Improve URL handling documentation

[sguillia]

The documentation for URL handlers is out of date.

From here:

On Windows and macOS, you can also open projects and files using the platform's URL handling mechanism

Linux support was added in microsoft/vscode#56727

The docs talk about vscode:// but vscode-insiders:// exists too. It is only mentioned here in the extension API docs.

I would like to have one place gathering all information:

• Supported platforms (Windows, linux, macOS)
• Supported schemes (vscode and vscode-insiders)
• Ways to use URL handlers:
  • Open files with vscode://file
  • Trigger extensions with vscode://publisher.extensionName/...

Is there any other way to use URL handlers? Right now I'm not sure.

I browsed the issues to gather information:
microsoft/vscode#4883
microsoft/vscode#48528
microsoft/vscode#46256
microsoft/vscode#48426
microsoft/vscode#59244
microsoft/vscode#56727

Related to #791

Thank you

[gregvanl]

Hi @sguillia Thank you for pointing out the stale content.
From my commit, you can see that I opted not to add more description for triggering extensions via URL since it doesn't feel like an end user scenario and is primarily for extension authors.
I checked with the engineering team and did not find any other ways to use URL handlers beside the two you mention.

[sguillia]

Thank you @gregvanl for the confirmation.

I am an extension author and I was looking for all ways to utilise URL handlers.

For reference, the scheme vscode-exploration:// also exists.

[sguillia]

@gregvanl In microsoft/vscode#20289, I found another way to use the URL handlers.
Example to open an extension in the marketplace:

vscode:extension/ms-vscode.csharp

[westurner]

• https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_23#_git-clone-improvements :

  vscode://vscode.git/clone?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2FMicrosoft%2Fvscode-vsce.git

• Support opening files through URL handling vscode#4883 (comment) :

  Open a file to a specific line and column number:
  vscode://file/path/to/file/file.ext:L:C
  Example: Open file.ext to line 55 and column 20:
  vscode://file/path/to/file/file.ext:55:20

  Open a project, workspace, or folder with directory contents:
  vscode://file/path/to/project/