Support for formatting/beautifying Ruby files

[HusseinElMotayam]

Your environment

• vscode-ruby version: 0.5.6
• Ruby version: 2.3.0
• VS Code version: 1.5.1
• Operating System: Ubuntu 16.04

Expected behavior

It'd be great to have some formatting/beautifying functionality in the vscode-ruby plugin.

Actual behavior

As for now, there is no way to format/beautify .rb and .erb files inside vscode in a proper way.

Workaround

I worked around this by:

• Installing htmlbeautifier and rbeautify gems.
• Editing my Tasks file as follows:

{
    "version": "0.1.0",
    "command": "sh",
    "args": ["-c"],
    "isShellCommand": false,    
    "showOutput": "never",
    "suppressTaskName": true,
    "tasks": [        
        {
            "taskName": "Ruby format",
            "args": ["rbeautify ${file}"]
        },
        {
            "taskName": "ERB format",
            "args": ["htmlbeautifier ${file}"]
        }
    ]   
}

• Now, selecting the "Ruby format" task for .rb files or the "ERB format" task for .erb files formats the files in place.
• Hotkeys can also be assigned to quickly invoke both tasks.

[rebornix]

@HusseinElMotayam great idea! I'll put it on the list.

[HookyQR]

@HusseinElMotayam, this seems like an easy win. I'll look at spinning up an option to use either rbeautify or the auto-correct feature of rubocop (which is a bit harsh - but would align well for those using rubocop for linting).

For erb you can use my beautifier extension. You'll have to make some changes to the settings to get it to work 'by default' for erb files. It won't beautify the ruby inside though.

I'd be interested in implementing auto-correct functionality on the plugin.

Rubocop supports the -a flag that automatically corrects some issues. Since the existing linter functionality works by passing the data through standard input, it's not as easy as making a linter flag, but it shouldn't be too hard. Any ideas on how this should be implemented?

I'm thinking that I can pretty much copy the way linters are implemented for now, and mostly s/linters/formatters/, with the caveat that a) formatters must run before linters and b) they must edit the actual file instead of taking standard input. Still, probably not very hard? Would this be an acceptable way to do a first iteration of formatters? I haven't actually coded any Visual Studio Code plugins so all help/tips are appreciated.

[rebornix]

@slapresta IMO there are basically two ways of doing formatting or correction. The first one is Rubocop (or whatever library) telling us what part of content should be updated. The second one is Rubocop updates the local file and VS Code picks up the local update.

I don't know whether Rubocop support the first solution but the second one concerns me as what if Rubocop changes local content and users change the buffer in VS Code as well? I don't have a clear idea about this but definitely you can give it a try, in whatever way.

I like the idea of copying the way how linters do, you don't need to make this feature perfect at the very beginning :)

[khuongduybui]

any updates?

[HookyQR]

@khuongduybui: Formatting is provided, as long as you have RuboCop installed. It doesn't touch the file on disk, so there is no need to worry about tainted editors or committing unsaved changes to disk.

I've just made an update to the mechanics as well, so it will support .rubocop.yml settings correctly. Note that, by default, incorrect end indentation is not auto corrected. Checkout the RuboCop documentation for what it can, can't and will automatically do.

[HookyQR]

@HusseinElMotayam, have you tried out my suggestion using my beautify extension for ERB? Also, are you happy with were the formatting for Ruby is at in this extension?

[khuongduybui]

@HookyQR how do I use that "formatting" feature? Using the normal Alt Shift F keyboard shortcut does not work. Ctrl Shift P does not reveal any "format" command either (with or without selection).

[HookyQR]

If you right click on the document and the menu doesn't show "Format Document" then the extension doesn't know where to find rubocop. There should be an error displayed in the dev tools (Help > Toggle Developer Tools).

If you can't run rubocop with just rubocop it may be a path issue. Do you get any highlights from the rubocop linter? (Note that it's disabled by default, you'll have to turn it on in your settings.)

[HookyQR]

If you're getting linter responses, but can't use the formatting function, it's my fault. I've made a change today that should fix it, we'll have to wait for @rebornix to publish.

[khuongduybui]

@HookyQR yes, in fact I do get linter responses, along with my specific settings (such as ignoring some rules my team don't care about).

[HookyQR]

Yep, that's my bad then. The previous version didn't check for the rubocop executable properly, and didn't use the path settings of the linter. This version should. PR #89 has been merged and 0.10.3 released. Hopefully it will fix the problem. Let me know.

[khuongduybui]

I updated to latest release and was able to get formatting to work.

[HusseinElMotayam]

@HookyQR I noticed that Rubocop formatting didn't work before when inside vscode, that is why I logged this FR.
In case it is back working again, then I'd be happy with the current formatting behavior.