Packaging and distribution

[nocalla]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

As per #176 , ideally we could install our package by running pip install bank2ynab, but this requires proper packaging.

Describe the solution you'd like

• Creation of a simple installation package using setup.py
• Inclusion of correct package details in setup.py/MANIFEST.in
• Testing package upload to PyPi
• Actual creation of entry on PyPi
• Automation of the publishing process using Github Actions

Additional context
Work in progress branch: https://github.com/bank2ynab/bank2ynab/tree/feature/349_Packaging_and_distribution

[chamini2]

Hey, this seems very important to me, making users download a zip file is not ideal IMHO. Would you accept contributions to do this?

[nocalla]

Yes please, this is totally beyond my expertise! Even a roadmap of what steps to take would be great.

[ExalDraen]

How about using a something like nuitka (https://github.com/Nuitka/Nuitka) to package the whole application into a (OS-specific) executable, and then offer that for download?

That would be a lot simpler / easier for users, I would think

[nocalla]

@ExalDraen that would be good if we can then offer the executable via Github. I haven't packaged before, so no idea on how to go about doing it!

[limdingwen]

I was working on this because it seems like this is blocking #457. I keep running into import errors whenever I try to use this as a package.

To recap what I've experimented with for the past month:

• Using Pyodide to run it in a web app
• Using PyInstaller to convert bank2ynab to an executable, then running it in an Electron app
• Adding it as a git submodule, then importing it, as a Python GUI app

Every single time, I come up against this dreaded error:

  File "[SNIP]/bank2ynab/__main__.py", line 5, in <module>
    from bank_handler import BankHandler
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'bank_handler'

So I decided to upload it onto PyPI first; maybe that will provide some sort of standardisation so I don't keep running into import errors.

Uploading worked! I turned it into an executable, too, and fixed the dependencies issue in setup.py. But when I ran it...

  File "[SNIP]/bank2ynab/__main__.py", line 5, in <module>
    from bank_handler import BankHandler
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'bank_handler'

😢

I believe python ./bank2ynab is masking an issue with the code; right now, it's using absolute imports. But that should be import bank2ynab.bank_handler, shouldn't it? The alternative would be relative imports, like from . import bank_handler.

I decided to go with relative imports.

bank2ynab % pipx run --index-url https://test.pypi.org/simple/  --pip-args="--extra-index-url https://pypi.org/simple/" bank2ynab-limdingwen==1.2.2
NOTE: running app 'bank2ynab' from 'bank2ynab-limdingwen'
ERROR: Configuration file not found: /Users/[REDACTED]/Library/Caches/pipx/2b8957e5005ced9/lib/python3.12/site-packages/bank2ynab.conf
ERROR: No configuration file found, process aborted.

Close enough. It works!

Oh, and you need to use python -m bank2ynab to run it.

I'll put up a PR, specifically for the relative imports and the packaging-specific changes. This is important since it'll make it easier for my GUI app -- whether that be PWA or a desktop GUI, I'm not sure yet -- to keep up with the updates, since I don't need to keep changing it to relative imports. I think this should be enough for Pyodide (for PWA), or just plain Python importing (if I'm going with a Python GUI) to work properly...

Still needs fixing:

• Configuration file issue when using pipx (unknown if it works when manually installed)
• CI automation

[nocalla]

That's pretty cool, thanks for reasoning this out! I know we had some import-related issues a while back with certain configurations, so maybe that explains it.

Oh, and you need to use python -m bank2ynab to run it.

Clicking the play button in VS Code no longer works! A sad day, but a small sacrifice.

[limdingwen]

Clicking the play button in VS Code no longer works! A sad day, but a small sacrifice.

😆 Well, one could always use tasks.json!