Metadata for tern defs+plugins "package.json" like

[angelozerr]

It should be very cool, if tern could host metadata files for each tern defs/plugins to describe it like :

• give a description, url.
• give the author.
• give the dependencies to other tern defs/plugins
• give the waited options of the plugin.

This metadata file can be used by each IDE to display, description, author, etc in an UI preferences.

jquery.json.metadata could look like this:

{
  "name": "jquery",
  "url": "http://jquery.com/",
  "author": "Marijn Haverbeke <marijnh@gmail.com>",
  "description": "jQuery support",
  "dependencies": ["browser"]
}

[marijnh]

There is a !data field you can add to any object in a JSON spec, which could be used for this. Separate files seems a bit painful -- just pack it into the file itself.

[angelozerr]

I would like to know metadata information without running tern. If tern def is inside js plugin, it's very hard to read it.

In tern.java I manage tern plugins + defs selection with this UI :

When you select a plugin, you see a description. I would like to use a simple JSON to read this description metadata and not execute a tern server.

[marijnh]

The files are JSON. You don't need to run Tern to read them.

[angelozerr]

For JSON Type Definion like jQuery, I agree with you, but for Tern plugin like requirejs, it's hard to load it.

I have done those metadata files in my github that you can find at https://github.com/angelozerr/tern.java/tree/master/core/tern.core/metadata

I use those metadata file inside tern.java in Eclipse UI to select Tern Plugin or JSON Type Definition. Here a screenshot which shows you detail (metadata) of the requirejs tern plugin (I must display dependencies and options of tern plugin too) :

When you select requirejs tern plugin, it uses this JSON metadata file https://github.com/angelozerr/tern.java/blob/master/core/tern.core/metadata/requirejs.metadata.json

As requirejs is tern plugin, it's very hard to read the JSON Type Definition inside the Javascript code, that's why I have created a new JSON file per def/plugin.

[marijnh]

That's true. Still, this seems too marginally useful to include. The amount of plugins in the core distribution are limited anyway, you can just put them in your own JSON file if you need this kind of info.

[angelozerr]

Ok I will keep my metadata JSON files. Thank's.