Request option to not expand top-level directories

[jgfoster]

I have created a file system provider for a database and each time I log in and display the "directories" it goes through the readDirectory() step and fills the list. I'd prefer to have the directory start out collapsed and wait till the user expands it to populate the entries.

This is different from #134665 in that I want it to be collapsed the first time (not on re-open). This is different from #87956 in that I'm not selecting a file.

I'd like an API in FileSystemProvider to specify that a directory starts collapsed. The second choice would be a configuration option. Thanks!

[lramos15]

Is this any different from #130732 (comment) which is a request to be able to configure the explorer to auto expand single child nodes or not. Right now we always expand a node if it has just one child

[jgfoster]

In my case there are five or six top-level "directories" (at the root) and VS Code automatically expands all of them even when they have hundreds of children. I'd like to avoid burying the top-level directories under hundreds of files in an earlier directory.

[lramos15]

In my case there are five or six top-level "directories" (at the root) and VS Code automatically expands all of them even when they have hundreds of children. I'd like to avoid burying the top-level directories under hundreds of files in an earlier directory.

@jgfoster Do you have a minimal repro I could use for testing and debugging? I'm not able to reproduce on my end

[jgfoster]

@lramos15, thanks for your interest. I've put together this to demonstrate the problem. I hope that the README.md gives a reasonable description of the steps I take in my use case.

By the way, a work-around is to insert another directory above the roots, which in my case actually makes some sense (I'm presenting each database as its own root and each schema in the database under the database rather than as a root in its own right).