Add possibility to search for specific version of a package

[chronoB]

When using pnpm in a project it outputs the packages that had ignored build scripts with specific versions:

╭ Warning ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│                                                                                                 │
│   Ignored build scripts: @parcel/watcher@2.5.6, esbuild@0.25.12, esbuild@0.25.9, less@4.5.1,    │
│   lmdb@3.4.2, msgpackr-extract@3.0.3.                                                           │
│   Run "pnpm approve-builds" to pick which dependencies should be allowed to run scripts.        │
│                                                                                                 │
╰─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

I tried to copy the package including the version into the search field but it didn't find the package.

What I would like to happen:
When adding a version to the search string and it is found for the corresponding package I want to open the package page with the specified version preselected

[Codefoxdev]

It is currently not possible to search for version directly using the npm or algolia search provider. However, we could add client-side filtering for the specific version to the search results?

For fetching the results, we would just query the package itself, and then at the client side filter the results to only include packages that satisfy the specified version.

It would at least already be an improvement if we strip the version info from the search results, as currently the search gives completely inaccurate results when searching with the version info (https://npmx.dev/search?q=nuxt@3.4.1)

[chronoB]

Yeah I think the minimal improvement of stripping the version would be a good starting point.

I also thought about just stripping the version for the search and then appending the version when opening the package page e.g.:

• Searching for nuxt@3.4.1
• Search will be done for nuxt
• When opening the package page the version will be appended: (https://npmx.dev/package/nuxt/v/3.4.1 instead of https://npmx.dev/package/nuxt)

There would be a problem if the version does not exist because it only shows a 404 and does not fallback to latest (which is probably a good thing but sad to see in this specific use case).

I don't know if it's easily possible to filter the results client side because I don't exactly know how much information is send to the client when searching for a package. But if the information is sufficient my workaround would also work, because we made sure that the version does exist so no 404 is possible.

[Codefoxdev]

Exactly, that is why I proposed client side filtering. Version info is definitely present, however, I don't know if that requires another fetch call for EACH package yet, but I am currently looking into it.

[Codefoxdev]

I did manage to implement at least the version stripping from the search query, which parses the search query using regex to extract the package name, version info and possible filters, and then reconstructs the query for searching without the version info.

However, the other parts are a bit more complicated. Currently, the package versions are not included in the search results. Algolia does support adding this, as it can include the versions property in the result, but the npm api does not. This would mean that we would need to send a request for each search result to check if it supports the given version, which would be far from desirable.

One possible solution would be to only support version searching when using Algolia as search provider.

As for the redirection, this would require a small refactor of how the package list is rendered, but it would be manageable, as the current search query is already passed down to each list entry. And then if a version does not exist, I suppose we could fallback to the latest version, but then there should be something that indicates that the version is different. (some sort of banner or smth)

[chronoB]

Amazing! I think version stripping is a good first step and is an improvement on it's own with no downsides visible for me. So maybe that is sth that would be a nice small pr on its own.

As for the other parts: I have no clue when algolia or npm are used so I won't be able to speak on that matter.

For the redirection: I don't know if the fallback is the desired behaviour. For the search I think it's fine but I don't know if a banner would be enough when you're coming from a direct link. More drastic approach would be to have a special 404 if a package exists but the version is wrong. It would tell you that the version is wrong and have you click on a button to be redirected to the package (with latest as fallback). This would make sure that the user intended to go there. But I don't know if a special 404 is wanted. Just some ideas.

Nevertheless I am really happy that you worked on stripping the version. Thanks a lot!

[Codefoxdev]

I will try to create a PR for at least the version stripping somewhere today.

There was also a discussion on discord related to the specific versions for packages, as there are currently some issues with displaying specific version of packages, so I guess we can wait until that is resolved to handle that.