Opening github.com files in Visual Studio

[codewithtyler]

Per my conversation with @haacked in #10, I would like to be able to browse code on GitHub from Visual Studio and then open that code file in Visual Studio.

@haacked also mentioned that when viewing a file on GitHub there is a button titled Open this file in GitHub for Windows, which will open the code file in your default text editor for that file type. However, this only works if you have GitHub for Windows installed as it's not supported by default in Visual Studio.

I'm interested in finding out what GitHub for Windows does that enables that to be be viewed in a text editor and then help add that to Visual Studio whether that by making it a part of this extension or by creating another one.

[shiftkey]

I'm interested in finding out what GitHub for Windows does that enables that to be be viewed in a text editor and then help add that to Visual Studio whether that by making it a part of this extension or by creating another one.

I can explain this bit - the URL you get when clicking "Open this file in GitHub for Windows" will contain the relative path to the file you clicked. So after cloning the repository GHfW just shells out to Windows to use whatever has been configured under the File Associations on the local machine.

[codewithtyler]

@shiftkey So let's say we were able to browse GitHub files in Visual Studio. Would downloading the file to a temporary folder then opening it accomplish the same thing? Specifying of course that it be opened with Visual Studio (basically accomplishing the same task as right clicking on a file and saying Open with -> Visual Studio)

[haacked]

I would like to be able to browse code on GitHub from Visual Studio and then open that code file in Visual Studio.

What would this look like?

So let's say we were able to browse GitHub files in Visual Studio. Would downloading the file to a temporary folder then opening it accomplish the same thing?

Sure. If we implement something in Visual Studio, we can do whatever we want. We don't even need a temporary file since there are API calls we can make to get the contents of a file.

[codewithtyler]

Well what can we do with the VS API? I'd imagine it would connect to GitHub and show the files in a tree view similar to Solution Explorer.

[haacked]

@RandomlyKnighted That's a possibility. But we need to design the experience for how we get there. How would I launch the ability to browse or search repositories? What would that look like? It's worth thinking through the whole experience and even mock it up using Balsamiq, Powerpoint, or even line drawings on a napkin. 😄

[Naphier]

I'd love to see a feature like this. I have a GitHub repo with my commonly used scripts/tools. It would be awesome to be able to browse that repo from VS while in another project. Then pull the file into the current project. It'd also be awesome to maintain the repo link to that file if I want to make changes to it and commit it. And likewise if that file was changed in it's repo then I would be notified of an updated version.
I know all of this is a bit different from normal git usage, but it sure would be neat and useful!

[shana]

/cc @donokuda for workflow ideas

[tocsoft]

sounds like an interesting idea... possibilities are quite interesting.

This makes me think of a workflow like this. Add a new command to the "Add" menu, when right clicking solution item, with a new something like 'Add file from GitHub'.

This then kicks in the following workflow.

1. Show the repo list screen.
   
   
2. User selects a Repo and then is presented with a File explorer like view (obviously slightly more GitHub branded)
   
3. user can just add the file in one of 2 modes
   
   
   1. Add - downloads from GitHub and adds it directly to the solution. (obviously the most easy)
   2. Add as link - makes sure there is a local submodule pointing to the selected repo and
      links to the file in there. (Adds in all the complexity of the submodule adding/update
      workflow first)
      1. if submodule doesn't exist prompt user to choose a folder to add the submodule to
         and download it.
      2. if the submodule does exists but it doesn't contain a file with the same sha then prompt to
         either update to a newer(latest) commit, or ask to download the latest into a different location.

This could also work nicely for an "add existing project from github" again following the submodule flow.