Community Package

[altaic]

First off, thanks for the great UI framework. Given that Elm is marketed as a front-end language, it's a shame there aren't more UI libs like this.

That said, I've noticed that there are quite a few Elm projects that don't end up on package.elm-lang.org. Is there a particular reason elm-ui doesn't fit in there, or do you otherwise have plans to eventually add it?

I'm pretty new to Elm, so please forgive me if I've missed something obvious (I do realize that you rolled your own build/scaffolding system, so perhaps its advantages out-weigh the standard packaging system). The community package site just seems to me a very convenient central repo that reduces adoption overhead.

[gdotdesign]

So yeah this is a valid question, there are several reasons why it is not listed on package.elm-lang.org:

• It contains some plain JavaScript modules (Native modules) to make some things work right. As of right now packages that have these are not allowed into package.elm-lang.org until they are reviewed and white listed by Evan or some of the core members, also this review process seems to be halted, and probably will change in (0.17).
• It uses Sass to style the components and it needs either Ruby or Node to compile it into CSS so I went with Node and NPM because Elm is already there. In the future though I plan to migrate the styles to elm-css (Use elm-css #19) so this won't be relevant anymore.
• Because it's an NPM package it is possible to lock the Elm version by project basis
• Lastly there are no official utilities to
  • build production version of the compiled file and copy static files
  • have environmental variables

If the first two issues above are resolved, then it will be published under package.elm-lang.org and that's just a metter of time ⌛

[altaic]

Thanks for the explanation. Seems like a lot of stuff is on hold for 0.17-- it'll be a good day when it hits alpha at least.

FYI, there is another Elm CSS package, adam-r-kowalski/elm-style, that is pretty feature complete and (a fork) has been added to package.elm-lang.org. I happen to be using elm-css since it was the first one I found, but elm-style may warrant checking out.

[akovari]

Regarding the last point, I am using web pack to build the production version and also use the webpack development server. It is also easy to use set environment variables either using web pack plugins or simply require the environment json file.

I wrote this blog on how I'm using elm-ui with web pack:
http://altworx-developers.blogspot.cz/2016/04/elm-ui-and-webpack-tutorial.html

[gdotdesign]

It is now possible to install Elm-UI from github with https://github.com/gdotdesign/elm-github-install, the only issue I see with that is the compilation of stylesheets.

[gdotdesign]

I've just released 1.0.0 which removes the stylesheets problem of this issue.

It is now possible to use https://github.com/gdotdesign/elm-github-install to install Elm-UI in any build system or project, the documentation is available at http://elm-ui.info so I think it is now a community package it just doesn't live in the official repository.

[rehno-lindeque]

Would it be possible to list a watered down version of this on package.elm-lang.org with instructions for people who want the fully featured library? I worry that the package isn't really discoverable as is...

[gdotdesign]

Would it be possible to list a watered down version of this on package.elm-lang.org

Sadly no, the styles for a component are applied with native code, it could be changed to a static CSS file which they could import but that would defeat the purpose of the library as it is now: import a component and then use it without any dependencies.