NPM-like workflow management

[jonathanwiesel]

I think it would be really helpful for the community to consolidate all workflows as packages and be able to publish, install and update them the way npm or Atom editor does.

This way packages would be easy to search and find. Also will provide a great way to provision new computers with all your preferred workflows by just executing a script that installs all your useful workflows.

It will even be helpful for version management, sometimes a new version is out that it just doesn't work for a particular user, implementing this will allow users to have the exact version the know it worked for them without lurking the internet for the workflow's author support.

[deanishe]

Try Packal.org.

Here's a workflow to search the site. One that can update your workflows is in the works.

A command-line solution (like npm or Atom) isn't a good solution for non-developer tools (though I'd be happy to have one).

Edited June 10, 2014 by deanishe

[jonathanwiesel]

Try Packal.org.

Here's a workflow to search the site. One that can update your workflows is in the works.

A command-line solution (like npm or Atom) isn't a good solution for non-developer tools (though I'd be happy to have one).

 

Thanks deanishe,

 

Yes, this would probably be good for non-devs. Still, the concept of a consolidated workflow ecosystem ("npmish") would help a lot the community because ALL workflows must be published in the registry. Packal on the other hand, has it's own implementation, not bad at all but it would be nice if this was the default for Alfred, even supporting a cli interface; however for this to become a reality it would need a lot of commitment from the Alfred team to build and maintain a solution like this. 

[deanishe]

Atom/node packages don't *have to be* published in the central repository, only if they want to be installed merely by name (or included in Atom's UI).

You can't force people to publish their work in a particular place, but if we push Packal as *the* place to go, it may become a de facto central repository (like PyPi) if not a de jure one.

Versioning would be useful, and Packal already understands versions, but it currently doesn't support multiple workflow files (e.g. previous versions) per entry.

You could ask Shawn to put it on the wishlist.

[jonathanwiesel]

Well if you put it like that, it sounds really good and achievable actually.

 

+1 

 

PS: Still want cli management =P

[deanishe]

you can search Packal via CLI if you pull the Python script out of my workflow. Afraid the output is XML, though

[whiteboard speaker]

it is surprising that after years there is no official way to manage and keep 3rd party workflow(s) update to date.