Vscode: Provide additional workspace API (read / write)

[EricJizbaMSFT]

Today I can call vscode.openFolder to open a folder programmatically:

vscode.commands.executeCommand("vscode.openFolder", vscode.Uri.file(path), false);

However, I would like to be able to do the same thing with the new multi-root workspace and just _add_ a folder to the workspace. Something like this, but where I can pass in a Uri

For more context on our scenario, see @chrisdias's comments on this issue: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/13807

NOTE: We realize such a command might restart the extension host, but we don't care if that happens.

[bpasero]

fyi @jrieken @sandy081 I guess eventually it would make sense to expose some kind of workspace editing API to extensions.

[jrieken]

I like, tho the weird thing we need to communicate is that calling such API might restart the extension itself

[EricJizbaMSFT]

The 'openFolder' api has the same behavior and just includes this in the description:

Open a folder in the current window or new window depending on the newWindow argument. Note that opening in the same window will shutdown the current extension host process and start a new one on the given folder unless the newWindow parameter is set to true.

[bpasero]

This landed as workspace.addWorkspaceFolder and workspace.removeWorkspaceFolder.

[bpasero]

I reverted this change due to https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/37301

@EricJizbaMSFT as a workaround you could just create a workspace file with the correct set of folders for the user and open that (via vscode.openFolder passing in the path to the workspace file). You could ask the user for a location of that workspace file via the showSaveDialog API and then just create a *.code-workspace file with a content like this:

{
    "folders": [
        {
            "path": "<either relative path to the workspace file>"
        },
        {
            "path": "<or an absolute path>"
        }
    ],
    "settings": {}
}

[stef-levesque]

I hope that workspace.addWorkspaceFolder will come back. I'm working on an extension that would allow to open .zip files as workspace folders, along with using proposed api FileSystemProvider.

Creating a workspace file and opening it is not really an option here.

[alefragnani]

@bpasero, what about vscode.workspace.path/vscode.workspace.uri too? I mean, we have the uri for each folder in a workspace, but not for the workspace itself.

I would love to have this, so I could update my Project Manager extension and add workspaces as favorite projects, just like regular folders.

Thanks

[bpasero]

@alefragnani I extracted that particular request to https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/37421

@stef-levesque we are still in discussion how to best do the API, it might need another iteration.

[bpasero]

Some ideas discussed in https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/35407

[stef-levesque]

The splice'ish solution works for me, it easily cover most cases (add, delete, insert)

Except moving order? Not a show-stopper though.

[bpasero]

@stef-levesque reordering would be possible via add & remove as well

[stef-levesque]

Is closing a workspace going to close all related TextDocument ?

[bpasero]

@stef-levesque no, closing a workspace is currently not closing any documents.

[EricJizbaMSFT]

@bpasero any update on this? I see the api was removed because of https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/37301, but we don't need all of the functionality listed in that. We just want a single command to add a folder to a workspace. If 'remove' and 'insert' are blocking 'add', can we save those for later?

[bpasero]

@EricJizbaMSFT no update so far other than this is "on deck" so it will happen eventually. Please talk to @egamma or @kieferrm to put some pressure on this if this must happen at a specific time and thus have it planned for an iteration.

[bpasero]

@EricJizbaMSFT can you share more details on your scenario of adding a workspace folder from an extension?

[chrisdias]

azure function extension is a good example, it lets you create a new Azure Function "project", which is really just a folder.

So, imagine I have a folder open, my web app called "stickerApp". It could be the only folder open, or it could be a part of a workspace.

With the Azure Functions extension I choose to "Create a new Azure Function Project" from the command palette or the explorer commands.

This command first prompts me for the folder location in which to scaffold the project:

I choose Browse... and get the folder picker:

And I pick some new folder called stickerFunctions

The func cli then scaffolds out the new sticker function in the stickerFunctions folder.

At this point I probably want to start working on this function. Ideally it would be added to the explorer as a second top level root node: