Worst/Best/Wishes for Publishing/Maintaining Packages

Packages
1

Hi All,

We are working away on improvements to the package manager and want to make sure your voices are heard. Any comments you might have on what works, what doesn’t work, what would you like to see in the process of PUBLISHING/MAINTAINING packages (issues around publishing are on a seperate thread)?

Thanks Much

The Dynamo Team

1 Like
2
  1. Option to remove package from manager. Rather than just deprecate. Or an expiration process.
  2. Most prolific to "see inside of total package"
  3. better handling of PackageCustomization.dll. Currently kind of hard to uninstall and reinstall a package.
  4. Transfer package from one username to another. What if a user moves companies or something. (This may be doable already).
  5. Maybe a share on Twitter button along with the update?
that's all I had. For now :)
3

to John’s points:

  1. +1
  2. +1
  3. +1
  4. +1
  5. 0 (it doesn't matter to me, but if anything i would make sure its not automatic as not to spam people)
  6. I would like to be able to co-own packages (let package Admin add package Contributors)
  7. Notifications for packages that I have installed if newer versions are available. Nothing annoying. More like the "blue cloud" in top right corner if newer version of Dynamo is available. Maybe another cloud next to it for packages so that I can select if I want to update them.
  8. Notifications when I open a file that uses a package that I don't have installed. Give me a name and version used and maybe an option to install it.
  9. Since nodes can be Dynamo version dependent (see Clockwork 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9...), I would like to see a Dynamo version property added to custom nodes rather than having to maintain multiple packages for all these different versions. I am not a huge fan of seeing Clockwork up there for every version, even though it makes sense given the current structure.
I can probably think of more stuff later. Thanks!
4

Having the ability to have multiple owners/admin of the package. I inquired about this a while back. From memory the button exists (somewhere) but it didn’t work. Also , it fails if you want to change your autodesk ID (via the website) and then publish a new version of the package. It says you aren’t the owner.

5

This is my wish list for package maintenance. Most of it has already been filed as an issue on GitHub:

  • [As mentioned above] Allow multiple maintainers for a package
  • I now have four versions of Clockwork on the package manager because I usually maintain more than one at a time (currently 0.8.2 and 0.9.x). It would be really nice to be able to support several Dynamo versions with one package.
  • Do not upload backup folders (https://github.com/DynamoDS/Dynamo/issues/4699)
  • Dependency warning when deprecating a package, i.e. tell me which other packages may be affected by this action (https://github.com/DynamoDS/Dynamo/issues/486)
  • Better warnings when removing nodes from package (https://github.com/DynamoDS/Dynamo/issues/3157)
  • Make the Publish Package window focus when publishing a package (https://github.com/DynamoDS/Dynamo/issues/3152)
  • Allow editing of package description without uploading a new version (https://github.com/DynamoDS/Dynamo/issues/904)
  • Some love for the "Manage package" context menu (https://github.com/DynamoDS/Dynamo/issues/483 & https://github.com/DynamoDS/Dynamo/issues/3920)
  • The ability to add comments on changes for new package versions (https://github.com/DynamoDS/Dynamo/issues/326)
  • The ability to add information to deprecated packages during the deprecation process (https://github.com/DynamoDS/Dynamo/issues/482)
  • Show uncommitted changes (https://github.com/DynamoDS/Dynamo/issues/889)
6

I would love the ability to see which nodes are different from my last upload. Great idea Andreas. That would be a huge help. Thanks!