Setting Up Development Environment

This article explains how to set up a local development environment for Paperlib extensions.

We provide a basic development environment that supports the development of most extensions. This environment includes tools such as typescript, vue, vite, and more.

Since a Paperlib extension is essentially an npm package, developers who are very familiar with web/node development can use their own development environment, build tools, etc., for development. Just follow some conventions.

Download Development Environment

We provide a basic development environment that you can use as a starting point for your development. This environment includes tools like typescript, vue, vite, and more.

You can download it using the following command:

git clone https://github.com/Future-Scholars/paperlib-extension-dev-env.git

Install Dependencies

cd paperlib-extension-dev-env
npm install

We have a paperlib-api package to provide API interface type definitions for autocompletion, along with some commonly used utility functions and the base class for extensions. Ensure it is updated to the latest version with the following command:

npm install paperlib-api@latest -D

paperlib-api Package

In this package, we provide API type hints, commonly used data structures, some utility functions, and the base class for extensions. They are in different sub-modules of the paperlib-api package:

• paperlib-api/api: API type definitions, and the base class PLExtension for extensions.
• paperlib-api/model: Commonly used data structures.
• paperlib-api/utils：Commonly used utility functions.
• paperlib-api/rpc: RPC service for communication between New Window extensions.

File Structure

├── dist             // The directory where the packaged files are located
├── src              // Source code directory
│   ├── main.ts      // Extension entry file
│   ├── ...
│── vite.config.ts   // vite configuration file
├── tsconfig.json    // typescript configuration file
├── package.json     // npm package configuration file

Build Extension

Run the following command to build the extension and output the extension code to the dist directory.

npm run build

Load Extension for Testing

In the extension tab of the Paperlib preference interface, you can load local extensions for testing. Click the Load from Local button and select the extension directory (the folder where package.json is located) to load the extension.

After the extension is loaded, you can see the extension information in the extension tab of Paperlib. Click the Reload button of the extension to reload the extension for testing after modifying the extension. Please note that before reloading, you need to build the extension first after modifying the code.

For extension developers, you can open the developer mode in the about tab of the Paperlib preference interface to reload the extension directly in the developer tools shown on the main interface.

Publish Extension

Our extension marketplace relies on npmjs.com.

Each extension is an npm package, Publishing an extension is similar to publishing an npm package. Please make sure your extension follows the conventions listed in Conventions.

Development Conventions

Please refer to Conventions.