Installing elyra from wheel does not work

Run:

make clean install
pip install dist/elyra-*.whl
jupyter labextension list

The latest command above will mention that you need to run jupyter lab build, which will then fail and generate the log below

[LabBuildApp] Building in /Users/lresende/opt/anaconda/envs/dev/share/jupyter/lab
[LabBuildApp] Yarn configuration loaded.
[LabBuildApp] Node v12.13.1

[LabBuildApp] Building jupyterlab assets (build:prod:minimize)
[LabBuildApp] > node /Users/lresende/opt/anaconda/envs/dev/lib/python3.7/site-packages/jupyterlab/staging/yarn.js install --non-interactive
[LabBuildApp] yarn install v1.15.2
[1/5] Validating package.json...
[2/5] Resolving packages...
warning @elyra/pipeline-editor-extension > @types/jest > @types/jest-diff@24.3.0: This is a stub types definition. jest-diff provides its own type definitions, so you do not need this installed.
warning @elyra/pipeline-editor-extension > react-scripts > fsevents@2.0.6: Please update: there are crash fixes
warning @elyra/pipeline-editor-extension > react-intl > intl-relativeformat@2.2.0: This package has been deprecated, please see migration guide at 'https://github.com/formatjs/formatjs/tree/master/packages/intl-relativeformat#migration-guide'
warning @elyra/pipeline-editor-extension > @elyra/canvas > react-intl > intl-relativeformat@1.3.0: This package has been deprecated, please see migration guide at 'https://github.com/formatjs/formatjs/tree/master/packages/intl-relativeformat#migration-guide'
warning @elyra/pipeline-editor-extension > react-scripts > jest-environment-jsdom-fourteen > jsdom > request@2.88.2: request has been deprecated, see https://github.com/request/request/issues/3142
warning @elyra/pipeline-editor-extension > react-scripts > jest > jest-cli > jest-config > jest-environment-jsdom > jsdom > request@2.88.2: request has been deprecated, see https://github.com/request/request/issues/3142
error Couldn't find any versions for "@elyra/application" that matches "^0.5.0"
info Visit https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/cli/install for documentation about this command.
warning @elyra/pipeline-editor-extension > react-scripts > jest > jest-cli > jest-config > jest-environment-jsdom > jsdom > left-pad@1.3.0: use String.prototype.padStart()

[LabBuildApp] npm dependencies failed to install
[LabBuildApp] Traceback (most recent call last):

[LabBuildApp]   File "/Users/lresende/opt/anaconda/envs/dev/lib/python3.7/site-packages/jupyterlab/debuglog.py", line 47, in debug_logging
    yield

[LabBuildApp]   File "/Users/lresende/opt/anaconda/envs/dev/lib/python3.7/site-packages/jupyterlab/labapp.py", line 98, in start
    command=command, app_options=app_options)

[LabBuildApp]   File "/Users/lresende/opt/anaconda/envs/dev/lib/python3.7/site-packages/jupyterlab/commands.py", line 459, in build
    command=command, clean_staging=clean_staging)

[LabBuildApp]   File "/Users/lresende/opt/anaconda/envs/dev/lib/python3.7/site-packages/jupyterlab/commands.py", line 660, in build
    raise RuntimeError(msg)

[LabBuildApp] RuntimeError: npm dependencies failed to install

[LabBuildApp] Exiting application: JupyterLab

[lresende]

So, to be clear, you can pip instal elyra from the wheel and all extensions are good to use in lab?

[lresende]

Ok, after further investigation we identified that the issue is related to JupyterLab expecting that linked packages (as the application package is) to be available/published to NPM and I in this scenario I was testing validating the wheel before publishing the packages.

After publishing the packages, pip installation works fine.

Having said that, I have no idea why others were not being able to reproduce. I can only imagine that I was starting from a clean machine environment compared to maybe the same development environment others were using?