Directly create repository list instead of coping JSON to clipboard

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#3,860 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
38/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
typescript, vscode
Domain
developer-experience, tooling

Research direction

Start by tracing the Query History context menu and the Variant Analysis Results view, then inspect the existing name dialog used for creating a repository list. Compare those flows with the databases.json format and current Copy buttons. Done means both listed entry points can open the repository-list creation flow without requiring JSON clipboard editing.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

enhancement VSCode

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Currently for Variant Analysis both the Query History as well as the Variant Analysis Results allows you to copy the repository list (in JSON format). The problem is that this is not very intuitive for new users:

  1. You have to understand what this copied data is for / where to use it (i.e. the databases.json file of the extension)[^1]
  2. You have to find out how to open the databases.json file
    Button for opening file
  3. You have to understand the structure of the JSON data to know where to paste the snippet
    If you don't have any repository list yet, it becomes even more difficult because you have nothing to compare with, to get some hint where to paste the JSON data.

Describe the solution you'd like
Would it be possible that in addition to, or even instead of, the existing "Copy ..." button a button for directly adding the repository list was added?

It could open then the same name dialog used when creating a new list.

Applies to:

  • Context menu of Query History entry
  • Variant Analysis Results view

Describe alternatives you've considered
none

[^1]: Not sure if it can also be used with the CodeQL CLI.

Dominant language
TypeScript
Stars
539
Forks
240
Avg merge
2d 6h
Merged PRs (30d)
29

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