Packaging jQuery Plugins

Overview

Process for creating, maintaining, and distributing jQuery plugins using GitHub and npm.

Helper tools

• jQuery Boilerplate Boilerplate for creating jQuery plugins

Distribution

Marking a release

See Marking Releases With Git

Specifying files to install with npm

Use the .npmignore file in the root of plugin project to specify which files to exclude when running npm install. .npmignore works the same way as .gitignore.

Publishing npm packages

I'm actually more interested in distributing packages through GitHub since they are mostly for use in my own projects.

• Publishing your jQuery plugin to npm, the quick and dirty way, npm Blog

Using plugins in projects

Use npm to fetch the plugin from GitHub, included in in the project, and add it to the project requirements:

$ npm install git+https://git@github.com/northrose/lightboxLink.git --save

• The --save parameter updates package.json, adding the package as a dependency of the project.
• To use a branch other than master append #branchname to the repo URL.

• Using jQuery plugins with npm, npm Blog

See also

Internal pages

• Coding JQuery Plugins
• JQuery Plugins
• LITTLED JQuery Plugins