Add optional packages jupyterlab, jupyterlab_widgets to support interacts in JupyterLab

[slel]

Before this ticket: interacts don't work in JupyterLab.

Reported at:

• Ask Sage question 50194: Interact in Jupyterlab vs Jupyter
• comment to an answer at Ask Sage question 52707

Related:

• Meta-ticket: improve compatibility with the Python library and Python packages #29728: Meta-ticket: improve compatibility with the Python library

CC: @slel

Component: interact

Keywords: jupyterlab

Author: Joshua Campbell

Branch: e169060

Reviewer: Matthias Koeppe

Issue created by migration from https://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/30246

[mkoeppe]

comment:1

Could this just be a documentation issue? Is it documented somewhere what extensions need to be installed in jupyterlab so that sage works?

[mkoeppe]

Dependencies: #26059

[jcamp0x2a]

comment:3

Replying to @mkoeppe:

Could this just be a documentation issue? Is it documented somewhere what extensions need to be installed in jupyterlab so that sage works?

I was able to get interacts working in jupyterlab 2.2.5 using the following command:
ipywidgets install instructions

./sage --jupyter labextension install @jupyter-widgets/jupyterlab-manager@2.0

This requires nodejs >= 10 to be installed though. Looks like jupyterlab's extension ecosystem is all based on npm. Grabbing the extension tarball directly, still need node for bundling. (webpack, if I remember; been awhile since I've done anything with node.)

So unless we want to make nodejs an optional->standard package as well, maybe just leave it to the user to install and make a note in the documentation regarding interact functionality? Similar to how imagemagick and ffmpeg are noted in animated plots.

[mkoeppe]

comment:4

Is installation via https://pypi.org/project/nodeenv/ an option?

[jcamp0x2a]

comment:5

Replying to @mkoeppe:

Is installation via https://pypi.org/project/nodeenv/ an option?

Cool stuff. I was indeed able to get interacts working without a system nodejs using ./sage --pip install nodeenv and creating a nodeenv to do the jupyter-widgets extension installation. Since node isn't needed for running jupyterlab, that nodeenv could probably get wiped out automatically following installation.

Not having node though does prevent you from browsing/installing other extensions in the extensions sidebar of jupyterlab. I played around with modifying the main sage script to activate the nodeenv when using ./sage -n jupyterlab and was able to install, for example, the jupyterlab-toc extension and use it without issue.

I'll continue experimenting with this for a bit longer, do some tidying up, and push a branch for review.

[jcamp0x2a]

Commit: d2d8c40

[jcamp0x2a]

Author: Joshua Campbell

[jcamp0x2a]

Branch: u/gh-jcamp0x2a/30246

[jcamp0x2a]

comment:6

I've pushed a branch for review. It adds 4 new optional packages: nodeenv, nodejs, jupyterlab, and jupyterlab_widgets. The last one, jupyterlab_widgets, gets you everything.

I opted to break them up in this way for (1) convenience in packaging them and (2) flexibility in installing them. For example, if you just want the JupyterLab client and don't care about interacts or other extensions or if you don't want JupyterLab but would like nodejs present in your Sage environment for some other purpose. Please let me know if you'd prefer a different structuring.

Shell scripting isn't my forte, so I welcome any feedback regarding coding conventions and best practices!

[jcamp0x2a]

comment:7

I suppose this also includes what should've been worked under #26059 first and separately (just the jupyterlab package). I apologize for that; got carried away :)