Expose diffEditor to plugins

[SamVerschueren]

It would be nice to be able to open the diffEditor in a plugin. At the moment, I determine the diff myself in vscode-yo if a conflict arrises. But the diffEditor of Code is much more powerfull and shows the diffs very nicely. Is this a possibility?

// @bpasero

[bpasero]

Yes, just talked about this with @jrieken

[jrieken]

@bpasero Given virtual document etc and the API command, can't we just expose the underlying command?

[bpasero]

@jrieken the command I am using in the explorer currently only works with files that exists on disk (https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/blob/master/src/vs/workbench/parts/files/browser/fileActions.ts#L1270). we would have to introduce a new command that can deal with any resource and then use it from that action too.

[jrieken]

k. seems easy, let's do that in May

[bpasero]

Something like this seems to work already:

extHostApiComands

this._register('vscode.diff', (left: URI, right: URI, label: string) => {
    return this._commands.executeCommand('_workbench.diff', left, right, label);
}, {
    description: 'Opens the provided resources in the diff editor to compare their contents.',
    args: [
        { name: 'left', description: 'Uri of the resource for the left hand side of the diff editor', constraint: value => value instanceof URI },
        { name: 'right', description: 'Uri of the resource for the right hand side of the diff editor', constraint: value => value instanceof URI },
        { name: 'label', description: 'Label to use for the diff editor', constraint: value => typeof value === 'string' }
    ]
});

electron-browser/actions

KeybindingsRegistry.registerCommandDesc({
    id: '_workbench.diff',
    weight: KeybindingsRegistry.WEIGHT.workbenchContrib(0),
    handler(accessor: ServicesAccessor, args: [URI, URI, string]) {
        const instantiationService = accessor.get(IInstantiationService);
        const editorService = accessor.get(IWorkbenchEditorService);

        const left = instantiationService.createInstance(ResourceEditorInput, nls.localize('left', "Left"), null, args[0]);
        const right = instantiationService.createInstance(ResourceEditorInput, nls.localize('right', "Right"), null, args[1]);
        const diff = new DiffEditorInput(args[2], null, left, right);

        return editorService.openEditor(diff);
    },
    context: undefined,
    primary: undefined
});

[daviwil]

If we provide a normal file URI to this API (not a virtual document URI) will it work as expected?

[rebornix]

Good to see this newly added api then we may diff PR in VS Code.

[jrieken]

@daviwil Yes file or virtual resources are all supported