napari-installation-manager prototype

[jaimergp]

The installation-manager development plan is divided in three phases that will be rolled out sequentially. It's designed as an application-agnostic tool that can be customized to support the napari use case.

1. CLI-only utility that resides in the base environment and implements update checks, new environment creation and some maintenance tasks (remove old envs, recreate envs for a version). At this point, standalone usage of the tool is only for recovery tasks and experts.
2. Add some UI on top so it's more user friendly, making this tool more known to regular users.
3. (hypothetical) Installers only download a feature-complete napari-installation-manager, which defaults to installing latest napari. Users are aware of this tool before even launching napari.

Phase 1: CLI-only

Tool 1: constructor-updater (backend)

Python application and CLI tool to be installed in base environment.

• Basic project scaffold
• Environment discovery logic
• Check for updates logic
• Update and install process
• Handle plugins across updates
• Environment restore logic
• Implement package locking

Tool 2: constructor-updater (frontend)

Python application providing API to be used by napari (and other tools). Communicate with the constructor-updater backend. To be installed in the application environment.

• Basic project scaffold
• Check for application updates
• Run update and install
• Check for current status of backend processes (update in progress, issues)
• Other actions: Restore / Remove / Clean

Phase 2: Light UI

(moved to installation manager frontend story)

Phase 3: Full-fledged application

• Create / clone custom napari environments
• More TBD

[goanpeca]

Working on Phase 1)

New package for the backend (constructor-installation-manager). This is a generic package with no direct knowledge of napari. By doing it this way other tools in the ecosystem using constructor will benefit from updates-in-place :). PRs will be pushed next week after doing some cleaning.

Also this packages for now is pure python only to keep the base environment simple.

[liu-ziyang]

curious where we are on the prototype. Are we still on track to releasing the package after switching to a unified approach between installation and plugin manager?

[goanpeca]

Hi @potating-potato still working on this, I should be finishing this week, with a bit of next one. I can start working on the UI with @ppwadhwa next week.

[liu-ziyang]

@jaimergp, since Gonzalo is out, is there anything you can help with here? I am ok if we have to trade off plugin migration work and other things

[jaimergp]

Sure I can move my priorities around, but I don't have access to what Gonzalo has done so far. Is it worth it to start from scratch?

[liu-ziyang]

oh noo... by any chance can you ask him to push what he has so far? if we can't reach him then I would say it is not worth it starting from scratch

[goanpeca]

Sorry for the delay, added the PR here #34

Updating tests today!

[liu-ziyang]

I am going to close this story in favor of the other split stories in the project board