Add a command to "Add SDK to Path" and offer to invoke it automatically after downloading an SDK [Windows]

[polina-c]

go/setup-path-with-flutter-extension

• Get URL to open instructions on Flutter website
• Offer this flow after cloning SDK

[DanTup]

@polina-c is this doc public? Does it have a public URL? go / goto.google.com links don't work for non-Googlers (they require logging in with a google account)

[DanTup]

Tweaked the title a bit because this should be a command you can use even when not downloading.

I managed to get the command working on Windows today using PowerShell (at least, it works on my machine). It reports whether it was a) added, b) failed to add or c) already on PATH.

I haven't done any testing on Mac yet (or had the download prompt to do it automatically), but since VS Code is already doing that I expect it shouldn't be too difficult.

[polina-c]

Will we have telemetry for ratio of successful cases?

[DanTup]

I'd like to record the number of successful/unsuccessful attempts for both git clone and adding to path (for opted-in users).

[polina-c]

@polina-c is this doc public? Does it have a public URL? go / goto.google.com links don't work for non-Googlers (they require logging in with an @google account)

It is not public. Yes, it works just for googlers. And it is ok for this case.
Feel free to create public copy, if you feel it is right thing to do.

[DanTup]

I've merged in some changes for this:

• New "Flutter: Add SDK to Path" and "Dart: Add SDK to Path" commands in the command palette
• For Windows, these will automatically add to Path if able to run the PowerShell script
• For other platforms (or if the PS script fails), prompt user to add manually
• When cloning Flutter via Git, automatically ask if we should add to PATH (for Windows, otherwise just prompt to show instructions and skip the initial prompt)

I've included this in a pre-release version today (v3.67.20230626), though the "git clone" flow is still behind the "dart.experimentalFlutterGitClone" flag because I'd like some additional testing/feedback of that before I remove the flag.

[DanTup]

I'm making this issue Windows-specific (and closing because it's merged) and have opened #4612 to track macOS, since I suspect there may be more discussion (and complications). I don't want to hold up the current work (which should work for Windows, and can also open instructions for other platforms) if we don't get a Mac solution before the next release.

@polina-c btw, if we can't add automatically, these are the URLs I'm currently linking to for manual instructions - we can tweak these if required:

Dart-Code/src/shared/constants.ts

Lines 90 to 96 in 3d3238d

	export const addToPathInstructionsUrl = isWin
	? "https://docs.flutter.dev/get-started/install/windows#update-your-path"
	: isMac
	? "https://docs.flutter.dev/get-started/install/macos#update-your-path"
	: isLinux && !isChromeOS
	? "https://docs.flutter.dev/get-started/install/linux#update-your-path"
	: undefined;

[polina-c]

Is there auto-testing that links are not broken?

This is what we have in DevTools:

for (final link in DocLinks.values) {
    test('$link is not broken', () async {
      final content = await loadPageHtmlContent(link.value);
      final hash = link.hash;
      if (hash != null) {
        expect(content, contains('href="#$hash"'));
      }
    });
  }

[DanTup]

Not currently, but it'd be nice to have - I opened #4617

[wildsylvan]

@DanTup
the path is added to the windows path env var as a quoted string (with ") and unless i remove the quotes, it's not working.

see this.

[DanTup]

@wildsylvan can you file a new issue for this, and include steps/screenshots showing how you're checking this?

We do add quotes here:

Dart-Code/src/extension/commands/add_sdk_to_path.ts

Line 97 in 9a21d26

`"${sdkPath}"`,

But the comment suggests that it didn't work without them so it might need some more testing. Please also include your version of Windows and PowerShell in the new issue. Thanks!

[wildsylvan]

@DanTup done 👍🏾