Feature Request: TNS plugin create <xyz> [--template <plugin template name]

[NathanaelA]

I worked on a plugin template that would make making plugins a whole lot easier. Basically it would generate everything you needed for a JS or TS plugin ; including creating the package.json, .gitignore, .npmignore and basically have a plugin fully ready for publishing after it was done. (It uses a post-install script to ask questions about the type of plugin, repo, name, etc).

However, do to the issue with the #1932, we cannot use the normal tns create MY-PLUGIN-NAME --template plugin to use the template.

This is a feature request either to allow the package.json change like suggested in #1932 (i.e. something like an additional key {"cleanTemplate": "true"}
Another idea Nathan Walker suggested; was a new tns plugin create [--template ]

[tjvantoll]

I personally sort of like the idea of tns plugin create [--template], just because I personally would expect the existing tns create to only build new projects, not plugins. Regardless of implementation details, I think this would be a hugely valuable feature to have baked into the {N} CLI, as it could help establish an “official” structure for our plugins, as well as lower the barrier to entry for new plugin authors.

[radeva]

Hi @NathanaelA @tjvantoll

We are now working on a plugin seed repo which users will be able to clone and use as a starting point for their plugins. We plan to make it public soon. I hope this approach will also be beneficial for the plugin authors.

[dtopuzov]

I don't think we should add extra code in CLI just to solve something that can be done with
git clone <official-plugin-seed>.

[NathanaelA]

I totally disagree with both of these decisions.

[tjvantoll]

I also disagree. Although simple, I think a tns plugin create command will really help plugin authors. Sure the command will just git clone the seed, but from a plugin author’s perspective you’re saving me from needing to find the appropriate repo (which the average user probably doesn’t even know exists), running git clone, and also dealing with folder names. (The folder name will be nativescript-plugin-seed by default, and that’ll be a hassle to change.)

I believe tns plugin create MyPluginName will make plugin developer’s lives a lot easier, and I believe we should add it.

[jlooper]

I am posting my vote in favor of the CLI modification in support of TJ and Nathanael. Look at it this way - we want to make it easy for people (like me) to make plugins. Right now, this job is really daunting because there's no clear path to create a plugin. We're going to fix that by creating an official seed. Great, then let's onboard people super easily to our seed repo by integrating it into the CLI. Seeing as how you really can't ship an app without at least one plugin, let's make it as easy as possible to allow people to create them to make our plugin marketplace that much stronger. More and more plugins will be created using our seed, so upgrading them will be less and less problematic. This is a long-term maintenance win for the community.

[rosen-vladimirov]

Hey all,

Thanks for sharing your feedback. The issue will remain open and we'll try to prioritize it for a future release. There are other tasks on the board, so I cannot give an estimate when this one could do it. Of course, we'll be glad to help and review a PR that adds this functionality. It should be pretty straightforward to add the new command, so anyone can give it a try.

Thanks again and please accept our apology for the whole disruption. Your opinion is important for us!

[PeterStaev]

I personally tend to agree with @dtopuzov comments. I do not see much benefit from a special CLI command compared to just cloning a plugin seed repo (like this one)

[NathanaelA]

@PeterStaev That is because I assume you haven't seen what my plugin generator can do. ;-)

This is what I currently do: plugin create somename

It will then ask you the authors name and email address (if it hasn't cached this from a prior creation). It will ask you which license you would like this plugin under, it will ask you if it is typescript or javascript plugin, and if it is a split or combined plugin.

So only a couple questions, but once it has that information:

1. It will create the folder "nativescript-somename",
2. It will automatically create all the JS or TS files needed.
3. It will automatically create the license file and documentation (which can be optionally read from a custom cache, in case you have your own documentation format, rather than the default format. And it will automatically do {{REPLACEMENT}} variables with all the values you chose (& those cached)... So your docs could say This plugin is under the {{LICENSE}} license and the documentation generated will say whatever license you chose. ;-)
4. It will automatically create the .gitignore and .npmignore files customized for JS or TS (depending on your choices)
5. It will automatically create the package.json format in the proper format for again TS or JS; with all rules to build and to run the demo. This includes the NativeScript keys, typings key, author key, and other keys that people FREQUENTLY mess up.
6. It will automatically create the demo application, all per-configured for your plugin.

Yes, you can DO all these steps manually; but one command and I'm done, and it is consistently build; and I don't have to delete the .git folder to make it into a new repo, I don't have to touch the package.json file, My docs are complete except for the instructions specific to this new plugin.

This is what tns create --template plugin was supposed to do a YEAR ago. (Other than I ran into the issue that tns destroys the structure, hence this bug report to either add a optional flag so that tns won't mangle the output or a new command that works like the create command but won't mangle the template...

My question is which is simpler to get more people involved in creating things with NativeScript? Everything pre-created and ready to go like tns create application does, or should we make TNS simpler and eliminate the "create" command and then just start requiring new people to git clone an application repo, move things around, fix up the package json file and plist/manifest up and then install the other parts manually just to make a application? ;-)