The document discusses plans and progress made in implementing a Community Package Manager (CPM) for InterSystems products. It covers decisions made around package formats (settling on ZIP and JSON initially), metadata (using package.json), dependencies, publishing packages to a CouchDB repository using npm, and example packages. Key points covered include: - Packages will use the ZIP format and include a package.json metadata file initially - Dependency information and other metadata will be stored in package.json - npm will be used to publish packages to a CouchDB repository - Example packages discussed as suitable for the initial release include iKnowSocial and WebTerminal

1. Implementation of Community
Package Manager
Dmitry Maslennikov
Timur Safin

2. We have full cycle in
CPM
(publish – install)
Where we are today?
Create/
modify
package
Export
XML/JSON
to staging
area
npm
publish to
repo
Package
search in
repo
Install
package
from repo

3. Creating Caché Package Manager
Implementation Update

4. • Which container format is the suitable for our packages?
– ZIP would be ideal
– But even Studio Project XML will fit the purpose
• even now it handles all interesting file types (CLS, RTN, INC, CSP, ZEN, CSS, GIF, etc.)
• Yes, XML is very inefficient, bloated, and keeps binary data as base64
(i.e. 3/2x length increase)
• But it’s not a big deal for initial step;
Container Format
Plans – December 2014
Which
Container?
ZIP
XML

5. Plans – December 2014
• What information should be in metadata?
– At least dependency on other packages (name, version, url);
– Anything from Node.js package.json could be reused by us, but;
• JSON is not yet natively supported now,
so could start from XML serialization of the same information (metainfo.xml)
Metadata File
{ "dependencies" :
{ "foo" : "1.0.0 - 2.9999.9999"
, "bar" : ">=1.0.2 <2.1.2"
, "qux" : "<1.0.0 || >=2.3.1 <2.4.5 || >=2.5.2 <3.0.0"
, "asd" : "http://asdf.com/asdf.tar.gz"
, "til" : "~1.2"
, "elf" : "~1.2.3"
, "lat" : "latest"
, "dyl" : "file:../dyl"
}
}

6. Reality – March 2015
• We decided to use npm services for publishing to the server;
• It accepts package.json as metadata description;
• npm packs generated XML file to the .TGZ container which is being published to the repo;
Container and metadata formats
export /minor
package
CPM
package/package.json
package/package.xml
package/package.tgz
NPM
/-/all/ - JSON index
CouchDB

7. Plans – December 2014
• There is tough problem to handle – dependency on a system packages which may be
presented only on some product flavors:
– iKnow,
– Ensemble
– DeepSee,
– TrakCare,
– HealthShare,
– particular version of product
• May mark this dependency in the general dependency list as “iKnow”, “Ensemble
2013.1+”, etc.
• But it’s too early to handle in the 1st iteration - we will revisit this later.
Dependency on a system classes

8. Dependencies
Not in V0.1
Reality – March 2015

9. Plans – December 2014
• From the practical prospective, taking into account
multiple Caché platforms we should handle equally
well (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, or even VMS), and
the fact that these FFI mechanisms are not yet officially
supported, we should admit that they are not ready
yet, and could not be recommended as a way to
handle deploymenut of mixed C/COS packages.
• We are not implementing them in v1.0
[Cross-platform] binary modules

10. Not in V0.1
Reality – March 2015
[Cross-platform] binary modules

11. Plans – December 2014
• Having built-in mechanism for unit-testing has impacted positively the whole stability of
CPAN ecosystem.
– Package will not be installed at the user system unless it’s passing internal testing;
• V1.0 will ignore unit-testing for a moment, but later, for binary modules deployment we
should have unit-testing working
Unit-testing

12. Unit-testing
Not in V0.1
Reality – March 2015

13. Plans – December 2014
• User experience is a big success booster, if system is inconvenient then it may be
left unnoticed*
• So both ways to invoke package manager should be working
– To invoke package manager shell from any namespace in Cache’ terminal, .e.g
– To install COS packages from command-line, e.g.
• Eventually these operation might be wrapped in GUI. Not in V1.0
Command-line access
do ^%CPM
>install TOML-Parser
cpm install deepsee-mobile-server

