Create VS Code project for installed packages?

[isc-mmao]

I have recently learned about using server-side projects in VS Code to have a grouping of packages and files that I'm working on. This is great, but currently I would have to recreate the same project every time I start developing in a new namespace or instance. I realized that the list of items I would like to have in my project is basically 1) the PKG, CLS, INC, and unit test resources in my package module.xml and 2) all installed packages seen in list-installed after I install the package. While figuring some of this out, I noticed that IPM is apparently creating projects itself already, which I see in the %Studio.Project table. Since IPM should have access to all the information I mentioned about the package, would it be reasonable for package installation to include creating a project with these items?

I suppose that when you install another package, it could update an existing project created by whatever package install ran first? And it could be updated on uninstall. My use case would basically be a project per namespace I'm developing in.

[isc-kiyer]

Hi @isc-mmao. Quick follow up question: if you want everything in list-installed in the project, at that point isn't it just all the code in the namespace + any code that is mapped from other namespaces? I am curious what the use case is. You could at that point, you folder level exclusions in vs code to exclude the few folders to exclude what is mapped from other namespaces that you don't want to see

[isc-mmao]

No, I don't know if it's different for other people's setup, but for me list-installed shows all direct and indirect dependencies of my installed package. (Now that I think about it, some of the problems I'm trying to solve are probably because of the big mapping we do from HSLIB.) But in particular we have a % package we develop in, and it's a pain to have all system items be displayed with the VS Code system=1 filter. If there's a better way to limit what folders I want to see and to easily transfer that between instances, I'd love to know more about that.

[isc-kiyer]

Ah yes for % class development, this is an ongoing issue unfortunately. We have an issue open with DP to allow us to more effectively use the filter query param on isfs folders to filter by specific % packages (internal ref: DP-413626) but that has not received much traction lately.

My recommendation:

• Use multiple isfs folders
• One for just the non-% code
• One each for each project containing %Z code OR manually create a project with just the %Z code you need it in

The above isn't ideal but will achieve what you want.

Furthermore, I personally like to have all % classes visible as I rarely use the file tree manually (I only use it to navigate between items at the same folder level occasionally. I recommend enabling proposed APIs and use Ctrl/Cmd + P to rapidly search for files in the ns as another alternative (note class names separated by dots need to be searched using forward slashes with this explorer).

[isc-mmao]

I see, thanks! I did figure out that creating a server-side project basically accomplishes what I'm looking for. My thought process here was that it would be nice not to have to add all the project items individually and repeatedly, especially if there is already a list of almost exactly what I want. I was actually considering writing a non-IPM-related script for this myself before I realized it was all basically in the module.xml. I suppose we use the file tree more often than you do 😃

I can revisit the file search function. I think either I don't have it set up correctly or I was not using it correctly when I tried.

Just to clarify, this is actually because of a non-%Z percent module we have, %MPRL (although we now also have a %Z module). But from another discussion elsewhere I saw that the overall issue of dealing with % classes is relevant to other people as well.