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flipper/docs/tutorial/js-setup.mdx
Anton Nikolaev 21c574ac80 "lint" command for flipper-pkg tool
Summary:
Implemented json schema for flipper plugin package.json and used it for validation in "flipper-pkg lint" command.

Nice thing about json schema is that it not only allows to validate json, but also can be referenced using "$schema" property in json so IDEs like VSCode can find it and use for code completion, validation and to show properties documentation. I'm going to deploy the schema as a part of documentation website so it can be referenced as https://fbflipper.com/schemas/plugin-package/v2.json.

Also the "$schema" field can be used instead of "specVersion" to determine the specification according to which the plugin is defined. E.g., if specification version 3 would be created, it will be described in schema https://fbflipper.com/schemas/plugin-package/v3.json, etc.

Reviewed By: passy

Differential Revision: D21228294

fbshipit-source-id: f21351e584ef936a7d6b314436448489691f83a6
2020-04-27 17:34:11 -07:00

87 lines
3.2 KiB
Plaintext

---
id: js-setup
title: Building a Desktop Plugin
sidebar_label: Building a Desktop Plugin
---
import useBaseUrl from '@docusaurus/useBaseUrl';
Now that we have the native side covered, let's display the data we're sending
on the desktop side. You can check out the full workflow of building Flipper desktop
plugins here: https://fbflipper.com/docs/extending/js-setup.html.
<img alt="Custom cards UI for our sea mammals plugin" src={useBaseUrl("img/js-custom.png")} />
## Dynamic Plugin loading
By default, Flipper will start with the plugins it was bundled with. You can
configure it to also look for plugins in custom directories. To do that,
modify the `~/.flipper/config.json` file that is created the first time
you start Flipper and add a newly created directory the `pluginPaths` attribute.
Your file will then look something like this:
```json
{
"pluginPaths": [
"~/Flipper/custom-plugins/"
],
...
}
```
## Creating the Plugin Package
With the loading part out of the way, we can create the new plugin. For that, first
create a new folder inside the custom plugins directory. Then use `yarn init` (`npm init` if that's more your style)
to initialise a new JavaScript package:
```bash
$ cd ~/Flipper/custom-plugins/
$ mkdir sea-mammals
$ cd sea-mammals
$ yarn init
```
Open the `package.json` and edit it. There are a few important things:
1) "$schema" must contain URI identifying scheme according to which the plugin is defined. Currently, Flipper supports plugins defined by the specification version 2 (https://fbflipper.com/schemas/plugin-package/v2.json), while version 1 is being deprecated.
2) "name" must start with "flipper-plugin-"
3) "keywords" must contain "flipper-plugin"
4) "id" must be the same as used on native side, e.g. returned by getId() method in Android plugin. In our case that is "sea-mammals".
5) "flipperBundlerEntry" must point to the source entry point which will be used by "flipper-pkg" to produce the plugin bundle.
6) "main" must point to the place where the produced bundle will be written.
7) "title" and "icon" are optional fields specifying the plugin item appearance in the Flipper sidebar.
For instance:
```json
{
"$schema": "https://fbflipper.com/schemas/plugin-package/v2.json",
"name": "flipper-plugin-sea-mammals",
"id": "sea-mammals",
"version": "2.0.0",
"main": "dist/bundle.js",
"flipperBundlerEntry": "src/index.tsx",
"license": "MIT",
"keywords": ["flipper-plugin"],
"icon": "apps",
"title": "Sea Mammals",
"category": "Example Plugin",
"scripts": {
"lint": "flipper-pkg lint",
"prepack": "flipper-pkg lint && flipper-pkg bundle"
},
"peerDependencies": {
"flipper": "latest"
},
"devDependencies": {
"flipper": "latest",
"flipper-pkg": "latest"
}
}
```
*See [package.json](https://github.com/facebook/flipper/blob/master/desktop/plugins/seamammals/package.json)*
To ensure there are no errors in the defined plugin, install packages (using `yarn install` or `npm install`) and execute script `lint` (`yarn lint` or `npm run lint`) which shows all the mismatches that should be fixed to make the plugin definition valid.
Now that our package has been set up, we are ready to build a UI for our plugin. Either by using a standardized table-based plugin, or by creating a custom UI.