In part 1 and part 2 of our developer guide series, we learned about what snaps can do for ROS applications by exploring the use of snap and snapcraft in complex robotics applications.
However, after the ROS application has been snapped, one might wonder:
• How can we distribute this package?
• How can we distribute updates?
• When can our devices or users benefit from the update?
In this developer guide, we will explore how to share and distribute our snapped robotics applications like a global software vendor. This guide is meant for ROS snap beginners and advanced users looking for guidelines for their snap distribution.
Deploying robotics software is usually tackled when a project reaches a certain level of maturity. We need a fast and reliable way to distribute software and subsequent updates. Snapping a robotics stack is our means to distribute our software globally.
Snap and snapcraft contain many features that will come in handy when distributing our robot application. This guide will help us understand these features and how to use them.
In this guide, we will learn:
• How to upload our snap for the first time to the public store.
• How to update the snap and distribute the update.
• Ways for the final user or device to benefit from the updates.