How your package is named

Every package installed from the marketplace gets a name of the form @publisher:name, built from its file on asterobot.net. You don't type that name anywhere, but you choose what it's built from.

The name at first install

The first time someone installs a file, Asterobot builds the package's name from @, the file author's asterobot.net name, :, then the file's title. Both parts go through the same conversion:

• Letters are put in lowercase.
• Every run of characters other than the letters a to z and the digits 0 to 9 becomes a single hyphen, and hyphens at the start or at the end are dropped. Spaces, punctuation and accented letters all count as other characters.

The version is the file's version on asterobot.net. In Asteroboard, the preview shows the full name and version after Will install as, before anything is installed.

A title with no letter from a to z and no digit leaves nothing to build a name from, and neither does an author name written only with other characters. Such a file can't be previewed or installed. And since people type your package's name in their import statements when they depend on it, a title that converts to a readable name, such as Harvest Helper, serves them better than one full of accents or symbols.

Official packages

A file the Asterobot team marks as official on asterobot.net installs under @asterobot: followed by its converted title, whoever uploaded it. It shows the Official badge, and the preview's Author line says asterobot.

A package imported from a .zip, or installed with library install, takes the name typed for it, which can start with @asterobot: too. It then shows Official without coming from the marketplace. Only a package installed from the marketplace has a Source row on its page: see Trusting a package.

The name sticks

Asterobot remembers which file each marketplace package came from. When someone installs or updates that file again, the package keeps the name it already has on their Asterobot, even if you've changed the title since. Updates keep reaching them.

The name is only built again for someone who didn't have the package yet. So after you rename the file, new users get your package under the new name, while earlier users keep the old one. Bots, saved settings and dependencies all refer to a package by its name, so for Asterobot these are two different packages, and a package that depends on yours by one of the names gets its own copy under that name. The same happens with two files that have the same author and title: they install under the same name. Choose the title before you publish, keep it, and publish every new version on the same file.

When the author or the official mark changes

Each time Asterobot reads the file again, it checks the publisher part of the name: the file's current author, or asterobot when the file is marked official. When it no longer matches the name a package has:

• Someone who installs or updates the file again gets it as a new package, under a name built from the new author or mark. Their bots and saved settings stay with the package under the old name.
• A package that depends on yours under the old name can't be installed any more, because Asterobot refuses to fetch a dependency whose file now has another publisher.

A change of your asterobot.net name has the same effect, since it's the publisher part of every name built from your files. A change of title alone is never refused.

Names typed by hand

Only an installation from the marketplace builds a name from a file. Import a .zip and library install use the name typed for them, which can have the same @publisher:name shape. Such a package isn't tied to any file: it has no Source row, Check for updates skips it, and Asterobot records no checksum of its files. Names and versions gives the rules every name follows.

The marketplace describes the marketplace from the website's side.