paranext-extension-template

Basic extension template for Platform.Bible

Template Info

This is a webpack project template pre-configured to build a Platform.Bible extension. It contains the bare minimum of what an extension needs. Note that the *.web-view.* files and the public/assets folder mentioned in Summary are not present in this template. For inspiration on what these could look like, refer to any extension that is built using this template. An example would be the Text Collection extension.

There is also a template pre-configured to build an arbitrary number of Platform.Bible extensions in one repo.

Customize extension details

Follow these instructions to customize the template to be your own Platform.Bible extension. This section is a more compact version of the Your first extension guide.

Install and hook up to the template

Note: please skip this section and continue with Replace placeholders if you are following these instructions as part of creating an extension within paranext-multi-extension-template.

To make the process of customizing from the template as smooth as possible, we recommend you do the following before anything else:

• Install and set up this repo
• Update this extension from the template

Replace placeholders

• At the top of this README.md:

  • Replace the first line # paranext-extension-template with # your-extension-name
  • Below the first line, replace the extension description with your own description
  • In the Summary section, replace src/types/paranext-extension-template.d.ts with src/types/<your_extension_name>.d.ts

• In manifest.json:

  • Replace paranext-extension-template with your-extension-name (2 occurrences)
  • Update ownership information and other relevant fields as desired

• In package.json:

  • Replace paranext-extension-template with your-extension-name (2 occurrences)
  • Update ownership information and other relevant fields as desired

• In assets/displayData.json:

  • If your extension has an icon, update the icon value to point towards the icon file (for example: assets/icon.svg)

  • Update the moreInfoUrl field to web URL to a page where users can find out more information about you / your organization / your extension.

  • Update the supportUrl field to web URL to a support page where users can request help and report issues with your extension.

  • Update the en entry of localizedDisplayInfo so that:

    • displayName contains a human-readable name for your extension (i.e. Your Extension Name).
    • shortSummary contains a short, few sentence summary of what your extension does.
    • description points to a Markdown (.md) file containing the full description of your extension (similar to what you would put in a README).

  • If your extension supports multiple languages, add another entry to localizedDisplayInfo by copying and pasting the en entry, changing en to the BCP 47 language tag of the language you want to support, and translating the displayName, shortSummary, and description fields appropriately. We recommend naming your description files description-<language tag>.md.

• In LICENSE:

  • Adjust as desired (feel free to choose a different license)
  • If you choose to stay with the current license, update the copyright statement

• Rename src/types/paranext-extension-template.d.ts to src/types/<your_extension_name>.d.ts

  • In this renamed file, replace paranext-extension-template with your-extension-name

• In src/main.ts, replace Extension template with Your Extension Name (2 occurrences)

Customize the extension manifest and package information

The manifest.json and package.json files contain information specific to your extension. Add your extension's details in these two files as needed. See more information on the manifest.json and package.json files in Extension Anatomy.

Hide Template Info

Once finished customizing this template to be your own, you can uncomment the HTML comment tag above the Template Info section to hide this template-related info in this readme. You can do this by clicking on the line and doing CTRL + / in VS Code. You can also do this manually by removing the first opening '<!--' and the only closing '-->' on the line. Leaving this info commented in your readme will hide it in your readme while avoiding merge conflicts if you decide to update this extension from the template in the future. If you never want to update this extension from the template, you can remove the Template Info section and sub-sections of this readme.

Note: if you update this extension from the template, there may be important changes in this section like additional customizations you must make to this extension. Please keep an eye out for readme changes when updating from the template.

Summary

The general file structure is as follows:

• package.json contains information about this extension's npm package. It is required for Platform.Bible to use the extension properly. It is copied into the build folder
• manifest.json is the manifest file that defines the extension and important properties for Platform.Bible. It is copied into the build folder
• src/ contains the source code for the extension
  • src/main.ts is the main entry file for the extension
  • src/types/paranext-extension-template.d.ts is this extension's types file that defines how other extensions can use this extension through the papi. It is copied into the build folder
  • *.web-view.tsx files will be treated as React WebViews
  • *.web-view.html files are a conventional way to provide HTML WebViews (no special functionality)
• assets/ contains asset files the extension and its WebViews can retrieve using the papi-extension: protocol, as well as textual descriptions in various languages. It is copied into the build folder
  • assets/displayData.json contains (optionally) a path to the extension's icon file as well as text for the extension's display name, short summary, and path to the full description file
  • assets/descriptions/ contains textual descriptions of the extension in various languages
    • assets/descriptions/description-<locale>.md contains a brief description of the extension in the language specified by <locale>
• contributions/ contains JSON files the platform uses to extend data structures for things like menus and settings. The JSON files are referenced from the manifest
• public/ contains other static files that are copied into the build folder
• dist/ is a generated folder containing the built extension files
• release/ is a generated folder containing a zip of the built extension files

To install

Install dependencies:

1. Follow the instructions to install paranext-core.
2. In this repo, run npm install to install local and published dependencies

Configure paths to paranext-core repo

In order to interact with paranext-core, you must point package.json to your installed paranext-core repository:

1. Follow the instructions to install paranext-core. We recommend you clone paranext-core in the same parent directory in which you cloned this repository so you do not have to reconfigure paths to paranext-core.
2. If you cloned paranext-core anywhere other than in the same parent directory in which you cloned this repository, update the paths to paranext-core in this repository's package.json to point to the correct paranext-core directory.

To run

Running Platform.Bible with this extension

To run Platform.Bible with this extension:

npm start

Note: The built extension will be in the dist folder. In order for Platform.Bible to run this extension, you must provide the directory to this built extension to Platform.Bible via a command-line argument. This command-line argument is already provided in this package.json's start script. If you want to start Platform.Bible and use this extension any other way, you must provide this command-line argument or put the dist folder into Platform.Bible's extensions folder.

Building this extension independently

To watch extension files (in src) for changes:

npm run watch

To build the extension once:

npm run build

To package for distribution

To package this extension into a zip file for distribution:

npm run package

To update this extension from the template

This extension project is forked from paranext-extension-template, which is updated periodically and will sometimes receive updates that help with breaking changes on paranext-core. We recommend you periodically update your extension by merging the latest template updates into your extension.

To set up this extension to be updated from the template, run the following command once after cloning this repo:

git remote add template https://github.com/paranext/paranext-extension-template

To update this extension from the template, make sure your repo has no working changes. Then run the following commands:

git fetch template
git merge template/main --allow-unrelated-histories

For more information, read the instructions on the wiki.

Note: The merge/squash commits created when updating this repo from the template are important; Git uses them to compare the files for future updates. If you edit this repo's Git history, please preserve these commits (do not squash them, for example) to avoid duplicated merge conflicts in the future.

Special features in this project

This project has special features and specific configuration to make building an extension for Platform.Bible easier. See Special features of paranext-multi-extension-template for information on these special features.