_Advanced Setup Guide [WIP]

TODO

• Grammar Check
• Gist settings && global settings follow style of second gist settings
• Readability Check

Customisable Sync

Extension will create the syncLocalSettings.json insider User folder upon code start and connect with it.

The JSON File will contain :

{
    "ignoreUploadFiles": [
        "projects.json",
        "projects_cache_git.json"
    ],
    "ignoreUploadFolders": [
        "workspaceStorage"
    ],
    "replaceCodeSettings": 
    {
        "http.proxy" :"",
        "files.autoSave" :"off"
            
    }
}

ignoreUploadFiles

All the files inside this key will stop extension to upload the files. You need to only write the file name of the file. Any file found with this name inside User folder or subfolders won’t be uploaded.

Like in the above example, the projects.json and projects_cache_git.json will not be uploaded to Github Gist.

ignoreUploadFolders

All the folder names defined in it will not be uploaded in Gist, Folder can be a child of User folder or child of any subfolder.

Like in the above example, workspaceStorage folder files will not be uploaded to Github Gist.

replaceCodeSettings

Deprecated in v3.2.8, use Sync Pragmas instead.

{
    "http.proxy" :"",
    "files.autoSave" :"off"
}

It will be used to replace the keys of settings.json with the text in the value after downloading the Gist.

For example, For users who are using a proxy on one computer and don't want to set proxy in the second one after downloading or need to change the value for the proxy. They need to add value as above

After downloading the settings, the extension will check if the value is defined, it will replace the http.proxy value to defined value in settings.json after downloading.

If the value is not defined as some user don't want to use proxy in Home computer but they have proxy in office computer and they upload from office and it will have proxy in GIST to remove it from Home computer to make it work, the value need to set as empty so extension will delete the http.proxy from the Home computer.

Settings Sync Configurations

In this page, I will be providing details of all the Settings Sync configurations.

There is two type of configurations for Settings Sync in terms of their scope.

• Gist Setting
• Global Settings

Setting Sync Global Settings is the setting which applies to all the Visual Studio Code environment while the scope of Gist Settings are only limited to Visual Studio current environment.

For Example, Github Token is a part of Global Settings for two reasons, first its sensitive information for the user that we cannot allow to upload the GitHub token along with code settings in Gist. Second its applicable with all Gist, its required to download any Gist.

Gist Settings

Gist Settings are stored in Visual Studio code settings.json with the sync prefix and may vary with different Gists ( Visual Studio Environments) and will be replaced by the new downloaded Settings.

    {
    "sync.gist": "",
    "sync.lastUpload": "2018-03-04T14:21:39.841Z",
    "sync.autoDownload": false,
    "sync.autoUpload": false,
    "sync.lastDownload": "2018-03-04T14:21:39.841Z",
    "sync.forceDownload": true,
    "sync.host": "",
    "sync.pathPrefix": "",
    "sync.quietSync": false,
    "sync.askGistName": false,
    "sync.removeExtensions": true,
    "sync.syncExtensions": true
}

• gist
  • Github GIST id. Not set by the user. Generated on code upload.
• autoDownload
  • Default: False
  • Function: If set to True will download settings automatically when VSCode is started.
• autoUpload : false by default. It will start download process automatically when Visual Studio Loads, when set to true, false, will not allow the extension to auto download the settings upon startup.
• quietSync : false by default. It will show the summary page when download or upload process completes displaying the files changed and extensions added or removed. Setting false will allow the quiet process in the background and only notify via editor status bar.
• forceDownload : false by default. If you set it to true it will overwrite the existing settings everytime the download process initiated either manually or on start.
• syncExtensions : true by default. It allows Settings Sync to sync your extensions list in gist so when you download it will automatically install the extensions list in code.
• removeExtensions : true by default. When syncExtensions is true and extensions list is downloaded. It allows Setting Sync to remove those extensions which are not a part of the downloaded list of extensions. If you want to sync with new extensions and don't want to remove extra extensions keep this config to false Settings sync will not delete extensions.
• host and pathPrefix : by default. It allows Settings Sync to support GitHub Enterprise and perform actions on Company’s GitHub Enterprise.
• askGistName : false by default. When set to true allows the user to set Gist name while creating a new one. Very helpful when you have multiple environments ( e.g Home Settings, Work Settings ) you can name those gist and download them by identifying.
• lastDownload and lastUpload is just to keep a record of download and upload status. You can set it to empty to hit manual download process.

Global Settings

Global Settings are stored in the same User folder with the file name syncLocalSettings.json. The locations are:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Code\User\syncLocalSettings.json
• Mac: $HOME/Library/Application Support/Code/User/syncLocalSettings.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Code/User/syncLocalSettings.json

{
    "ignoreUploadFiles": [
        "projects.json",
        "projects_cache_vscode.json",
        "projects_cache_git.json",
        "projects_cache_svn.json",
        "gpm_projects.json",
        "gpm-recentItems.json"
    ],
    "ignoreUploadFolders": [
        "workspaceStorage"
    ],
    "replaceCodeSettings": {
        "http.proxy" :"",
        "files.autoSave" :"off"
    },
    "gistDescription": "Visual Studio Code Settings Sync Gist",
    "version": 290,
    "token": "",
    "downloadPublicGist": false,
    "supportedFileExtensions": [
        "json",
        "code-snippets"
    ]
}

ignoreUploadFiles : All the files inside this key will stop extension to upload the files. You need to only write the file name of the file. Any file found with this name inside User folder or subfolders won’t be uploaded.

Like in the above example, the projects.json and projects_cache_git.json will not be uploaded to Github Gist.

ignoreUploadFolders: All the folder names defined in it will not be uploaded in Gist, Folder can be a child of User folder or child of any subfolder.

Like in the above example, workspaceStorage folder files will not be uploaded to Github Gist.

gistDescription : This is the name of gist you are going to create. Very helpful when you have multiple environments ( e.g Home Settings, Work Settings ) you can name those gist and download them by identifying.

token: The GitHub User secret identifier in order to allow Settings Sync upload and download the gist.

supportedFileExtensions: It allows Settings Sync to upload only the files in gist which extension are defined. Like it will only upload the of type json and code-snippets.

downloadPublicGist : If you are looking forward to making Setting Sync only download mode. For example, team member looking forward to the team environment. Set it to true and Settings Sync will only download the Gist and will never ask for the token in order to download.

replaceCodeSettings :

{
    "http.proxy" :"",
    "files.autoSave" :"off"
            
}

It will be used to replace the keys of settings.json with the text in the value after downloading the Gist.

For example, For users who are using a proxy on one computer and don't want to set proxy in the second one after downloading or need to change the value for the proxy. They need to add value as above

After downloading the settings, the extension will check if the value is defined, it will replace the http.proxy value to defined value in settings.json after downloading.

If the value is not defined as some user don't want to use proxy in Home computer but they have proxy in office computer and they upload from office and it will have proxy in GIST to remove it from Home computer to make it work, the value need to set as empty so extension will delete the http.proxy from the Home computer.