Add development guidelines

Author: IsabelParedes

docs/dev_install.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+Development
+===========
+
+Install
+-------
+
+**Requirements**
+
+* JupyterLab \>= 4.0
+
+The ``jlpm`` command is JupyterLab's pinned version of
+`yarn <https://yarnpkg.com/>`_ that is installed with JupyterLab. You may use
+``yarn`` or ``npm`` in lieu of ``jlpm`` below.
+
+1. Copy the repo to your local environment
+
+  .. code-block:: bash
+
+    git clone git@github.com:jupyter-robotics/jupyterlab-urdf.git
+    cd jupyterlab-urdf
+
+2. Install package in editable mode
+
+  .. code-block:: bash
+
+    pip install -e .
+
+3. Link your development version of the extension with JupyterLab
+
+  .. code-block:: bash
+
+    jupyter labextension develop . --overwrite
+
+4. Rebuild extension Typescript source after making changes
+
+  .. code-block:: bash
+
+    jlpm build
+
+5. Launch JupyterLab for testing the extension
+
+  .. code-block:: bash
+
+    jupyter lab
+
+
+.. note::
+  **Troubleshooting**
+
+  If you encounter the following error, install ``yarn=1.21``
+
+  .. highlight:: none
+  .. code-block::
+
+    note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
+    error: metadata-generation-failed
+
+    \× Encountered error while generating package metadata.
+
+
+You can watch the source directory and run JupyterLab at the same time in 
+different terminals to watch for changes in the extension's source and 
+automatically rebuild the extension.
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+  # Terminal 1
+  jlpm watch
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+  # Terminal 2
+  jupyter lab
+
+With the watch command running, every saved change will immediately be built
+locally and available in your running JupyterLab. Refresh JupyterLab to load
+the change in your browser (you may need to wait several seconds for the
+extension to be rebuilt).
+
+By default, the ``jlpm build`` command generates the source maps for this
+extension to make it easier to debug using the browser dev tools. To also
+generate source maps for the JupyterLab core extensions, you can run the
+following command:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+  jupyter lab build --minimize=False
+
+
+Uninstall
+---------
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+  pip uninstall jupyterlab_urdf
+
+In development mode, you will also need to remove the symlink created by
+``jupyter labextension develop`` command. To find its location, you can run
+``jupyter labextension list`` to figure out where the ``labextensions``
+folder is located. Then you can remove the symlink named ``jupyterlab_urdf``
+within that folder.