Clean up contributing and release

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -121,16 +121,6 @@ To run a specific example, change to the example's directory (i.e.
 python main.py
 ```
 
-### Build API Docs
-
-To build the [API docs](http://jupyterlab.github.io/jupyterlab/):
-
-```bash
-npm run docs
-```
-
-Navigate to `docs/index.html`.
-
 ----
 
 ## High level Architecture
@@ -143,9 +133,10 @@ The JupyterLab application is made up of two major parts:
 Each part is named `jupyterlab`. The [developer tutorial documentation](https://jupyterlab-tutorial.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html)
 provides additional architecture information.
 
-## The NPM Package
+## The NPM Packages
 
-The npm package source files are in the `src/` subdirectory.
+The repository consists of many npm packages that are managed using the lerna
+build tool.  The npm package source files are in the `packages/` subdirectory.
 
 **Prerequisites**
 - [node](http://nodejs.org/) (preferably version 5 or later)
@@ -182,7 +173,7 @@ version 4.2 or later is installed.
 When you make a change to JupyterLab npm package source files, run:
 
 ```bash
-npm run build:serverextension
+npm run build:main
 ```
 
 to build the changes and then refresh your browser to see the changes.
@@ -202,6 +193,6 @@ Follow the package install instructions first.
 Any bundler that understands how to `require()` files with `.js` and `.css`
 extensions can be used with this package.
 
-**Note:** This npm module is fully compatible with Node/Babel/ES6/ES5. Simply
+**Note:** The npm modules are fully compatible with Node/Babel/ES6/ES5. Simply
 omit the type declarations when using a language other than TypeScript.
 

RELEASE.md

@@ -26,14 +26,17 @@ previous attempts.
 Create the release
 ------------------
 
-We publish an npm package, a Python source package, and a Python universal binary wheel.  We also publish a conda package on conda-forge (see below).
+We publish the npm packages, a Python source package, and a Python universal binary wheel.  We also publish a conda package on conda-forge (see below).
 See the Python docs on [package uploading](https://packaging.python.org/distributing/#uploading-your-project-to-pypi)
 for twine setup instructions and for why twine is the recommended method.
 
 ```bash
-npm version patch
-git push origin master --tags
-npm publish
+# this takes a while to ensure the latest builds of everything,
+# then prompts you to select package versions.  When one package has an 
+# effective major release, the packages that depend on it should also get a 
+# major release, to prevent consumers that are using the `^` semver 
+# requirement from getting a conflict.
+npm publish  
 rm -rf dist
 python setup.py sdist
 python setup.py bdist_wheel --universal

package.json

@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
     "test:firefox": "lerna run test:firefox --stream --scope \"@jupyterlab/test-*\"",
     "test:ie": "lerna run test:ie --concurrency 1 --stream --scope \"@jupyterlab/test-*\"",
     "package:update": "lerna exec --scope \"@jupyterlab/!(test-|main)*\" -- node ../../scripts/package-update.js",
-    "publish": "lerna publish -m \"Publish\"",
+    "publish": "npm update && npm install && npm run clean && npm run build && lerna publish -m \"Publish\"",
     "watch": "cd jupyterlab && npm run watch"
   }
 }