Notebook: confusing of using --py for `nbextention install`

[hainm]

Hi,

This is just a discussion. We have a Python package name nglview. After doing regular

python setup.py install in the source folder, I try to enable the notebook extension.

However, I forgot to add --py to my command

jupyter nbextension install nglview`

Above command will copy whole package to nbextension folder.

I am aware of using correct command by adding --py to above command. But what confusing me is why using --py? Why not naming another term? It's likely to me that adding --py is to install Javascript extension, while not adding --py will install whatever specify folder (including Python package).

[ellisonbg]

One way of resolving this is that we could test to see if a name is importable (even if --py) is not added and then ask the user what they intend?

[hainm]

hi,

With aspect of an application, do you think it's good idea to install and enable extension in the fly rather than explicitly asking user to perform several steps after doing python setup.py install? It's very easy to forget.

We've been trying to do that in our nglview package: https://github.com/arose/nglview/blob/ipywidgets5/nglview/__init__.py#L3-L10

https://github.com/arose/nglview/blob/ipywidgets5/nglview/install.py

The Jupyter ecosystem is growing quite fast so it's understandable that the installation and API are not stable. Just want to bring the issue here for discussion.

Hai

[ellisonbg]

The problem is that users may have multiple extensions that do the same thing - a great example is theming the notebook. Users might have 10 themes installed but only one could be active at a time.

[ellisonbg]

The eventual solution will be that we offer a nice UI for enabling and managing extensions. That is something we plan of offering in JupyterLab.

[hainm]

I see. thanks.

[juhasch]

Take a look at https://github.com/Jupyter-contrib/jupyter_nbextensions_configurator

[Carreau]

Take a look at https://github.com/Jupyter-contrib/jupyter_nbextensions_configurator

I would really like to get that into the main notebook, and/or have it ported to JupyterLab. It is really hi quality work that would be extremely useful for users.