[Settings GUI] String array: No help in filling enum values

[usernamehw]

#77427

"type": "array",
"items": {
	"type": "string",
	"enum": [
		"error",
		"warning",
		"info",
		"hint"
	]
},

settings.json:

settings GUI:

[eamodio]

I think this is FAR worse than just not providing help when using enums, because as far as I can tell it doesn't even validate values against the allowed enum values. Which is basically inviting users to enter invalid/bad data which can cause extensions to not function properly.

While this was always possible before, the user would not only get intellisense on the allowed values you'd also get error warning about invalid values.

Can this be something that is prioritized for at least the next iteration (though IMO this should warrant a patch release when fixed)?

/cc @roblourens @kieferrm

[usernamehw]

Validation issue was closed as-designed: #77456

[roblourens]

@octref and I talked about this, I thought there was an open issue for validation somewhere.

[KamasamaK]

Additional validation wouldn't be as necessary if it just worked like standalone enums do with a drop-down instead of a text input.

[roblourens]

Validation is still necessary because you can type whatever you want or the validation criteria can change.

[octref]

Errors are added as part of #77459 (besides enum, pattern, minItems, maxItems are also supported).

So I'm putting this one into backlog.

[rzhao271]

Just noting down some findings so far.

There are settings that are lists of enums, such as git.checkoutType, or jupyter.widgetScriptSources. git.checkoutType doesn't allow for duplicate elements ("uniqueItems": true), and the order of the elements matters. For example, if "remote" comes before "local" in the array, and a user runs the "Checkout to..." command, then the remote URLs show up first.
Therefore, one way to display a list of enum values would be as a list of dropdowns.

There are also settings of type object, where the keys and/or values are enums. These cases are actually rendered properly by the settings editor (https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/blob/main/src/vs/workbench/contrib/preferences/browser/settingsWidgets.ts#L908). Yet, the settings editor is still unable to currently render objects with primitive non-string values (i.e. booleans/numbers/integers) right now.

[rzhao271]

I was looking more into the ListSettingWidget, and got confused by when item.sibling would be non-null in the following case: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/blob/main/src/vs/workbench/contrib/preferences/browser/settingsWidgets.ts#L529

I noticed that the exclude widget set sibling here https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/blob/main/src/vs/workbench/contrib/preferences/browser/settingsTree.ts#L75, but I thought that even that code path wasn't being used, because the exclude widget didn't have the option to add a when clause. It turns out that one has to set the when clause in the json file first, and then they can view and edit it in the settings editor.

[rzhao271]

\closedWith ff39a97

An enhancement would be adding a mechanism to help rearrange items of the array while in view mode.