Meteor 3.0 Migration Guide

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Publishing Packages ​

Publishing a Meteor package involves a few key steps, including setting up your package, testing it, and finally publishing it to the Meteor package repository. Here's a brief guide on how to publish Meteor packages using Meteor 3, specifically with the meteor publish --release=3.0.3 command.

Prerequisites ​

  • Ensure you have Meteor 3 installed. You can check your Meteor version and automatically download it if it's missing:
    bash
    meteor --version --release=3.0.3
  • Have a Meteor developer account. You can create one at Meteor's official website.

Step-by-Step Guide ​

1. Set Up Your Package ​

First, you need to create a package directory and set up your package structure.

  1. Create the package structure:
bash
meteor create --package user:package
cd package
  1. Edit the package.js file: This file contains metadata about your package and its dependencies. Here's an example structure:
javascript
Package.describe({
 name: 'user:package',
 version: '0.0.1',
 summary: 'A brief description of my package',
 git: 'https://github.com/myusername/my-package',
 documentation: 'README.md'
});

Package.onUse(function(api) {
 api.versionsFrom('3.0');
 api.use('ecmascript');
 api.mainModule('my-package.js');
});

Package.onTest(function(api) {
 api.use('ecmascript');
 api.use('tinytest');
 api.use('user:package');
 api.mainModule('my-package-tests.js');
});

If the package is also intended to work with Meteor 2 you can use:

javascript
api.versionsFrom(['2.3', '3.0']);
  1. Create the main module file:
bash
touch my-package.js
  1. Create a test file (optional but recommended):
bash
touch my-package-tests.js

2. Develop Your Package ​

Add your package logic in my-package.js. For example:

javascript
export const greet = (name) => {
  return `Hello, ${name}!`;
};

3. Test Your Package ​

Before publishing, ensure your package works as expected.

  1. Run tests:
bash
meteor test-packages ./ --driver-package meteortesting:mocha
  1. Fix any issues encountered during testing.

4. Publish Your Package ​

Once your package is ready and tested, you can publish it using the following command:

bash
meteor publish --release=3.0.3

You can replace 3.0.3 with the appropriate release version. If you omit the --release flag, it will default to the latest official Meteor version, which at the time of this writing is Meteor 2. That way packages published without specifying a release will not be compatible with Meteor 3, as there will probably be a fibers related error.

  • Login if prompted: You will be asked to log in with your Meteor developer account credentials if you aren't already logged in.

  • Publish confirmation: After logging in, your package will be published to the Meteor package repository.

5. Verify Your Package ​

To ensure your package has been published correctly, you can search for it in the Meteor package repository or try to add it to a Meteor project:

bash
meteor add user:package

Tips ​

  • Versioning: Follow semantic versioning for your package versions to ensure compatibility and proper version management.
  • Documentation: Provide thorough documentation in the README.md file to help users understand how to use your package.
  • Git Repository: Keep your package source code in a version-controlled repository like GitHub for easy collaboration and updates.

By following these steps, you should be able to publish your Meteor packages with Meteor 3 successfully. Happy coding!