Jupyter Nbextensions Configurator

A server extension for jupyter notebook which provides configuration interfaces for notebook extensions (nbextensions).

The jupyter_nbextensions_configurator jupyter server extension provides graphical user interfaces for configuring which nbextensions are enabled (load automatically for every notebook), and display their readme files. In addition, for extensions which include an appropriate yaml descripor file (see below), the interface also provides controls to configure the extensions' options.

This project was spun out of work from ipython-contrib/IPython-notebook-extensions.

Installation

The installation has three steps:

Installing the pip package. this should be as simple as

pip install jupyter_nbextensions_configurator

Configuring the notebook server to load the server extension. For notebook versions >= 4.2.0, you can do this using the jupyter machinery with

jupyter serverextension enable jupyter_nbextensions_configurator

with whichever flags (such as --user for single-user, --sys-prefix for installations into virtual environments, --system for ystem-wide installs, etc.) are appropriate for your needs. For notebook versions before 4.2.0, you can use the provided shim script (which essentially duplicates the jupyter installation machinery for versions which don't have it already) with the same possible flags:

jupyter_nbextensions_configurator enable

Finally, you'll need to restart the notebook server. Once restarted, you should be able to find the configurator user interfaces as described below.

Usage

Once jupyter_nbextensions_configurator is installed and enabled, and your notebook server has been restarted, you should be able to find the nbextensions configuration interface at the url <base_url>nbextensions, where <base_url> is described below (for simple installs, it's usually just /, so the UI is at /nbextensions).

###base_url For most single-user notebook servers, the dashboard (the file-browser view) is at

http://localhost:8888/tree

So the base_url is the part between the host (http://localhost:8888) and tree, so in this case it's the default value of just /. If you have a non-default base url (such as with JupyterHub), you'll need to prepend it to the url. So, if your dashboard is at

http://localhost:8888/custom/base/url/tree

then you'll find the nbextensions configuration page at

http://localhost:8888/custom/base/url/nbextensions

tree tab

In addition to the main standalone page, the nbextensions configurator interface is also available as a tab on the dashboard, once it's been configured to appear there. To do this, go to the /nbextensions url described above, and enable the nbextension Nbextensions dashboard tab

YAML file format

You don't need to know about the yaml files in order simply to use jupyter_nbextensions_configurator. A notebook extension is 'found' by the jupyter_nbextensions_configurator server extension when a special yaml file describing the nbextension and its options is found in the notebook server's nbextensions_path. The yaml file can have any name with the extension .yaml or .yml, and describes the notebook extension and its options to jupyter_nbextensions_configurator.

The case-sensitive keys in the yaml file are as follows:

Type - (required) identifier, must be IPython Notebook Extension or Jupyter Notebook Extension (case sensitive)
Name - unique name of the extension
Description - short explanation of the extension
Link - a url for more documentation. If this is a relative url with a .md extension (recommended!), the markdown readme is rendered on the config page.
Icon - a url for a small icon for the config page (rendered 120px high, should preferably end up 400px wide. Recall HDPI displays may benefit from a 2x resolution icon).
Main - (required) main javascript file that is loaded, typically main.js
Compatibility - Jupyter major version compatibility, e.g. 3.x or 4.x, 3.x 4.x, 3.x, 4.x, 5.x
Parameters - Optional list of configuration parameters. Each item is a dictionary with (some of) the following keys:
- name - (required) this is the name used to store the configuration variable in the config json. It follows a json-like structure, so you can use . to separate sub-objects e.g. myextension.buttons_to_add.play.
- description - description of the configuration parameter
- default - a default value used to populate the tag on the nbextensions config page if no value is found in config. Note that this is more of a hint to the user than anything functional - since it's only set in the yaml file, the javascript implementing the extension in question might actually use a different default, depending on the implementation.
- input_type - controls the type of html tag used to render the parameter on the configuration page. Valid values include text, textarea, checkbox, [html5 input tags such as number, url, color, ...], plus a final type of list
- list_element - for parameters with input_type list, this is used in place of input_type to render each element of the list
- finally, extras such as min step max may be used by number tags for validation

Example:

Type: IPython Notebook Extension
Name: Limit Output
Description: This extension limits the number of characters that can be printed below a codecell
Link: readme.md
Icon: icon.png
Main: main.js
Compatibility: 4.x
Parameters:
- name: limit_output
  description: Number of characters to limit output to
  input_type: number
  default: 10000
  step: 1
  min: 0
- name: limit_output_message
  description: Message to append when output is limited
  input_type: text
  default: '**OUTPUT MUTED**'

Troubleshooting

If you encounter problems with this config page, you can:

check the issues page for the github repository. If you can't find one that fits your problem, please create a new one!
ask in the project's [gitter chatroom][gitter url]

For debugging, useful information can (sometimes) be found by:

Checking for any error messages in the notebook server output logs
Check for error messages in the JavaScript console of the browser.

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