Feedback for proposed public API for environment/interpreter access

[brettcannon]

Example usage can be found in here.

You can find details on the proposed API here:
https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-python/wiki/Proposed-Environment-APIs

[karthiknadig]

You can find details on the proposed API here:
https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-python/wiki/Proposed-Environment-APIs

[jepperaskdk]

Fantastic - it seems to work in my extension: https://github.com/jepperaskdk/vscode-pydoctest 👍

What's the best practice for using the API? Do I just duplicate the definitions in my extension? Perhaps you could combine the snippets in the wiki so they are more ready for copy/paste - or add a link to vscode-python/src/client/apiTypes.ts

[brettcannon]

For right now, yes, you just copy the code. Once we are happy with the API (I have feedback which might change some things 😁), we hope to create an npm package which should take care of most of the details and get you a properly typed API.

[mattseddon]

Following up from this comment in #11039

Would it be possible to expose environment activation details via the new API?

[brettcannon]

Once we know what environment activation is going to look like, possibly. 😅 We don't know if we are going to continue following the route of sending a command to the terminal, set environment variables directly, etc. That will very likely dictate if we can expose that information.

[karrtikr]

FYI a couple of additional utilities are exposed, not via the API surface and via commands:

• python.installPython: Opens a way to install Python: Improve how to notify the user they don't have Python installed when installing the Python extension for the first time #19379 (comment)
• python.triggerEnvSelection: If no interpreter has been selected, this triggers it: Expose a way to trigger environment prompts for other extensions #19450 (comment)

[rdeline]

Funny, I was just looking for such an API yesterday for my (as yet unpublished) extension -- great timing! My use case is really simple and easy to implement with the API: make sure my custom notebook editor is using a particular Conda environment.

  const extension = vscode.extensions.getExtension('ms-python.python');
  if (extension) {
    if (!extension.isActive) {
      await extension.activate();
    }
    const pythonApi: IExtensionApi & IProposedExtensionAPI = extension.exports as IExtensionApi &
      IProposedExtensionAPI;
    const paths = await pythonApi.environment.getEnvironmentPaths();
    const glindaPath = paths.find(p => p.path.toLowerCase().indexOf('glinda') >= 0);
    if (glindaPath) {
      pythonApi.environment.setActiveEnvironment(glindaPath.path);
    }
  }

Thanks for this!

[brettcannon]

Just as a quick update: we are still actively working on this and going through our internal API design group right now to make sure we nail this appropriately as we don't want to break anyone by needing to change the API later.

[karrtikr]

WIP: microsoft/vscode#158246

[tonka3000]

Hi,

I now use the API in my internal VSCode extension. Works great.

My scenario is also pretty simple. I just use api.environment.setActiveEnvironment("path-to-interpreter") with my embedded python interpreter because my extension already know which interpreter is the correct one (no need for me to ask for the available options).

Thanks a lot for adding it 🙏

Greetings
Michael

[karrtikr]

Hey folks note the API is now changed: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-python/blob/main/src/client/proposedApiTypes.ts. So any previous used APIs may stop working soon, and you may need to update your extension to use the latest ones.

@tonka3000 @rdeline @jepperaskdk

We have plans to test this with #19886 after which we'll finalize the new design and release it for all users, thanks!

[tonka3000]

@karrtikr one question about the new updateActiveEnvironmentId(. Does the string overload take an absolute path to the interpreter executable like setActiveEnironment did before or is it only possible to pick one of the prescanned ones (the new API looks like that it only take IDs) ?
I have the case that my embedded interpreter is not searchable by your extension, so I need to give it full path to work.

[karrtikr]

The signature for that method is environment: Environment | EnvironmentId | string, so it can take a string, aka the absolute path to the interpreter executable like before.

[tonka3000]

Thanks for clarification.

[karrtikr]

Changed it to updateActiveEnvironmentPath based on this feedback 🙂

[karrtikr]

API has now been finalized: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-python/wiki/Python-Environment-APIs