Hey,
I just wanted to check in about the status of enabling JavaScript package
management usage in MediaWiki. I am basically talking about an equivalent
for JS to what we have with Composer for PHP.
Real-world example:
The "data-values/value-view" package[0] is defining
"jquery.event.special.eachchange.js":
ValueView/lib/jquery.event/jquery.event.special.eachchange.js
Now, recently I needed the same functionality in one of my extensions, so
I just copied it over. [1]
I know that this is the worst way one could do this, but as far as I can
see we don't have that much of a choice right now. Here are the alternative
options I can see:
Moving "jquery.event.special.eachchange.js" out of the
"data-values/value-view" package into its own "WMDE/jquery-eachchange"
package...
1. ... and using it in my extension via composer.
+ pro: two or more extensions or other packages requiring this package
will still result in having only one MW-wide installation..
- con: requires MW specific code which is actually not related to the
MW-independent package to feed the resource loader.
- con: using Composer to manage pure JavaScript packages! Uuuh, ugly!
2. ... and having a build step in other packages using the package, pulling
the "WMDE/jquery-eachchange" somewhere into the file structure of the
packages/extensions using it.
+ pro: don't need to abuse composer, we can use "npm", "Bower" or any
other arbitrary JS package manager here.
- con: got to tell resource loader somehow... (didn't think so much about
that yet)
- con: if more than one extensions or other packages require this package
we still end up with the same code twice or more often in one MW
installation.
3. Combining 1 and 2: Start with 2, using a JS package manager. Then going
to 1, creating a composer package and pulling the "WMDE/jquery-eachchange"
package in via some build script.
+ pro: The two pros from 1 + 2
+ pro: ^^
- con: still got to tell resource loader somehow...
- con: Overhead; We now create two packages where the Composer one is
just a bridge to the MW-world, still polluting packagist.org. Still kind of
ugly and more effort for publishing a package and therefore potentially
scaring programmers away from doing so since they've got better things to
do than doing work that could be automated.
I have not seen Approach 2 and 3 yet. Though I could imagine that the
VisualEditor team has used something like that.
Approach 1 is the way the "data-values/value-view" package itself is being
handled. And that package should actually be a MW independent pure JS
package but right now it contains MW specific code and uses composer for
distribution!
There is still another option but that had to be properly implemented:
4. Choose one native JS package manager for now and go with it (add support
for others later perhaps). Integrate it properly with MW (resource loader
to begin with), document how to use it and finally distribute JS code
coming from the MW world but useful for other projects in a way where it
can actually be used in a non-MW context.
This has already been bugging me when working on Wikidata. Now I'd like to
reuse some of the code I have written there without spending hours and
hours with option 3 because there should be support for option 4 rather
sooner or later.
So I am wondering; Does anyone have any thoughts, any alternatives perhaps
or is there any roadmap on anything like the option 4 that I have shown?
Cheers,
Daniel
[0]: https://packagist.org/packages/data-values/value-view
[1]:
https://github.com/DanweDE/mediawiki-ext-UserBitcoinAddresses/blob/master/resources/vendor/jquery.event.special.eachchange.js
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