.. _user_extensions: Extensions ---------- Fundamentally, JupyterLab is designed as an extensible environment. JupyterLab extensions can customize or enhance any part of JupyterLab. They can provide new themes, file viewers and editors, or renderers for rich outputs in notebooks. Extensions can add items to the menu or command palette, keyboard shortcuts, or settings in the settings system. Extensions can provide an API for other extensions to use and can depend on other extensions. In fact, the whole of JupyterLab itself is simply a collection of extensions that are no more powerful or privileged than any custom extension. JupyterLab extensions are `npm `__ packages (the standard package format in Javascript development). You can search for the keyword `jupyterlab-extension `__ on the npm registry to find extensions. For information about developing extensions, see the :ref:`developer documentation `. .. note:: If you are a JupyterLab extension developer, please note that the extension developer API is not stable and will evolve in the near future. In order to install JupyterLab extensions, you need to have `Node.js `__ installed. If you use ``conda``, you can get it with: .. code:: bash conda install -c conda-forge nodejs If you use `Homebrew `__ on Mac OS X: .. code:: bash brew install node You can also download Node.js from the `Node.js website `__ and install it directly. Using the Extension Manager ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To manage your extensions, you can use the extension manager. By default, the manager is disabled, but you can enable it with the following steps: - Go into advanced settings editor. - Open the Extension Manager section. - Add the entry "enabled": true. - Save the settings. - If prompted whether you are sure, read the warning, and click "Enable" if you are still sure. Once enabled, you should see a new tab appear in the :ref:`left sidebar `. .. figure:: images/extension_manager_default.png :align: center :class: jp-screenshot **Figure:** The default view has three components: a search bar, an "Installed" section, and a "Discover" section. Finding Extensions ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ You can use the extension manager to find extensions for JupyterLab. To discovery freely among the currently available extensions, expand the "Discovery" section. This triggers a search for all JupyterLab extensions on the NPM registry, and the results are listed according to the `registry's sort order `__. An exception to this sort order is that extensions released by the Jupyter organization are always placed first. These extensions are distinguished by a small Jupyter icon next to their name. .. image:: images/extension_manager_discover.png :align: center :class: jp-screenshot :alt: Screenshot showing the discovery extension listing. Alternatively, you can limit your discovery by using the search bar. This performs a free-text search of JupyterLab extensions on the NPM registry. .. image:: images/extension_manager_search.png :align: center :class: jp-screenshot :alt: Screenshot showing an example search result Installing an Extension ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Once you have found an extension that you think is interesting, install it by clicking the "Install" button of the extension list entry. .. danger:: Installing an extension allows it to execute arbitrary code on the server, kernel, and in the client's browser. You should therefore avoid installing extensions you do not trust, and watch out for any extensions trying to masquerade as a trusted extension. A short while after starting the install of an extension, a drop-down should appear under the search bar indicating that the extension has been downloaded, but that a rebuild is needed to complete the installation. .. image:: images/extension_manager_rebuild.png :align: center :class: jp-screenshot :alt: Screenshot showing the rebuild indicator If you want to install/uninstall other extensions as well, you can ignore the rebuild notice until you have made all the changes you want. Once satisfied, click the 'Rebuild' button to start a rebuild in the background. Once the rebuild completes, a dialog will pop up, indicating that a reload of the page is needed in order to load the latest build into the browser. If you ignore the rebuild notice by mistake, simply refresh your browser window to trigger a new rebuild check. Managing Installed Extensions ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ When there are some installed extensions, they will be shown in the "Installed" section. These can then be uninstalled or disabled. Disabling an extension will prevent it from being activated, but without rebuilding the application. Companion packages ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ During installation of an extension, JupyterLab will inspect the package metadata for any :ref:`instructions on companion packages `. Companion packages can be: - Notebook server extensions (or any other packages that need to be installed on the Notebook server). - Kernel packages. An example of companion packages for the kernel are Jupyter Widget packages, like the `ipywidgets `__ Python package for the `@jupyter-widgets/jupyterlab-manager package `__. If JupyterLab finds instructions for companion packages, it will present a dialog to notify you about these. These are informational only, and it will be up to you to take these into account or not. Using the Terminal ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Another way of managing your extensions is from the terminal on the server, using the ``jupyter labextension`` entry point. In general, a simple help text is available by typing ``jupyter labextension --help``. Installing Extensions ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ You can install new extensions into the application using the command: .. code:: bash jupyter labextension install my-extension where ``my-extension`` is the name of a valid JupyterLab extension npm package on `npm `__. Use the ``my-extension@version`` syntax to install a specific version of an extension, for example: .. code:: bash jupyter labextension install my-extension@1.2.3 You can also install an extension that is not uploaded to npm, i.e., ``my-extension`` can be a local directory containing the extension, a gzipped tarball, or a URL to a gzipped tarball. We encourage extension authors to add the ``jupyterlab-extension`` GitHub topic to any repository with a JupyterLab extension to facilitate discovery. You can see a list of extensions by searching GitHub for the `jupyterlab-extension `__ topic. You can list the currently installed extensions by running the command: .. code:: bash jupyter labextension list Uninstall an extension by running the command: .. code:: bash jupyter labextension uninstall my-extension where ``my-extension`` is the name of the extension, as printed in the extension list. You can also uninstall core extensions using this command (you can always re-install core extensions later). Installing and uninstalling extensions can take some time, as they are downloaded, bundled with the core extensions, and the