Dependencies from NPM packages do not have version passed when registered

[dimadin]

For WordPress 5.0, new scripts and styles were added in #45065 that are developed externally and distributed through NPM packages. They are either developed through Gutenberg project, or fully independent from WordPress (registered in wp_default_packages_vendor() function).

In all cases, when those dependencies are registered to be used in WordPress, versions of their respective packages are not passed.

There are two ways to solve this. Either by switching to associative arrays so that instead of

'react-dom' => array( 'react' ),

we have

'react-dom' => array(
        'dependencies' => array( 'react' ),
        'version'      => '16.5.2',
),

or by ditching arrays and using approach already used in wp_default_scripts() and wp_default_styles().

[dd32]

I've started to go down the rabbit-hole of adding individual versions to these, and although it's not that hard to pragmatically update these, I'm not entirely sure it's actually going to be needed.

Currently $wp_version will be used as the version string, which for WordPress-sourced scripts is enough.
External libraries (ie. not the @wordpress/* npm packages) could do with the version number to be standardised with the rest of the external libraries and It's also a great way to find out which version is actually committed to core at any given time.

I've uploaded 45187.diff​ which converts it to individual $script->add() calls with their versions, and a very rough proof-of-concept PHP which updates the script-loader.php versions with that from package.json.

(Try to ignore the fact the dependancies are much more unreadable now, some whitespace and multi-line registration could fix that, i just took the shortcut for a POC)

[gziolo]

I'm working on a bit different part of the process related to that, to find a way for updating dependencies of packages. I opened PR in Gutenberg which would allow to make it as easy as copy and paste to keep those lists in sync: ​https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/11637.

The very last step (definitely a separate PR) would be to generate this PHP array with dependencies using some automated tooling so we didn't have to maintain it manually anymore. We are not quite there as we still have some WordPress core dependencies listed which aren't published to this repository and there not published to npm.

[youknowriad]

I updated the patch with the latest packages.

[youknowriad]

In 43925:

Core Editor: Specify script versions for the WordPress packages and their vendor dependencies.

Using the package.json versions of the npm dependencies as versions when registering
the WordPress scripts.

Props dimadin, dd32.
Fixes #45187.

[youknowriad]

Commited as I got an approval from @matveb

[desrosj]

In 44271:

Core Editor: Specify script versions for the WordPress packages and their vendor dependencies.

Using the package.json versions of the NPM dependencies as versions when registering the WordPress scripts.

Props dimadin, dd32, youknowriad.

Merges [43925] to trunk.

Fixes #45187.