snipsync

Syncs your UltiSnips snippets to JetBrain IDE (see blog).

snipsync is based on UltiSnips to parse UltiSnips snippets and transforms them into JetBrains XML LiveTemplate syntax.

Usage

• JetBrains must not be running during the update because is holds LiveTemplates in memory and saves them to disk at shutdown. So any external changes to LiveTemplates will be overwritten.

# sync Ultisnip snippets based on static configuration
snipsync auto-sync

# sync Ultisnip snippets based on CLI arguments
snipsync sync -c "Python" "~/dev/binx/vim-config/UltiSnips/python.snippets" "~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/PyCharm2020.3/jba_config/templates/user.xml"

Configuration

Configuration File

• static configuration allows you to set all relevant parameters via config file
• if init = no then an existing user.xml LiveTemplate file will only be updated and existing LiveTemplates preserved
• if init = yes a new user.xml LiveTemplate file will be created. This is the right option, if you want to have only UltiSnips snippet in your user.xml.

Example:

[DEFAULT]
#live_templates_path = ~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/PyCharm2020.3/jba_config/templates
live_templates_path = ~/xxx
ultisnips_path = ~/dev/binx/vim-config/UltiSnips

[GLOBAL]
init = yes

[SNIP.SHELL]
ultisnips = %(ultisnips_path)s/sh.snippets
live_templates = %(live_templates_path)s/user.xml
live_templates_contexts = ["SHELL_SCRIPT", "Bash"]

[SNIP.PYTHON]
ultisnips = %(ultisnips_path)s/python.snippets
live_templates = %(live_templates_path)s/user.xml
live_templates_contexts = ["Python"]

Configuration Location

the configuration file's default location is:

• Mac OS X: ~/Library/Application Support/snipsync
• Mac OS X (POSIX): ~/.snipsync
• Unix: ~/.config/snipsync
• Unix (POSIX): ~/.snipsync

Attention: Your configuration paths will change with major JetBrain upgrades

Target Location of JetBrain LiveTemplates

In order to have the generated LiveTemplate user.xml file available in your JetBrains IDE, you need to provide the correct target directory for user defined snippets. This depends on your IDE configuration, i.e. when you have setting sync activated this would be:

• https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/directories-used-by-the-ide-to-store-settings-caches-plugins-and-logs.html#config-directory
• https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/articles/206544519-Directories-used-by-the-IDE-to-store-settings-caches-plugins-and-logs

If your settings are synchronized through JetBrains IDE Settings Sync plugin, these subfolders are located under jba_config in the configuration directory.

How does it work?

• Creates/updates a user.xml live template file for intelij IDE from UltiSnip sources.
• Overwrites existing user.xml.
• Interprets UltiSnips syntax ${1}/${1:name} as Tabstop (variable to replace) and $1 (without brackets) as Mirror.

Limitations

• Bespoke user-implemented Python functionality cannot be translated to LiveTemplate format
• Nested Tabstop's are not translated correctly (but are valid Ultisnips syntax)

Gotchas

• make sure that Tabstops use always the format: ${1:default}, curly brackets
• make sure that Mirrors never use curly brackets: $1 instead of ${1} (would be interpreted as Tabstop)

Development

• additionally, generated xml tags do not result in error, but are being overwritten when JetBrain app closes, so there is no way to extend the JetBrains XML format
• for development install package locally with: pipenv install -e .
• lexer.py, text.py, ultisnip.py are used from Ultisnips directly, so no tests are provided here

Changelog

• 0.2.0 Check for latest JetBrain software to ensure that latest user.xml will be updated
• 0.1.0 Increase test coverage, update documentation
• 0.0.9 Inital release

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