Discuss package naming

[scottgonzalez]

Originally we said that users should not include "jquery" in the name of their plugins. However, @jrburke has raised concerns about integration with non-jQuery plugins, especially in the case of an app that's using AMD where jQuery itself is not the sole focus.

We should hash out the details of what's required to make sure that we jQuery plugins will play nicely in all environments.

@jrburke requested that the plugin names match the file names, e.g., "jquery.ui.dialog".

Is it problematic if the plugins use dashes instead of dots, e.g., "jquery-ui-dialog"?

Should we require that names be prefixed with "jquery"? While discussing this with @rdworth, we looked at the scenario of Wijmo, where a name such as "wijmo-wijdialog" should be unique in any system. Should we require "jquery-wijmo-wijdialog" anyway?

What are the actual concerns for something like an AMD loader?

[jrburke]

I re-read my comment in #2 and it was not as clear as it could be. My main suggestions:

• match the package name (the name used in any package/package.json metadata) with the name of the file, minus the ".js" suffix. I do not have a particular opinion on the naming of the file, just that the package name match the file name.
• make sure the plugin specifies all of its dependencies. In particular, if the plugin depends on jQuery, make sure it has a dependency named "jquery" listed for it (using "jquery" since that matches the file name/casing for the file containing jQuery). Similarly, if it is a backbone plugin, make sure that "backbone" is listed as a dependency.

On a side note, I have a JS dependency manager tool, volo that allows for a /package.json/ comment in a single JS file, if you want to look at supporting/testing that method of specifying metadata. It will also read a package.json file if the single JS file in a directory does not have a /package.json/ comment.

[scottgonzalez]

We already have a requirement that all plugins must list jquery as a dependency, so we're good there.

@rdworth and I discussed the naming and we've decided that we're ok with this change. We don't plan on doing any validation of package name vs. file name, but we're going to require that all plugin names start with jquery.. There's already a pretty common convention for naming files jquery.whatever.js, so this should be enough to get the overwhelming majority of plugins named properly for AMD compatibility. We'll also encourage users to name their plugins appropriately in the documentation for the plugins site.

We can look into support for package.json in a comment when the rest of the site is done.

Thanks for all your feedback @jrburke.