Publish an example of a Windows Store application that adds a JSON fragment extensions in Windows Terminal

[NatoBoram]

The page JSON fragment extensions in Windows Terminal leads to Create and host an app extension. This assumes you have an app around the JSON fragment.

I think it's mandatory to have an actual example. Using JSON fragment extensions in Windows Terminal, a developer is unable to create a package from scratch and publish it on the Windows Store.

Ideally, someone should be able to go from Package from the command line to JSON fragment extensions in Windows Terminal and be ready to publish.

Many theme authors and their users want themes to be available in lots of places and putting a .json file in a specific folder is pretty easy, but it's hard for users to discover themes and to remember where their got it from. Plus, many theme authors are distributing their theme with a .bat or .ps1 file to "install" it, which doesn't feel right. Being able to publish it to the Windows Store easily would solve these problems.

• Port for Windows Terminal nordtheme/nord#123
• Ayu Mirage For Windows Terminal. I need this, because it looks so beautiful. ayu-theme/ayu-colors#20
• support for windows terminal cocopon/iceberg.vim#79
• Easy color scheme import process dracula/windows-terminal#10
• JSON version for Windows Terminal? morhetz/gruvbox#361

That example app could be in a template repository so theme makers can easily have all the necessary files in place.

[zadjii-msft]

Yep, we should do that.

[AmineI]

Hi there !
Any requirements you would have for that sample ?

I have a very basic one ready locally, starting from Visual Studio's blank UWP template, and implementing the JSON sample from the documentation as a fragment. Would that help :) ?

[NatoBoram]

Any requirements you would have for that sample ?

Sure

• Should not require Visual Studio
• Should be fully functional with the command line so it can be put in a CI/CD
• Should have instructions for how to generate the basic project with the command line without requiring to download a template from Internet

I think that's about it. Most theme terminal theme authors are running Linux and lots of them don't have access to a Windows installation to make the thing by trial and errors and would rely mostly on CI/CD to make the builds.

[AmineI]

As of now, what I do to go from my sample to a complete app is just editing the package manifest and the JSON fragment. That does not need Visual Studio. Creating app packages in a CI environment should not be an issue either (GitHub Actions & Azure Pipelines both provide a VS environment in their Windows runners).

Regarding your last suggestion, though, do you have any specific ideas in mind ?
My sample is an UWP app - which I believe requires Visual Studio to create from scratch. I know no way to generate the basic
project with the command line without requiring to download a template from Internet . If I'm misunderstanding something here, I'd be glad to be enlightened and improve my work in that direction.

I'd love to push what I have and iterate from there, but I'm not sure where to host this yet. I thought of making a PR adding my attempt in the /samples folder, but I also like your idea of a template repo, so I'll wait for feedback from the Terminal team to make sure that this is created where it should.

[zadjii-msft]

Hey @AmineI, sorry I must have missed that mail in my inbox. If you wanna file a PR into the samples/ directory, I'd totally call that cool. I'd rather start small and make incremental improvements then let this linger in the pursuit of the perfect.

If we want to take it out of /samples and promote it to a template repo later, we can always do that too. But let's start with something. Sound good?