Support vscode:// links (or provide an alternate)

[goyalyashpal]

Checklist

• This bug doesn't happen if I use Microsoft's Visual Studio Code. It only happens in VSCodium.
  i cant confirm that as i dont use VSCode, BUT it shouldnt happen with VSC as far as i can guess
• I checked the Docs page and my issue is not mentioned there.

Summary

Lack of functionality due to vscode:// links being not supported

To Reproduce

Steps:

1. Go to any repo on gitlab, example:
   https://gitlab.com/Moini/git_und_gitlab
2. Click Clone
3. Under "Open in your IDE" section, click any of those links
4. If VSCodium is not installed, nothing happens

Expected:

• VSCodium supports and open those links correctly

Desktop

• OS: Win 10 20H2
• Architecture: x64
• Codium: 1.61.2

---

moved over the details to a separate comment

[daiyam]

I don't think that the vscode protocol will ever be supported.
vscodium://vscode.git/clone?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgit.luolix.top%2FVSCodium%2Fvscodium.git is working fine...

You might need an extension or Tampermonkey' script to replace vscode:// with vscodium://

[goyalyashpal]

i had already tried replacing only vscode:// with vscodium:// but that didnt work either. so....

[daiyam]

It's because you replaced all vscode while the second vscode (vscode.git) is the id (which doesn't change between vscode and vscodium) of the extension which is doing the work.

I've just tried it on Windows 10 and it's working.

Edit: Another oopsy...

[daiyam]

Just copy/paste the url vscodium://vscode.git/clone?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgit.luolix.top%2FVSCodium%2Fvscodium.git into the url bar of your browser.

While changing the url with the dev tools should work, the change might not be picked up if the page is built as an app with react or similar.

[goyalyashpal]

Just copy/paste the url vscodium://vscode.git/clone?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgit.luolix.top%2FVSCodium%2Fvscodium.git into the url bar of your browser.

ahhw right, it worked 👍 . niiiiiice.

but this also revealed 2 more things to me:

• my faith on dev tools as being ultimate power was bit foolish like :childish-cry-emoji: x3
• browser's address bar supports other protocol's link too
  had never tried anyth other than http(s) , file , ftp before

[daiyam]

If the url isn't supported directly by the browser, it will confirm it with the user and send the request to the system.

[daiyam]

The main reason to not support vscode is to avoid any conflict when both VSCode and VSCodium are installed (my case due to the remote extensions).

[goyalyashpal]

to avoid any conflict when both VSCode and VSCodium are installed

• umh, i thought about the conflict, but on second thought, that's not an issue since it should pass through "open pick an app" dialog?
• similar to how the conflict doesnt occur regarding tg://resolve?domain=telegram when both telegram desktop, and unigram are installed.
  (sorry, i dont have any suitable example for desktop other than these telegram apps 😅. however there are countless examples for multiple apps supporting same protocols/intents in android.)
• or am i wrong regarding this "open pick an app" behaviour? how do non-windows systems handle this?

my case due to the remote extensions

i didnt understand that. i am guessing this is related with wsl remote extension?? i dont have experience with that either 😅

[goyalyashpal]

or am i wrong regarding this "open pick an app" behaviour

oh yeah, i forget that it becomes complicated once "Always use this app" is clicked. if i recall correct, then it's very hard to erase association in windows 10 to make it to ask/launch "open pick an app" again

i guess this concludes it then from my side. feel free to reopen if someone else has any idea for how can the pros of this suggestion outweigh cons.

But i still wonder how linux or mac handles these protocols/intent calls

[goyalyashpal]

Tampermonkey' script to replace vscode:// with vscodium://

can u share the script?

[goyalyashpal]

I am separating out this section from description to separate comment here, just to keep things small sized. this is same old content, nothing new.

---

Details

• Many sites provide links to make vscode do things like
  • opening extension page ¹
  • open in IDE for cloning ²
• Those links are not opened with vscodium
• This results in a broken experience

Technical Details

Digging In

0. The link for opening extension page is hidden, so, couldnt find it
1. The link used for "open in IDE" for cloning is in this format:
   vscode://vscode.git/clone?url=<encoded-link>
2. <encoded-link> ended in .git
3. <encoded-link> were in URL encoding format, so,
   • %3A for :
   • %2F for /
4. I tried replacing vscode://vscode.git/... with following in the Browser's Developer/Web-Inspector Tools, but it didnt work
   • vscodium://vscodium.git/...
   • vscodium://vscode.git/...
5. So, in my opinion, supporting vscode:// links right away is a better option rather than doing vscodium://.
   This would be similar as Unigram app supports Telegram app's links in desktop, and both apps are shown in "Open with" dialog.³

Links Example

So, for vscodium's repo,

• the raw link (HTTPS) is
  https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium.git
• encoded link will become:
  https%3A%2F%2Fgit.luolix.top%2FVSCodium%2Fvscodium.git
• using it with vscode:// protocol and in the given format (point 1), it will become:
  vscode://vscode.git/clone?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgit.luolix.top%2FVSCodium%2Fvscodium.git

Footnotes

1. in MS-VS-Market. See #911 and follow the links there ↩

2. in Gtilab. Screenshot:
   ↩

3. See this video🡭 -- from eclipse/openvsx#363 ↩

[tennox]

One way to do it on linux is to add x-scheme-handler/vscode to the codium-url-handler.desktop file:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=VSCodium - URL Handler
Exec=/usr/bin/codium --open-url %U
...
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/vscodium;x-scheme-handler/vscode;