Where are the docs on how to add symbol support for a language to Visual Studio Code?

Question

I would like to add symbol support for PowerShell to VS Code but I'm not finding any docs on the code.visualstudio.com/docs site.

Also, is it possible to do this for a language like PowerShell that, for the moment, will only work on Windows? Is there a way to light up symbol support on Windows only?

BTW I've added a bunch of PowerShell snippets that I'm in the process of trying to get integrated into VS Code. Any help on how to get these snippets into the product would be appreciated as well? I did submit an issue on the snippets, suggesting that the team put these into VS Code.

Answer 1

There is currently no documentation for the plugin API. It's too early for this as the API is still changing with every minor release. The VSCode team is focused on providing a stable plugin API. There will be a documentation about it when it's done.

Nevertheless it is already possible to add a new language plugin or extending an exisiting one. Take a look on this short description on how to add declaration support for a new language: Create Custom Language in Visual Studio Code

You could add symbol support in a similar way. What you need is something like an abstract syntax tree builder for powershell scripts and an application or a javascript module that is able to process a JSON request in order to provide the correct symbols. An example request for outline support is this:

{
  "seq":442,
  "type":"request",
  "command":"navbar",
  "arguments":
  {
    "file":"c:/Users/C/Documents/projects/MyProject/MyFile.xxx"
  }
}

A response could look like that:

{
"seq":442,
"type":"response",
"command":"navbar",
"request_seq":442,
"success":true,
"body":[
    {
        "text":"TObjA",
        "kind":"class",
        "kindModifiers":"",
        "spans":[
            {
            "start":{
                "line":10,
                "offset":3
            },
            "end":{
                "line":16,
                "offset":4
            }
            }
        ],
        "childItems":[

        ]
    },
    {
        "text":"DoSomething",
        "kind":"method",
        "kindModifiers":"",
        "spans":[
            {
            "start":{
                "line":20,
                "offset":1
            },
            "end":{
                "line":27,
                "offset":4
            }
            }
        ],
        "childItems":[

        ]
    },
]
}

I'm not sure what do you mean with "symbol support". Is it something like "jump to symbol inside the current file" using CTRL+Shift+O? Then you are looking for outlineSupport. Is it something like "find a symbol in any file" using CTRL+P, #? Then you are looking for navigateTypesSupport. Copy the needed .js file from the vs.langauage.csharp.o folder to the vs.langauage.powershell folder and register the support in powershellMain.js as it is done in omnisharpMain.js.

If you want to register the new support only on Windows then you can do it like this:

var isWin = /^win/.test(process.platform);
if(isWin)
  monaco.Modes.NavigateTypesSupport.register('powershell', new navigateTypesSupport_1.default(ModelService, server));

I hope this helps for the moment. Don't forget to save your changed plugins in a different folder. VSCode often deletes changes in the plugin folders on update.