API to hide parts of the code

[AchimKO]

Hi,

we use the monaco editor for a project and we need to hide some parts of the code from the user, because there is a Header and a Footer generated, and only a part between which should be editable by the user. We need the whole file in the background, to have a running code completion.

export class GeneratedClass {
     public GeneratedProperty1: string;
     public GeneratedProperty2: string;

    construcor() {}

    // User Code starts here
    public Property1ByUser: string;
    public Property2ByUser: srting;

    public MethodByUser() {}
    // User Code ends here
}

The user should only be able to edit the code between the two comments.
Is it possible to hide the other parts from the user, or disable them in any way?

Thanks,

Achim

[alexdima]

Sorry for the late reply, there is a non-API way (might get removed in the future):
editor.getMode().setEditableRange(myRange).

interface IModel {
...
    /**
     * Set an editable range on the model.
     * @internal
     */
    setEditableRange(range:IRange): void;
...
}

[AchimKO]

Thank you,
this helps a lot.

In addition i solved to hide parts of the code by calling:

editor.setHiddenArea(myRange)

But for that to work I had to overwrite the FoldingController, it also handles the hidden Areas and was overriding mine.

Would be great to have a build in way to hide Areas in combination with the Folding controller.

[alexdima]

👍 we plan at one point to make setHiddenArea more cooperative. Today the FoldingController thinks it owns those.

[devdoomari]

any update on this issue?
I'm making a 'code-playground' and I'd really like to have monaco hide some import statements.
(I couldn't get typescript to 'globalize' modules)

[rizrmd]

Any update on this issue ?

[yaananth]

now it's called setHiddenAreas however it doesn't honor the startColumn or endColumn :(
So it hides whole lines! Can we add support to hide specific columns please!

[yaananth]

Never mind, I can do this :)

const matches = contentModel.findMatches("someregex", false, true, false, null, true);
 contentModel.applyEdits(matches.map(x => {
                    return {
                        text: "",
                        range: x.range
                    }
                }));

However, the use case is that I would need to is to colorize using monaco.editor.ITokenThemeRule[] and then strip the things out. As soon as I strip them out, the line renders again and hence the colors are gone ... :(

[benhutchison]

I noticed that, although being a user feature request, setEditableRange seems to be removed from vscode as "unused code" as part of this issue

Please consider re-including a setEditableRange into the supported API.

It is useful in education and/or alongside code-generation; use cases where the user isn't intended to edit all of the source file.

[mw-ding]

+1 on including setEditableRange and setHiddenAreas.

[jansivans]

If you are using typescript, you can use

monaco.languages.typescript.typescriptDefaults.addExtraLib('const arr = [];')

to achieve similar effect. Now arr variable will appear in intellisense.

[VitalickS]

If you are using typescript, you can use

monaco.languages.typescript.typescriptDefaults.addExtraLib('const arr = [];')

to achieve similar effect. Now arr variable will appear in intellisense.

And it is better use like this

import Space, { env as EnvClass } from 'vpt';

declare global {
    const space: Space;
    const env: typeof EnvClass;
}

[raghav-g]

Can we hide parts of the code instead of folding it or making it read only?

[boydc2014]

Any update on this one ?

[datou0412]

Any update?

[CosmoMyzrailGorynych]

So I made a solution, at least for some cases. I've made the first and last line uneditable.

If what you want to achieve is doable with addExtraLib, do use it. This is a nice official way to add typings and stuff. My solution handles the case where it was not enough, mainly to change the context of functions (change to what this points).

For my game editor ct.js, I ended up with tons of hacks that establish hidden and uneditable lines around the code: https://github.com/ct-js/ct-js/blob/develop/src/js/codeEditorHelpers.js#L74
Beware: it uses several unofficial APIs and this is not a solution to the original issue, but a collection of hacks due to the absence of better alternatives.

The hacks block direct editing from a keyboard, manage cursors and selectors, handle "Replace all" command, and hide the first and the last lines. Some constants are hard-coded, so you will need to improve the code for multiple hidden lines. The known issue is that you can view and delete the hidden code in the peek view, as it creates additional editors.

[mehulmpt]

Is there any update on this API? Or any available workarounds to disable a bunch of lines for editing in monaco?

[hems]

I have the same requirement, where ideally I would have a few lines hidden before and after the user code, this way the user wouldn't have to worry about boilerplate code and at the same time VSCode would still validate the code as if the boilerplate was wrapping the user code.

For instance on my case i would like the user to edit:

myEvent: (data) => { 
  //  do something 
},
anotherEvent: (data) => { 
  //  do something 
},

And before validating I would like to wrap it all in events = { ${code} } basically making a simplification for my user to edit a javascript object.

