Update documentation for new qwc2 npm package

Author: manisandro

src/configuration/ViewerConfiguration.md

@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ A particularly interesting aspect is the configuration of the entries in the app
 |`⁣  "shortcut": "<shortcut>"`                | Optional, keyboard shortcut which triggers the entry, i.e. `"alt+shift+a"`.       |
 |`}`                                         |                                                                                   |
 
-*Note:* The built-in icons are those located in [`qwc2-app/qwc2/icons`](https://github.com/qgis/qwc2/tree/master/icons) and in `qwc-app/icons`. The built-in icon names are the respective file names, without `.svg` extension.
+*Note:* The built-in icons are those located in [`qwc2/icons`](https://github.com/qgis/qwc2/tree/master/icons) and in `qwc-app/icons`. The built-in icon names are the respective file names, without `.svg` extension.
 
 Also the map buttons ([LocationButton](../references/qwc2_plugins.md#locatebutton), [HomeButton](../references/qwc2_plugins.md#homebutton), [TaskButton](../references/qwc2_plugins.md#taskbutton), [ZoomButton](../references/qwc2_plugins.md#zoombutton)) support `themeFlagBlacklist` and `themeFlagWhitelist` for controlling the visibility based on the [theme flags](ThemesConfiguration.md#manual-theme-configuration).
 
@@ -288,11 +288,11 @@ The legend print template `assets/templates/legendprint.html` is used when print
 
 ## Building a custom viewer <a name="custom-viewer"></a>
 
-The QWC stock application, hosted at [https://github.com/qgis/qwc2/](https://github.com/qgis/qwc2/), can serve as a base for building a custom application. An example of a custom application is hosted at [https://github.com/qgis/qwc2-demo-app](https://github.com/qgis/qwc2-demo-app).
+The QWC stock application, hosted at [https://github.com/qgis/qwc2/](https://github.com/qgis/qwc2/), can serve as a base for building a custom application, and is published as an [NPM package](https://www.npmjs.com/package/qwc2). An example of a custom application is hosted at [https://github.com/qgis/qwc2-demo-app](https://github.com/qgis/qwc2-demo-app).
 
 To build a custom viewer, the first step is cloning the demo application:
 ```bash
-git clone --recursive https://github.com/qgis/qwc2-demo-app.git qwc-app
+git clone https://github.com/qgis/qwc2-demo-app.git qwc-app
 ```
 The typical layout of a QWC app source tree is as follows:
 
@@ -310,7 +310,6 @@ The typical layout of a QWC app source tree is as follows:
 |`│  ├─ Help.jsx`              | Built-in component of custom Help dialog, see [Help dialog](#help-dialog). |
 |`│  └─ SearchProviders.js`    | Built-in custom search providers, see [Search providers](#search-providers). |
 |`├─ icons/`                   | Application icons.                                                    |
-|`├─ qwc2/`                    | Git submodule containing the core QWC components.                    |
 |`├─ index.html`               | Entry point.                                                          |
 |`├─ package.json`             | NodeJS configuration file.                                            |
 |`└─ webpack.config.js`        | Webpack configuration.                                                |
@@ -350,16 +349,8 @@ qwc-map-viewer:
 ```
 ### Keeping the QWC application up to date
 
-As mentioned above, QWC is split into a common components repository and an application specific repository. The goal of this approach is to cleanly separate user-specific configuration and components which common components which serve as a basis for all QWC applications, and to make it as easy as possible to rebase the application onto the latest common QWC components.
+To update the base QWC components, just update the version of the `qwc2` dependency in `package.json`.
 
-The recommended workflow is to keep the `qwc2` folder a submodule referencing the [upstream qwc2 repository](https://github.com/qgis/qwc2). To update it, just checkout/update the desired branch:
-```bash
-cd qwc2
-git checkout master
-# or
-git checkout YYYY-lts
-git pull
-```
 The [QWC Upgrade Notes](../release_notes/QWC2UpgradeNotes.md) documents major changes, and in particular all incompatible changes between releases which require changes to the application specific code and/or configuration.
 
 
@@ -375,12 +366,9 @@ The [`Settings`](../references/qwc2_plugins.md#settings) furthermore allows grap
 
 ### Adding and modify translations
 
-When working inside a `qwc-app` source folder, the translations can be found on two levels:
-
-- At QWC components level, in `qwc-app/qwc2/static/translations`.
-- At application level, in `qwc-app/static/translations`.
+When working inside a `qwc-app` source folder, the translations are located at `qwc-app/static/translations`.
 
-A script will take care of merging the component translations into the application translations. This way, when updating the QWC submodule, new translations are automatically obtained. This script is automatically invoked on `yarn start`, but can also be manually invoked using
+A script will take care of merging the translations from the `qwc2` package into the application translations. This way, when updating the `qwc2` dependency, new translations are automatically obtained. This script is automatically invoked on `yarn start`, but can also be manually invoked using
 
     yarn run tsupdate
 

src/release_notes/QWC2UpgradeNotes.md

@@ -1,8 +1,25 @@
 # Upgrade notes
 
-This document describes incompatibilites and other aspects which QWC applications need to address when updating against the latest qwc2 submodule.
+This document describes configuration and code incompatibilites, as well as other aspects, which need to addressed when updating to a new version of the QWC viewer.
 
-When updating the `qwc2` submodule, run `yarn install` to ensure the dependencies are up to date!
+Update to qwc2 2025.4.3
+-----------------------
+
+**Switch to npm package**
+
+The [QWC stock viewer ](https://github.com/qgis/qwc2) components are now published as an [NPM package](https://www.npmjs.com/package/qwc2).
+If you are building a custom viewer on top of the QWC stock components, it is recommended you pull it in as a dependency in `package.json` rather than as a git submodule.
+
+To this end:
+
+- Delete the submodule and adjust the `package.json` by removing the `qwc2` workspace and adding the `qwc2` dependency, see [`package.json`](https://github.com/qgis/qwc2-demo-app/blob/44b4d16b7c8a8684aa98317351d96de7453a922e/package.json).
+- Modify the `webpack.config.js` as follows
+```
+- new webpack.NormalModuleReplacementPlugin(/openlayers$/, path.join(__dirname, "qwc2", "libs", "openlayers")),
++ new webpack.NormalModuleReplacementPlugin(/openlayers$/, path.join(__dirname, "node_modules", "qwc2", "libs", "openlayers")),
+```
+
+No further code changes are necessary.
 
 Update to qwc2 submodule revision [574fe2a](https://github.com/qgis/qwc2/tree/574fe2a) (06.02.2025)
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