Create a copier template for custom widget development

[jtpio]

Since there were some discussions about this yesterday at JupyterCon 2023 in Paris, opening an issue here to discuss more.

The TypeScript cookiecutter seems to be having a couple of issues at the moment: https://github.com/jupyter-widgets/widget-ts-cookiecutter. However they are likely related to packaging and it should be possible to fix them.

Another idea could also to follow JupyterLab and have a copier template as well: https://github.com/jupyterlab/extension-template

Maybe this could ease custom widget development and streamline the process.

[jtpio]

cc @ibdafna since we were talking about this

[ibdafna]

@jtpio in line with the discussion around deprecating the JS cookiecutter, I think it would make sense to update the TS cookiecutter to use copier. We can discuss in the next dev meeting.

[jtpio]

Should the cookiecutter be updated to use copier, or should we create a new repo, like in JupyterLab? https://github.com/jupyterlab/extension-template

cc @trungleduc who mentioned offline that he had success building a new widget starting from the JupyterLab copier template: https://github.com/trungleduc/ipecharts

[trungleduc]

here is the widget template based on jupyterlab's copier template https://github.com/trungleduc/ipywidgets-template. Since it does not support classic Notebook, I think it's better to keep the cookiecutter-based template around.

[jtpio]

Thanks!

@trungleduc would you be interested in transferring the template to the jupyter-widgets organization. If so maybe we can mention the Jupyter Widgets council team and see if other maintainers are on board with this idea.

Otherwise jupyter-widgets-contrib could be a good place to incubate it: https://github.com/jupyter-widgets-contrib

[trungleduc]

Yes, I can do both

[jtpio]

cc @jupyter-widgets/jupyter-widgets-council for awareness:

What do council members think about moving the ipywidgets copier template to the jupyter-widgets organization? https://github.com/trungleduc/ipywidgets-template