Package APPX in APPXBUNDLE

I currently have one UWP app submitted in the Windows Store, now I want to publish an update. This update is based on Electron, so its not an UWP app anymore.

I just wanted to submit the Electron Application to the Windows Store, but I am getting this error message:A previous submission for this app was released with a Windows 10 .msixbundle or .appxbundle. Subsequent submissions must continue to contain a Windows 10 .msixbundle or .appxbundle.

The Electron app is packaged with electron-builder and the resulting file is an appx file. Previously I packaged the app with Visual Studio and the resulting file was an appxbundle.

According to this error message I must submit an .msixbundle or .appxbundle file. Can I just create an .appxbundle that contains the Electron .appx file and then submit the app to the Windows Store?

Thanks

Here is the promised answer to my own question.

As I already mentioned you must stick with the bundle format you initially submitted your App to the Microsoft App Store. So .appxbundle in my case.

I am using electron-builder which spits out an .appx which I then bundle into an .appxbundle using an afterAllArtifactBuildHook

Here is the afterAllArtifactBuildHook.js located in the build/hooks folder of my electron project. It automatically utilizes the already cached winCodeSign tools from electron-builder so it ensures everything matches.

Note: This is geared towords macOS and a functional Parallels desktop installation with Windows 10 already setup to build .appx files

var path = require("path"),
    fs = require("fs"),
    glob = require("glob"),
    childProcess = require('child_process');

exports.default = function(buildResult) {
    buildResult.artifactPaths.forEach(function(appxPath) {
        if (appxPath.endsWith(".appx")) {
            convertAppx2AppxBundle(appxPath);
        }
    });
};

/**
 * Converts a Unix Path to a Windows conforming path by replacing any "/" with "\"
 * @return {string}
 */
String.prototype.windowsify = function windowsify() {
    return this.replace(/\//g, "\\");
}

/**
 * Converts the given appx to an appxbundle used for Windows Store submission
 * @note This function utalizes the parallels desktop tool "prlctl" to execute windows commands via macOS
 * @param appxPath
 */
function convertAppx2AppxBundle(appxPath) {
    try {
        console.log("Converting Appx to Appxbundle...")
        // We'll use electron-builder's winCodeSign tools which are conveniently already available in the following dir
        var electronBuilderDir = path.join(process.env.HOME, "Library/Caches/electron-builder"), // Don't use "~" it will just not work, trust me...
            // Will use the first matching windowsCodeSigning path as we may have multiple versions installed
            makeAppX = glob.sync(path.join(electronBuilderDir, "winCodeSign", "winCodeSign-*", "windows-10", "x64", "makeappx.exe"))[0],
            appxBundleMapFile = // This file is required by the makeappx.exe to generate the appxbundle
                '[Files]\n' +
                '"\\\\Mac\\AllFiles' + appxPath.replace(/\//g, "\\") + '"\t\t"Loxone.appx"';

        // Save the generated AppxBundle.map file to the filesystem to make it available for the Windows VM
        fs.writeFileSync(path.join(__dirname, "..", "AppxBundle.map"), appxBundleMapFile, { flag: "w" });

        var prlctlArgs = [
            'exec',
            '"Windows 10"', // the name of the specific Windows VM
            '--current-user', // We want to execute the following command with the current user
            // From this point on its the default Windows CLI command for converting an .appx to an .apppxbundle
            // Its important to know that these parts must conform to the Windows style, hence the windowsify function
            // We also need to use double quotation for the network shares due to how childProcess.execSync works...
            '"\\\\\\Mac\\AllFiles' + makeAppX.windowsify() + '"',
            'bundle',
            '/f',
            '"\\\\\\Mac\\AllFiles' + (__dirname.replace("/hooks", "") + "/AppxBundle.map").windowsify() + '"',
            '/p',
            '"\\\\\\Mac\\AllFiles' + appxPath.windowsify() + 'bundle"',
            '/o'
        ];
        // Now just execute the command to convert the appx to an appxbundle
        childProcess.execSync('prlctl ' + prlctlArgs.join(" "), { stdio: 'inherit' });
        console.log("Done converting Appx to Appxbundle");
    } catch (e) {
        console.warn("Couldn't convert appx two appxbundle!");
        console.error(e);
    }
}