RSync - Third party IDE support for ROBLOX Studio in one click

RSync is an open source ROBLOX plugin that easily integrates any third-party code editor or IDE, such as Sublime Text, Notepad++, VS Code, or Atom, into ROBLOX Studio. This is accomplished via a helper application which runs in the tray and acts as a middle man between your code editor of choice and ROBLOX Studio.

Download

Available in the releases section.

Notice: The executable will most likely cause Windows to alert you with a fullscreen SmartScreen warning because this file is not commonly downloaded. To run anyway, click More info then click Run anyway. If you're wary, you can build the plugin from the source with the instructions below.

Installation

RSync is designed with simplicity in mind: just download the executable and run it, and it will automatically install the plugin into ROBLOX Studio. Just let the application run in the tray while you're developing. (Note: If you have changed the ROBLOX Studio Plugin directory, you will need to configure this before using RSync)

Files will open with your system default .lua editor.

Note: If you already have Studio open when you run the application for the first time, you will need to restart Studio for the plugin to load.

Features

Persistent Mode / Git Mode

By default, RSync will use a temporary folder, but using a persistent directory is also supported. This will cause the plugin to write all scripts to disk (nested with folders that match in-game hierarchy), even ones you don't explicitly open. The plugin will keep the scripts up to date on disk, even through Parent or Name changes. If you delete the script from your game, it will also be deleted on disk. If two objects have the same name and parent, one of them will be appended with (2) at the end of its name. Try to avoid this.

This allows you to create a Git repository for all the scripts in your game super easily.

To enable this feature, create a StringValue in HttpService named PlaceName, and then set the value to the name you'd like the folder to use. The scripts will then be written to C:\Users\<Current User>\Documents\ROBLOX\RSync\<Place Name> by default, but this is configurable.

Mixins

Mixins allow you to use the syntax @(mixin_name) in your scripts, which will return any values you set in the Mixins module. To use this feature, create a ModuleScript in ReplicatedStorage named Mixins.

The module should return a table with string indexes for your mixin names. The values can be any type, but if they are a function, the function will be executed, given the arguments (mixin_name, script, function_environment).

• mixin_name: The name of the mixin, e.g. what is @(here).
• script: The Script object that is using the mixin
• function_environment: The result of getfenv in the function where the mixin is used

Example Mixins script:

return {
	hello = "Hi there!";
	require_all_children = function(mixin, script, env)
		for _, child in pairs(script:GetChildren()) do
			if child:IsA("ModuleScript") then
				require(child)
			end
		end
	end;
}

Then, anywhere in another script:

@(require_all_children)

print(@(hello))

This actually compiles to:

local __RSMIXINS=require(game.ReplicatedStorage.Mixins);__RSMIXIN=function(a,b,c)if type(__RSMIXINS[a])=='function'then return __RSMIXINS[a](a,b,c)else return __RSMIXINS[a]end end

__RSMIXIN('require_all_children', script, getfenv())

print(__RSMIXIN('hello', script, getfenv()))

MoonScript Support

If you have MoonScript installed on your computer (have moonc in your PATH), RSync can automatically compile your scripts into Lua every time you save them and instantly push them to your game in Studio.

Mixins can be used with the built-in mixin function, e.g. mixin "hello". In MoonScript mode only, there are three special mixin names, which can be used to inject things into the environment:

• autoload: This mixin is automatically run at the start of every script.
• client: This mixin is automatically run at the start of every script running on the client.
• server: This mixin is automatically run at the start of every script running on the server.

To put a script in MoonScript mode, there must be a StringValue named "MoonScript" inside of it. The plugin provides several shortcuts so you don't have to do this manually:

• If you put .moon at the end of your script name (e.g. KillScript.moon, then press the Open in Editor button, it will remove the .moon from the name after it's created the value.
• If the script source contains m, moon, or moonscript exactly, when you press the Open in Editor button, it will also put the script in MoonScript mode.
• Use the hotkey Ctrl+Alt+B with a script selected.

Building it yourself

Building RSync is made easy by using CoffeeScript's Cakefiles. The build script will automatically replace the partial strings in plugin.coffee with the data from the partials/ directory.

Prerequisites

• npm install -g electron-packager
• npm install -g electron-prebuilt
• npm install -g coffee-script
• You must have moonc in your PATH.
• Go to the ./src directory and run npm install to install the dependencies

Building and running the app for developmental testing

Run cake b && electron src from the directory that the Cakefile is in

Building the entire app into executable

Run cake build:app

TODO

• Need to make the plugin work with multiple instances of Studio open, but this will probably require quite a bit of refactoring in server.coffee