[mauricedoepke]

Would be greatt for my case, too. I would like the user to write code that contains the await keyword without exposing him to the async function around. So basically I would like to wrap the user code inside this:

(async () => {
 //user code goes here
})()

Without exposing this wrapper function to my user.

[axefrog]

I need this functionality also. I'm currently working out a way to approximate the behaviour perhaps by intercepting and cancelling edits in "read only" ranges.

Ideas:

• onDidChangeCursorPosition and onDidChangeCursorSelection, then force the cursor away from read-only ranges
• deltaDecorations to make read-only appear in grey
• Toggle read-only mode based on whether editing is currently permitted: editor.updateOptions({ readOnly: true|false })

Edit: Added third idea above

[Pranomvignesh]

Ideas:

• onDidChangeCursorPosition and onDidChangeCursorSelection, then force the cursor away from read-only ranges
• deltaDecorations to make read-only appear in grey

I would like to add one more idea, if we undo the values entered in the areas which we marked as read-only, then user wont feel like that area is editable, and we can show it as a boilerplate code for the users
Actually i tried implementing this idea and for me it is working pretty well.
If you are interested to see the demo please check this link
If anyone wants to know more about the implementation read this article
For the code , see the github repo

[quantumsheep]

Any update on this?

[RickeyWard]

The internal ICodeEditor.setHiddenAreas(IRange[]) works well for this. It's an internal API but its used heavily in the newer notebooks stuff, so I'm willing to take the risk. I'm using the editor to view logs, and I wanted to be able to filter them in a way that hides anything that doesn't match and it works well.

editor.setHiddenAreas([]) will show them again, and editor.setHiddenAreas([new Range(1,0,10,0), new Range(20,0,30,0)]); will hide the first 10 and last 10 of a 30 line file. Line numbers stay correct for the areas shown.

I'd like to propose to maintainers that this api become public, this is a useful feature.

[hongping]

The internal ICodeEditor.setHiddenAreas(IRange[]) works well for this. It's an internal API but its used heavily in the newer notebooks stuff, so I'm willing to take the risk. I'm using the editor to view logs, and I wanted to be able to filter them in a way that hides anything that doesn't match and it works well.

editor.setHiddenAreas([]) will show them again, and editor.setHiddenAreas([new Range(1,0,10,0), new Range(20,0,30,0)]); will hide the first 10 and last 10 of a 30 line file. Line numbers stay correct for the areas shown.

I'd like to propose to maintainers that this api become public, this is a useful feature.

How do you expose the API?

[akutruff]

Looking for this as well.

[kristofer84]

How do you expose the API?

One way is to extend the interface and then cast your instance to that interface and call the method:

interface IMyStandaloneCodeEditor extends monaco.editor.IStandaloneCodeEditor {
  setHiddenAreas(range: monaco.IRange[]): void;
}

...

const casted = editor as IMyStandaloneCodeEditor;
const range = new monaco.Range(1, 0, 1, 0);
casted.setHiddenAreas([range]);

[Gbahdeyboh]

Hi @alexdima.

It looks like setEditableRange and setHiddenAreas are no longer a part of the API. I would really appreciate it if you could suggest a workaround for this if you're aware of any.

[RickeyWard]

It looks like setEditableRange and setHiddenAreas are no longer a part of the API. I would really appreciate it if you could suggest a workaround for this if you're aware of any.

setHiddenAreas still seems to be there, but setEditableRange does appear to be gone.
Current vscode/main/src/vs/editor/editorBrowser.ts

it will appear as though its not there, you just have to @ts-ignore or cast to any when using it in ts (editor as any).setHiddenAreas(...) you won't get any code completion for it, but it will work.

The current published version 0.34.1 this still works. here it is in the playground

[Gbahdeyboh]

Thanks, @RickeyWard. I've been doing it wrong. I was trying to .setHiddenAreas on a model instance.

The editor I'm trying to modify its values is not created by me, I am making use of window.editor to get the model instance. I've snooped around and can't seem to find an elegant way of getting the current editor's instance since I'm not creating the editor myself and window.editor.setHiddenAreas() wouldn't work. Is there a way to navigate around that?

[RickeyWard]

The editor I'm trying to modify its values is not created by me, I am making use of window.editor to get the model instance. I've snooped around and can't seem to find an elegant way of getting the current editor's instance since I'm not creating the editor myself and window.editor.setHiddenAreas() wouldn't work. Is there a way to navigate around that?

@Gbahdeyboh monaco.editor.getEditors() returns an array of editor instances, if you have access to the global monaco object you can get access to the editor instance I'm guessing window.editor is that but I'm not sure. If you're not driving monaco, then the more advanced things you try to do the harder it's going to be. GL!