Separate logic from CLI

[callumbwhyte]

I would love to see the packaging logic separated out into a separate assembly / package - e.g. Umbraco.Packaging.

This would offer a number of benefits:

• The ability for 3rd party libraries to create packages in code (e.g. my MSBuild task, Umbraco)
• One central place for managing all packaging logic

The CMS and UmbPack could then depend on the same Umbraco.Packaging package, while the CLI would retain it's package upload abilities (I don't think these would belong in the CMS).

Currently the only way to do this would be by shipping the EXE, which could be flagged by antivirus etc...

Happy to help with this if it's something the Package Team thinks could work.

[jmayntzhusen]

This is an interesting idea for sure!

Main issue I see is backwards compatibility, let's say this was done from Umbraco 8.10, you'd need package devs to use separate UmbPack versions to generate separate versions of their packages that may do exactly the same feature wise but are built differently?

[callumbwhyte]

Do you have an example of where this might be an issue?

Here's how I see it:

• UmbPack currently supports generating packages just like the backoffice
• UmbPack supports all versions of Umbraco v7(?) and above as the package format hasn't changed
• If a change were to be made to the package format, Umbraco would have to be updated from X version to support those new changes and previous would be backwards compatible
• Any changes to the package format currently require a change to UmbPack and Umbraco regardless
• If a dev wants to support / utilise the new feature / change they would have to update regardless

Maybe I'm missing something here? 🤔 😊

[jmayntzhusen]

No you're right, I was considering if we removing the build part from UmbPack moving forwards it wouldn't work for older CMS versions that didn't point to the new shared package for building, but obviously that's not the case, the new package would just replace the parts within umbpack and stay backwards compatible as you've described here.

Do you have any idea of the amount of work required to extract that part from the CMS? May be a good netcore project.

[callumbwhyte]

My thinking was we do this in UmbPack first seeing as it's far easier to change (and selfishly I want to use it for my project too 😂)

Steps would be:

• Separate UmbPack CLI from UmbPack "Core" as individual projects in the solution
• Release UmbPack "Core" on NuGet
• (I can then depend on it)
• Ensure packaging logic is 1-1 with CMS
• Replace packaging logic in CMS (maybe NetCore, depending on what's happening to the package format?)

If you're happy to accept PRs for parts of this I will be more than happy to contribute.