npm version issue -- `latest` is a backport

[moimael]

Hi,

I installed the 0.2.3 version a few times ago with npm, but now npm is telling me the latest version available is 0.1.9. Was it removed ?

Thanks

[agilgur5]

No, it is most certainly still there: https://github.com/agilgur5/react-signature-canvas/releases .

$ npm show react-signature-canvas versions

[ '0.1.0',
  '0.1.1',
  '0.1.2',
  '0.1.3',
  '0.1.4',
  '0.1.5',
  '0.1.6',
  '0.1.7',
  '0.1.8',
  '0.1.9',
  '0.2.0',
  '0.2.1',
  '0.2.2',
  '0.2.3' ]

NPM says 0.1.9 is the latest because it is the "latest" chronologically.
Per #14 (comment) , 0.1.9 is a backport of 0.2.3.

Apparently I should have released the backport first, and then the original version (which is counterintuitive), because NPM shows "latest" meaning chronologically, instead of "latest" meaning highest version number (which is much more intuitive to users).

[agilgur5]

Can confirm with release of v0.2.4 / v0.1.10 for #16 that NPM sets "latest version" chronologically, so I released v0.1.10 first and then v0.2.4

[moimael]

Next time you can publish them in the order you want, you just have to tag the latest package using:
npm publish --tag latest

See here: https://docs.npmjs.com/getting-started/using-tags

[agilgur5]

Per those docs, latest is the default tag, so unless you publish with a different tag, it'll always be tagged as latest. It actually doesn't specify how to not place any tag. So that doesn't solve the problem, unless one can publish just the tag itself without having a new version (i.e. publish v0.2.x then v0.1.x then the same v0.2.x but with latest) -- but that's not clear from the docs either

[agilgur5]

Per the commits that reference this issue (f430037 , 3ed2d88 , and 52ee87a ), I've resolved this by adding a publishConfig to the package.json of backported/non-latest branches (as of now, v0.3.x, v0.2.x, and v0.1.x).

This feature isn't particularly documented well, but by adding it to publishConfig with a tag a maintainer doesn't have to remember to add a different tag each time when releasing a backported version just so it won't be tagged as latest.