Meta fields in package.json

package.json is the standard file for npm module metadata, its structure can be refered in npm offical documents. poi makes use of parts of its standard field, and also extra field for plugin's own information.

Standard metadata used are:

version: String, plugin version in Semantic Versioning format, e.g. x.y.z for stable version, x.y.z-beta.a for beta version.
author: author for plugin
- if String, it is the name of author
- if Object, then name is the name of author,links or url is the links to the author.
description: String, brief description

Extra information is stored in poiPlugin field, including:

title: String, title for plugin, displayed in plugin list and menu. Will be translated if it exists in i18n resources.
id: String, key for identify the plugin. Will fallback to package name if empty.
priority: Number, priority in plugin menu, smaller value will move it forward. Generally the order is panel plugin < window plugin < back end plugin, but it is not obliged.
description: String, description of the plugin, displayed in plugin list. Since standard metadata's description is displayed in npm website, this field is for poi specified description. Will be translated if it exists in i18n resources.
icon: String, icon for plugin in plugin list, supports icons names FontAwesome version 4
i18nDir: String, custom i18n path relative to plugin root, defaults to ./i18n and ./assets/i18n.
apiVer, Object, defines plugin compatibility. Use it if a newer version is not compatible on older poi versions. Poi will check the field for installed plugin to determine its loading, and also check the field in latest version on npm repository, to control the update check, installation, upgrade or rolling back. Its format will be:
json
```
{
  <poiVer>: <pluginVer>,
}
```
which means: plugins versioned above pluginVer requires poi version above poiVer; if poi version is under poiVer, will rollback to pluginVer.
- For example, if a plugin's version 1.2.0 is only compatible to poi version 9.2.0 and above, and the latest version available to poi version below 9.2.0 is 1.1.12, then the entry will be:
  json
```
{
  "9.2.0": "1.1.12"
}
```
- Attention, pluginVer should exactly exist in npm repository since the rolling back will use the exact version, while poiVer is not limited, e.g. you can use 6.99.99 to cover poi versions under 7.0.0
- poi will check update information in npm registry and rollback to the most latest stable version if possible.

An example package.json:

json

{
  "name": "poi-plugin-translator",
  "version": "0.2.4",
  "main": "index.js",
  "description": "A plugin for poi that translates names.",
  "author": {
    "name": "KochiyaOcean",
    "url": "https://github.com/kochiyaocean"
  },
  "poiPlugin": {
    "title": "Translator",
    "description": "Translate ships' & equipments' name into English",
    "icon": "fa/language",
    "i18nDir": "i18n/translator",
    "apiVer": {
      "6.3.3": "2.1.1",
      "7.0.0-beta.1": "3.0.0"
    }
  }
}

Meta fields in package.json ​

Meta fields in package.json