ChakraCore NuGet package

[ormico]

I didn't see this already so I hope it isn't a duplicate.
I also didn't see it in the roadmap.

I read the quick-start guide on embedding ChakraCore, but following this guidance will make it hard to keep an embedded version up to date.
https://github.com/Microsoft/ChakraCore/wiki/Embedding-ChakraCore

A better solution would be if MS created a NuGet package for ChakraCore and auto-published it from its build server.

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Maintainers' Update

@dilijev (added 2016-04-26 / last updated 2016-01-31):

Wiki: https://github.com/Microsoft/ChakraCore/wiki/NuGet-Packages
NuGet feed: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.ChakraCore
MyGet feed: https://www.myget.org/feed/chakracore-preview/package/nuget/Microsoft.ChakraCore

Work Items

• Use build system to create and publish daily builds as NuGet packages to MyGet.org
• Add link to MyGet feed to README and/or Wiki (@liminzhu) (Add myget pre-built binaries info on README #1253)
• Create a NuGet.org feed to publish our official releases (once they are available)
• When available: Add NuGet.org feed link to README and/or Wiki (@liminzhu)
• When release 1.2 is finalized: Publish ChakraCore version 1.2 to NuGet.org
• Include build number in preview package special version strings
  • Format for preview packages: Microsoft.ChakraCore.<major>.<minor>.<patch>-preview-<build1>-<build2> (e.g. Microsoft.ChakraCore.1.3.0-preview-00008-12345). Commit hash is, as always, encoded in binary metadata.
• Preview builds of multiple branches: e.g. release/* and master (Infrastructure now exists but there's no compelling reason to publish preview builds of multiple release branches -- patch updates to already-released minor versions like 1.2 and 1.3 will be extremely minor so there's nothing meaningful to preview.)
• Reorganize package layout to enable Visual C++ projects to take a dependency on native NuGet packages and automatically integrate the ChakraCore binaries into a project. (see https://docs.nuget.org/consume/support-for-native-projects) (ChakraCore NuGet Package Implementation #2266 by @pre10der89)
• NuGet package spec (nuspec) consumable by .NET projects (ChakraCore NuGet Package Implementation #2266 by @pre10der89)
• Publish preview package for .NET for validation (ChakraCore NuGet package #85 (comment))
• Publish preview package for Native for validation (ChakraCore NuGet package #85 (comment))
• Publish an updated NuGet package for Native projects which supports NuGet automation (as above). (See Update version number to 1.4.1 and other changes in prep for release of new NuGet packages. #2435)
• Publish NuGet for .NET projects. (See Fix leak in deferred function dictionary.  #2345)

Follow-up Items

Moved follow-up work items to #2578

/cc @digitalinfinity @boingoing

[dilijev]

Thanks for the suggestion. We will look into the possibility of creating a ChakraCore Nuget package.

[resnyanskiy]

If there was a 'vote' button, I would pressed it for sure. Nuget package is a 'must have' for such project. Please, ensure that this package could be used in dnx project. Seems like https://github.com/robpaveza/jsrt-dotnet from @robpaveza could be a starting point.

[dilijev]

Thanks for reminding me @EdMaurer. I'll look into this asap.

[gulbanana]

this would be great for allowing asp.net core apps to use isomorphic javascript

[dilijev]

Just wanted to let everyone know that we're setting up our infrastructure to produce NuGet packages. Stay tuned.

[resnyanskiy]

@dilijev great news! Waiting ChakraCore package for dnx projects.

[dilijev]

Our infrastructure is set up to make NuGet packages and we are now hosting ChakraCore preview builds on MyGet.org:

https://www.myget.org/gallery/chakracore-preview
https://www.myget.org/feed/chakracore-preview/package/nuget/Microsoft.ChakraCore

These builds will be signed and can be used to trial development with ChakraCore and embedding ChakraCore into applications.

Some thoughts/questions:

• Including the PDB files in these packages makes them much larger than they otherwise would be. Most people would probably not need these symbols (unless they are developing and debugging ChakraCore itself). Is there another way to distribute these symbols?
• We should probably include the development headers in the NuGet package as well to tie the headers to the binary version. Otherwise, developers will need to get the headers from our repo as we've documented here. Should we include them in all packages or have a development package which includes all the extras (PDB files, header files, etc).

/cc @liminzhu @EdMaurer @digitalinfinity @curtisman

[ormico]

You could make a separate debug nuget package that included either the pdb and dll or just the pdb.

While it makes sense to me to include the headers, I haven't used c/c++ with nuget or needed header files for anything recently so I might be wrong. Someone with more recent c/c++ experience might have a different thought.

[dilijev]

It looks like there might be a supported pattern for native (C++) NuGet packages:
https://docs.nuget.org/consume/support-for-native-projects

That also suggests a pattern for making it easier to use NuGet to take a dependency on ChakraCore in a VS project.

Also I noticed that the MyGet website has integration with SymbolSource. This might be the best way to distribute debugging symbols, instead of in the binary distribution packages.
http://docs.myget.org/docs/reference/symbolsource

I'll add some tasks to the initial description that still need to be done to make consuming our NuGet packages a great experience.

It seems the thing to do is to create different packages that can be used in different scenarios (development, debugging, etc.) For example, TypeScript has two different packages that contain different tools depending on the development scenario.

[ormico]

are you planning to move to the main nuget index after you come out of preview? what it the reason for using myget.com for a public package?