whole application is rebuilt. You can install/uninstall more than one extension in the same command by listing their names after the ``install`` command. If you are installing/uninstalling several extensions in several stages, you may want to defer rebuilding the application by including the flag ``--no-build`` in the install/uninstall step. Once you are ready to rebuild, you can run the command: .. code:: bash jupyter lab build **Note** If using Windows, you may encounter a `FileNotFoundError` due to the default PATH length on Windows. Node modules are stored in a nested file structure, so the path can get quite long. If you have administrative access and are on Windows 8 or 10, you can update the registry setting using these instructions: https://stackoverflow.com/a/37528731. Disabling Extensions ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ You can disable specific JupyterLab extensions (including core extensions) without rebuilding the application by running the command: .. code:: bash jupyter labextension disable my-extension This will prevent the extension from loading in the browser, but does not require a rebuild. You can re-enable an extension using the command: .. code:: bash jupyter labextension enable my-extension Advanced Usage ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Any information that JupyterLab persists is stored in its application directory, including settings and built assets. This is separate from where the Python package is installed (like in ``site_packages``) so that the install directory is immutable. The application directory can be overridden using ``--app-dir`` in any of the JupyterLab commands, or by setting the ``JUPYTERLAB_DIR`` environment variable. If not specified, it will default to ``/share/jupyter/lab``, where ```` is the site-specific directory prefix of the current Python environment. You can query the current application path by running ``jupyter lab path``. JupyterLab Build Process ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ To rebuild the app directory, run ``jupyter lab build``. By default, the ``jupyter labextension install`` command builds the application, so you typically do not need to call ``build`` directly. Building consists of: - Populating the ``staging/`` directory using template files - Handling any locally installed packages - Ensuring all installed assets are available - Bundling the assets - Copying the bundled assets to the ``static`` directory Note that building will always use the latest JavaScript packages that meet the dependency requirements of JupyterLab itself and any installed extensions. If you wish to run JupyterLab with the set of pinned requirements that was shipped with the Python package, you can launch as ``jupyter lab --core-mode``. JupyterLab Application Directory ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The JupyterLab application directory contains the subdirectories ``extensions``, ``schemas``, ``settings``, ``staging``, ``static``, and ``themes``. .. _extensions-1: extensions '''''''''' The ``extensions`` directory has the packed tarballs for each of the installed extensions for the app. If the application directory is not the same as the ``sys-prefix`` directory, the extensions installed in the ``sys-prefix`` directory will be used in the app directory. If an extension is installed in the app directory that exists in the ``sys-prefix`` directory, it will shadow the ``sys-prefix`` version. Uninstalling an extension will first uninstall the shadowed extension, and then attempt to uninstall the ``sys-prefix`` version if called again. If the ``sys-prefix`` version cannot be uninstalled, its plugins can still be ignored using ``ignoredPackages`` metadata in ``settings``. schemas ''''''' The ``schemas`` directory contains `JSON Schemas `__ that describe the settings used by individual extensions. Users may edit these settings using the JupyterLab Settings Editor. settings '''''''' The ``settings`` directory may contain the ``page_config.json`` and/or ``build_config.json`` files, depending on which configurations are set on your system. .. _page_configjson: page_config.json The ``page_config.json`` data is used to provide configuration data to the application environment. The following configurations may be present in this file: 1. ``terminalsAvailable`` identifies whether a terminal (i.e. ``bash/tsch`` on Mac/Linux OR ``PowerShell`` on Windows) is available to be launched via the Launcher. (This configuration was predominantly required for Windows prior to PowerShell access being enabled in Jupyter Lab.) The value for this field is a Boolean: ``true`` or ``false``. 2. ``disabledExtensions`` controls which extensions should not load at all. 3. ``deferredExtensions`` controls which extensions should not load until they are required by something, irrespective of whether they set ``autostart`` to ``true``. The value for the ``disabledExtensions`` and ``deferredExtensions`` fields are an array of strings. The following sequence of checks are performed against the patterns in ``disabledExtensions`` and ``deferredExtensions``. - If an identical string match occurs between a config value and a package name (e.g., ``"@jupyterlab/apputils-extension"``), then the entire package is disabled (or deferred). - If the string value is compiled as a regular expression and tests positive against a package name (e.g., ``"disabledExtensions": ["@jupyterlab/apputils*$"]``), then the entire package is disabled (or deferred). - If an identical string match occurs between a config value and an individual plugin ID within a package (e.g., ``"disabledExtensions": ["@jupyterlab/apputils-extension:settings"]``), then that specific plugin is disabled (or deferred). - If the string value is compiled as a regular expression and tests positive against an individual plugin ID within a package (e.g., ``"disabledExtensions": ["^@jupyterlab/apputils-extension:set.*$"]``), then that specific plugin is disabled (or deferred). An example of a ``page_config.json`` file is: .. code:: json { "disabledExtensions": [ "@jupyterlab/toc" ], "terminalsAvailable": false } .. _build_configjson: build_config.json The ``build_config.json`` file is used to track the local directories that have been installed using ``jupyter labextension install ``, as well as core extensions that have been explicitly uninstalled. An example of a ``build_config.json`` file is: .. code:: json { "uninstalled_core_extensions": [ "@jupyterlab/markdownwidget-extension" ], "local_extensions": { "@jupyterlab/python-tests": "/path/to/my/extension" } } staging and static '''''''''''''''''' The ``static`` directory contains the assets that will be loaded by the JuptyerLab application. The ``staging`` directory is used to create the build and then populate the ``static`` directory. Running ``jupyter lab`` will attempt to run the ``static`` assets in the application directory if they exist. You can run ``jupyter lab --core-mode`` to load the core JupyterLab application (i.e., the application without any extensions) instead. themes '''''' The ``themes`` directory contains assets (such as CSS and icons) for JupyterLab theme extensions.