'Publishing packages' page should document is:unlisted

[jonasfj]

Page URL: https://dart.dev/tools/pub/publishing.html
Page source: https://github.com/dart-lang/site-www/tree/master/src/tools/pub/publishing.md

Edit: No longer blocked with the is:unlisted feature shipped on pub.dev (dart-lang/pub-dev#4044).

I think it would be worthwhile explaining:

• What an unlisted package is: A publicly available package that is excluded with default search options.
• Why you might want to mark a package as unlisted:
  • To avoid polluting the search results, in cases such as:
  • Example: A package A containing code shared by B and C, where A isn't something you recommend users to use, but instead recommend users use B or C directly. So you want to avoid polluting the search results with A, because you prefer that B or C appears more prominent in search results.
  • Federated plugins is another example, where you might not care to have endorsed platform implementations show up in search results, because you really want the app-facing plugin to be the dominant result.

It might be worth highlighting that this is not a form of private packages, and that these can be easily discovered through search by simply including them in the advanced search options.

[parlough]

Hey @jonasfj, my understanding is this feature is now fully supported by pub.dev so I have removed the blocked label and text.

Beyond what you mentioned in the original issue, are there any new concerns or functionality around the unlisted property that should be considered while documenting this? Are there any other effects besides not showing up in the normal search results?

Also, are there any potential concerns around unlisting a package and then relisting it? I'm assuming that should be fine due to its limited scope, but just making sure.

[jonasfj]

Also, are there any potential concerns around unlisting a package and then relisting it? I'm assuming that should be fine due to its limited scope, but just making sure.

Yeah, there should be no concerns here.

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The unlisted only affects presentation on pub.dev.

• It won't show up in search on pub.dev, unless you include the term show:unlisted in search query
• The package page won't be indexed by search robots <meta name="robots" content="noindex">

This is actually quiet similar to "discontinued".

But unlike "discontinued" it won't show a warning to people using it with dart pub get.