RFC bump: about folder structure vs manifest based tools

Jean-Marc · June 5, 2025, 7:13am

[RFC] Switch to manifest-based extensions instead of folder-based extensions

opened 06:34AM - 15 Apr 25 UTC

New Feature

## Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe The current ex…tensions bundles discovery can be easy for newcomers, but when your extension grows, it can be a PITA to handle. The main reason is that IDEs, that are made to work with standard python projects, don't play well with the current folder structures. You got a bunch of squiggles because IDEs don't know that you have to add the buttons and lib folders in `sys.path`. Also, having a lot of `script.py` tabs open can be a great source of confusion! ## Describe the solution you'd like I believe that we could benefit from a single yaml manifest that declares the extension properties and all its components (tabs, panels, and so on) instead of using directories and fixed file naming to discover the scripts. - The discovery service just reads the yaml file and the files declared in them (we could use the python entrypoint way such as package.module[:function] and extend it to the other languages), that should result in faster loading time - The code could be arranged like a normal python package, so that IDEs and other python tools are happy Basically, the current bundle.yaml files will be consolidated into a single one, and will have a new field that is the script path as explained above. We could create a tool to migrate the existing extensions and make the transition less painful. Also, when we finally can transition to CPython with the patched python.net, we could leverage a `dependencies` attribute to directly download the dependencies from pypi (and ideally create isolated environments with `uv`, so that there's no conflict with the base pyRevit library and other extensions) ## Additional context This is a very rough schema that collects the info of the various bundle types (at least what I understood reading the documentations and some code, I might have missed something/a lot of things). <details><summary>Manifest example</summary> <p> ```yaml kind: Extension # this is borrowed from kubernetes, we can drop that name: My extension dependencies: [] commands: # the current nobutton - name: my hidden command templates: long_string: a very long text to reuse tabs: - name: My Tab highlight_type: new/updated panels: - name: My panel collapsed: false is_beta: false background: panel: #FFFFFF title: #CCCCCC slideout: #AAAAAA highlight: new/update layout: - type: stack name: first stack components: # max 3 items - ... - type: pushbutton title: my button # can be multilingual icon: xxx.png entrypoint: package.mymodulename # we could also add :myfunction media_file: ... help_url: ... avail_class_name: ... highlight: new/update authors: - ... context: # zero-doc, selection, categories, any, all, exact, .... - ... is_beta: false min_revit_version: 2015 max_revit_version: 2024 - type: content title: my content contents: - .....rfa optional_contents: - .....rfa icon: xxx.png tooltip: image: xxx.png video: yyy.mp4 - type: urlbutton title: my url hyperlink: http://exmaple.com icon: xxx.png tooltip: image: xxx.png video: xxx.mp4 - type: separator - type: pulldown title: my pulldown icon: xxx.png components: - ... - type: splitbutton title: my splitbutton icon: xxx.png components: - ... - type: splitpushbutton title: my split push button icon: xxx.png components: - ... - type: smartbutton title: my smart button icon: xxx.png - type: invokebutton title: my invoke button icon: xxx.png assembly: Test.dll command_class: MyClass - type: linkbutton title: my link button icon: xxx.png assembly: LinkTest.dll command_class: TextClass availability_class: TextAvailability slideout: - # item in the slide-out panel panelbutton: # At this point I was lost/bored, I don't even know what a panel button is! ``` </p> Feel free to share your thoughts! </details>

Please have a look at this request for comments from @sanzoghenzo

The conversation needs to happen

Cheers