Setting up VSCode

2020-11-06T21:35:06Z

Snwobytes: remove phpfmt (incompatible with standards), remove phpcs (php sniffer does its job + formatting), add debugging+intellisense, reorganize sections, update titles.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Studio_Code VSCode] is a an Integrated Development Environment from Microsoft available under the MIT License.
It works on Linux/Windows/OSX. It has a large number of plugins available, most entirely free/libre. It has good support
for Xdebug.

== Debugging ==
[https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=felixfbecker.php-debug PHP Debug] adds debugging capability for PHP files, which is essential. Follow the extension's installation instructions.

== Intellisense ==
[https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=bmewburn.vscode-intelephense-client PHP Intelephense] is the standard php plugin for [https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/intellisense intellisense] features.

== Linting ==
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lint_(software) Linting] plugins will show wavy red lines under code that does not conform: [[File:phpcs_sniff.png]]
The linters used for development are:
* [https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=stylelint.vscode-stylelint stylelint] for CSS
* [https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=dbaeumer.vscode-eslint ESLint] for JS
* [https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=wongjn.php-sniffer PHP Sniffer] for PHP. It requires [https://github.com/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer phpcs v2.* (package)] installed and configured to use moodle's standards.
To do so, run the following in your terminal from your moodle folder:
<code>
composer global require "squizlabs/php_codesniffer=2.*"
composer require --dev "blackboard-open-source/moodle-coding-standard" # installs moodle's coding standard
phpcs --config-set installed_paths vendor/blackboard-open-source/moodle-coding-standard # adds moodle's standard to phpcs
phpcs -i # checks which standards are available to phpcs
phpcs --config-set default_standard moodle # sets moodle as the default standard for phpcs
</code>
If it is installed moodle will show up in the output of `phpcs -i`, here is a typcial example, note moodle is listed as the last but one item.
<code php>
The installed coding standards are PEAR, PHPCS, Zend, PSR2, MySource, Squiz, PSR1, moodle and PHPCompatibility
</code>

== Code Formatting ==
If you have [https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=wongjn.php-sniffer PHP Sniffer] installed, configure it to be the default formatter:

<code>
// add this [php] key/value pair in vscode's user settings (settings.json):
{
// ...
"[php]": {
"editor.defaultFormatter": "wongjn.php-sniffer"
}
}
</code>

== Automated testing ==
[https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=danilopolani.yet-another-phpunit Yet Another PHPUnit] lets you run automated tests from within vscode.

== Docblocks ==
[https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=neilbrayfield.php-docblocker PHP DocBlocker] to create a docblock by typing /** at the top of a function and it grabs the parameters, including types if given and creates a PHPDoc block.

== Moodle specific Snippets and autocomplete ==
[https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MateuszLesiak.vscode-moodle-snippets Moodle - Snippets & Autocomplete] offers some useful Moodle specific code completion popups.

== Auto trim trailing white space ==
To ensure trailing white space is trimmed do the following

Open VS User Settings (Preferences > Settings > User Settings tab).
Click the {} icon in the top-right part of the window. This will open a document.

Add a new <code>"files.trimTrailingWhitespace": true</code> setting to the User Settings document if it's not already there.
This is so you aren't editing the Default Setting directly, but instead adding to it.

Save the User Settings file.

MoodleDocs - User contributions [en]

Setting up VSCode