install_requires and app_requires keys in setup.py are replaced by requires in your pyproject.toml. requires can be specified at the project level, the app level, the platform level, or the output format level.

  • The packages (and other various source code and data-defining attributes) in setup.py have been replaced with a single sources key. The paths specified in sources will be copied in their entirety into the packaged application.

Once you’ve created and tested your pyproject.toml, you can delete your setup.py file. You may also be able to delete your setup.cfg file, depending on whether it defines any tool configurations (e.g., flake8 or pytest configurations).

Invocation#

In Briefcase v0.2, there was only one entry point: python setup.py <platform>. This would generate a complete output artefact; and, if you provided the -s argument, would also start the app.

Briecase v0.3 uses it’s own briefcase entry point, with subcommands to perform specific functions:

  • briefcase new - Bootstrap a new project (generating a pyproject.toml and other stub content).

  • briefcase dev - Run the app in developer mode, using the current virtual environment.

  • briefcase create - Use the platform template to generate the files needed to build a distributable artefact for the platform.

  • briefcase update - Update the source code of the application in the generated project.

  • briefcase build - Run whatever compilation process is necessary to produce an executable file for the platform.

  • briefcase run - Run the executable file for the platform.

  • briefcase package - Perform whatever post-processing is necessary to wrap the executable into a distributable artefact (e.g., an installer).

When using these commands, there is no need to specify the platform (i.e. macOS when on a Mac). The current platform will be detected and the appropriate output format will be selected.

If you want to target a different platform, you can specify that platform as an argument. This will be required when building for mobile platforms (since you’ll never be running Briefcase where the mobile platform is “native”). For example, if you’re on a Mac, briefcase create macOS and briefcase create would perform the same task; briefcase create iOS would build an iOS project.

The exceptions to this platform specification are briefcase new and briefcase dev. These two commands are platform agnostic.

The Briefcase subcommands will also detect if previous steps haven’t been executed, and invoke any prior steps that are required. For example, if you execute briefcase run on clean project, Briefcase will detect that there are no platform files, and will automatically run briefcase create and briefcase build. This won’t occur on subsequent runs.

Briefcase v0.3 also allows for multiple output formats on a single platform. The only platform that currently exposes capability is macOS, which supports both app and dmg output formats (with dmg being the platform default).

To use a different output format, add the format as an extra argument to each command after the platform. For example, to create a app file for macOS, you would run:

$ briefcase create macOS app
$ briefcase build macOS app
$ briefcase run macOS app
$ briefcase package macOS app

In the future, we hope to add other output formats for other platforms - Snap and FlatPak on Linux; NSIS installers on Windows, and possibly others. If you’re interested in adding support for one of these platforms, please get in touch (or, submit a pull request!)