QuickPickDocumentPreview - License Previewer

Summary

An extension that demonstrates how to set up a TextDocumentContentProvider to display content based on the current selection in a QuickPick. The content shown is backed by files bundled with the extension, but they are shown as read-only virtual documents. This is useful for bundling example code or documentation with an extension that users should be able to read but not modify.

Inspiration:

A gitter user asked if it was possible to react to quickpick changes. After they opened this issue on github, I realized that there was an api hook so I made this extension to demonstrate it.

How to Use:

Simply install the extension and trigger "Preview Licenses" from the command palette.

Apis Used:

• QuickPick: Gives the user a drop down list of choices. It also takes a function that will be triggered as the user cycles through the list.
• TextDocumentContentProvider: Gives extensions the ability to provide virtual documents. These are documents that don't actually exist on disk, like the HTML preview of a markdown file. For this extension, it is used to provide a readonly/preview look at license files bundled with the extension.

See More

This is a part of the my API Playground repository. Each subdirectory is a self-contained extension that demonstrates a particular API, repros a bug, answers a stackoverflow question, etc.

Acknowledgements

License files sourced from here.

Release Notes

0.0.1

Initial release that allows live preview of license.md files while cycling through a QuickPick.