14. • Command-line wrapper
created for Windows cpm.bat,
which invokes default Caché
instance with the command-
line options entered;
• Only single running instance
handled today;
Command-line access
Reality – March 2015
C:UsersTimurDocumentsIntersystemssrcCPMbin>cpm list
cpm-installer-sample 0.5.2
simple-proj 0.4.2
C:UsersTimurDocumentsIntersystemssrcCPMbin>cpm list /verbose
cpm-installer-sample 0.5.2
Sample.Address.cls
Sample.Company.cls
Sample.Customer.cls
Sample.Employee.cls
Sample.Person.cls
Sample.USZipCode.cls
Sample.Utils.cls
Sample.Vendor.cls
simple.prj
simple-proj 0.4.2
Sample.Address.CLS
Sample.Company.CLS
Sample.Customer.CLS
Sample.Employee.CLS
Sample.Person.CLS

15. Plans – December 2014
• There used to be old-dark times when every site had to handle DDoS on their own way,
and to keep geo-spread mirror network for their purposes;
• Now all is easily handled by VM host providers or special CDN providers:
– Amazon Azure, Google Cloud, etc;
– Amazon CloudFront, MaxCDN, etc;
• Once we have static files (distributions files, static html descriptions, static images, etc) it
could be easily handled by CDN;
• But… for community site we supposed to have some dynamic part which will work with
authors and new contributions
Advices are welcome how to handle this mix easily and in most effective way
Mirroring and CDN

16. Reality – March 2015
• We have selected CouchDB database hosting for keeping packages metadata and their
content;
• CouchDB is the JSON database store accessible via full RESTful API;
• Same/similar database store is used for keeping NPM.js repository;
– Thus we could use npm command-line utility for operations with this store if repository
redefined to ours;
Mirroring and CDN CouchDB repository

17. CouchDB repository
Reality – March 2015
There is fancy
web yet!

18. Plans – December 2014
Suggested usage cases for V1.0
Package User COS System COS Binaries Good for v1.0
iKnowSocial Yes No No Good
Atom-COS-Studio Yes Yes Yes
(Atom +
extension)
Bad
WebTerminal No Yes No Good
CNA Yes No Yes
(callout module)
Bad
Coslint Yes
(deployed
OBJ code)
No No Probably
(deployed)

19. Actual usage cases for V0.1
Reality – March 2015
Package User COS System COS
Cache-tort-git Yes Yes
iKnowSocial Yes No
Monlbl-viewer Yes No
WebTerminal Yes Yes
Simple-proj Yes No
Cpm-installer-sample Yes No

20. • Help, H, ?
• Quit, Q
CPM Shell Commands

21. • List, L
CPM Shell Commands

22. • List /verbose
CPM Shell Commands

23. • Install, I
– From repo
– From local file(s)
CPM Shell Commands

24. • Package, P
– /create /from
– /description
– /author
CPM Shell Commands
CPM:CPM>> package /create cache-tort-git /author adaptun
/from pathtocache-tort-git
Load of directory started on 03/16/2015 15:11:45
Loading file C:UsersTimurDocumentsGitHubcache-tort-gitcache-tort-git.prj…
Imported project: cache-tort-git.prj
Loading file C:UsersTimurDocumentsGitHubcache-tort-git%SourceControlGit…
Imported class: %SourceControl.Git
Loading file C:UsersTimurDocumentsGitHubcache-tort-git%SourceControlGit…
Imported class: %SourceControl.Git.Utils
Loading file C:UsersTimurDocumentsGitHubcache-tort-gitcspgitprojectset…
Imported CSP/CSR or file: csp/cpm/gitprojectsettings.csp
Compilation started on 03/16/2015 15:11:46 with qualifiers 'ck',
compiling 2 classes, using 4 worker jobs
Compiling class %SourceControl.Git.Utils
Compiling class %SourceControl.Git

25. • Export, E
– /minor
– /major
CPM Shell Commands
CPM:CPM>> export /major cache-tort-git
cache-tort-git version set to: 0.1.1
Exporting package files to: C:InterSystemsCacheLatest.cpmcache-
tort-git
Deleted all files in the directory:
Exporting to XML started on 03/16/2015 15:12:04
Exporting class: %SourceControl.Git.Utils
Exporting class: %SourceControl.Git
Exporting project: cache-tort-git.prj
Exporting CSP/CSR or file: /csp/cpm/gitprojectsettings.csp
Export finished successfully.

26. • Npm publish
Command-Line
C:InterSystemsCacheLatest.cpmcache-tort-git>npm publish
--registry http://cpmiscregistry.couchappy.com
+ cache-tort-git@0.1.1

27. CPM: Contributors [Still] Invited!

28. • Every respected repository has good name and an appropriate avatar;
• We will appreciate any suggestion about CPM URL name and avatar!
Name and avatar suggestions

29. Идём!