Text actions

Text actions are used to insert, replace, highlight, delete or unselect text in the editor.

Most of these actions make use of the path property to specify the location of the file.

Samples

You can find text actions samples on GitHub:

Open samples on GitHub

Highlight text

Highlight text in the editor at a specific location.

JSON

// Via position
{
  "action": "highlight",
  "path": "<relative path to the file>",
  "position": "<position>",
  "zoom": "<zoom level> (optional)"
}

// Via placeholders
{
  "action": "highlight",
  "path": "<relative path to the file>",
  "startPlaceholder": "<start placeholder>",
  "endPlaceholder": "<end placeholder>",
  "highlightWholeLine": "<highlight whole line (optional, default is true)>",
  "zoom": "<zoom level> (optional)"
}

YAML

# Via position
action: highlight
path: <relative path to the file>
position: <position>
zoom: <zoom level> # Optional

# Via placeholders
action: highlight
path: <relative path to the file>
startPlaceholder: <start placeholder>
endPlaceholder: <end placeholder>
highlightWholeLine: <highlight whole line (optional, default is true)>
zoom: <zoom level> # Optional

Note

For more information about positioning, see the positioning text/code section.

Note

Check out the settings section to customize the highlight colors.

Important

When you use code area highlighting, which is when you use “line + character” position or setting highlightWholeLine property to false when using placeholder positioning, the highlighted code will not include a border.

You can read more about it on the highlighting section.

Position cursor

Position your cursor in the editor at a specific location.

JSON

// Via position
{
  "action": "positionCursor",
  "path": "<relative path to the file>",
  "position": "<position>"
}

// Via start placeholder
{
  "action": "positionCursor",
  "path": "<relative path to the file>",
  "startPlaceholder": "<start placeholder>",
}

YAML

# Via position
action: positionCursor
path: <relative path to the file>
position: <position>

# Via start placeholder
action: positionCursor
path: <relative path to the file>
startPlaceholder: <start placeholder>

Note

For more information about positioning, see the positioning text/code section.

Insert text

Insert text in the editor at a specific location.

JSON

// Via position
{
  "action": "insert",
  "path": "<relative path to the file>",
  "position": "<position>",
  "content": "<content of the file> (optional)",
  "contentPath": "<relative path to the file (optional)>",
  "insertTypingMode": "<typing mode: 'instant', 'line-by-line', 'character-by-character', 'hacker-typer'> (optional, default is 'instant')",
  "insertTypingSpeed": "<delay in milliseconds to insert (optional)>"
}

// Via placeholders
{
  "action": "insert",
  "path": "<relative path to the file>",
  "startPlaceholder": "<start placeholder>",
  "endPlaceholder": "<end placeholder>",
  "content": "<content of the file> (optional)",
  "contentPath": "<relative path to the file (optional)>",
  "insertTypingMode": "<typing mode: 'instant', 'line-by-line', 'character-by-character', 'hacker-typer'> (optional, default is 'instant')",
  "insertTypingSpeed": "<delay in milliseconds to insert (optional)>"
}

YAML

# Via position
action: insert
path: <relative path to the file>
position: <position>
content: <content of the file> # optional
contentPath: <relative path to the file> # optional
insertTypingMode: <typing mode: 'instant', 'line-by-line', 'character-by-character' or 'hacker-typer'> # optional, default is 'instant'
insertTypingSpeed: <delay in milliseconds to insert> # Optional

# Via placeholders
action: insert
path: <relative path to the file>
startPlaceholder: <start placeholder>
endPlaceholder: <end placeholder>
content: <content of the file> # optional
contentPath: <relative path to the file> # optional
insertTypingMode: <typing mode: 'instant', 'line-by-line', 'character-by-character' or 'hacker-typer'> # optional, default is 'instant'
insertTypingSpeed: <delay in milliseconds to insert> # Optional

Note

For more information about positioning, see the positioning text/code section.

For more information about the typing modes, see the typing modes section.

Replace text

Replace text in the editor at a specific location.

JSON

// Via position
{
  "action": "replace",
  "path": "<relative path to the file>",
  "position": "<position>",
  "content": "<content of the file> (optional)",
  "contentPath": "<relative path to the file (optional)>",
  "insertTypingMode": "<typing mode: 'instant', 'line-by-line', 'character-by-character' or 'hacker-typer'> (optional, default is 'instant')",
  "insertTypingSpeed": "<delay in milliseconds to insert (optional)>"
}

// Via placeholders
{
  "action": "replace",
  "path": "<relative path to the file>",
  "startPlaceholder": "<start placeholder>",
  "endPlaceholder": "<end placeholder>",
  "content": "<content of the file> (optional)",
  "contentPath": "<relative path to the file (optional)>",
  "insertTypingMode": "<typing mode: 'instant', 'line-by-line', 'character-by-character' or 'hacker-typer'> (optional, default is 'instant')",
  "insertTypingSpeed": "<delay in milliseconds to insert (optional)>"
}

YAML

# Via position
action: replace
path: <relative path to the file>
position: <position>
content: <content of the file> # optional
contentPath: <relative path to the file> # optional
insertTypingMode: <typing mode: 'instant', 'line-by-line', 'character-by-character' or 'hacker-typer'> # optional, default is 'instant'
insertTypingSpeed: <delay in milliseconds to insert> # Optional

# Via placeholders
action: replace
path: <relative path to the file>
startPlaceholder: <start placeholder>
endPlaceholder: <end placeholder>
content: <content of the file> # optional
contentPath: <relative path to the file> # optional
insertTypingMode: <typing mode: 'instant', 'line-by-line', 'character-by-character' or 'hacker-typer'> # optional, default is 'instant'
insertTypingSpeed: <delay in milliseconds to insert> # Optional

Note

For more information about positioning, see the positioning text/code section.

For more information about the typing modes, see the typing modes section.

Write single line

Write a single line of text in the editor at the current location or specific location.

JSON

// Write to current active position
{
  "action": "write",
  "content": "Hello World"
}

// Write to a specific position in a file
// Via position
{
  "action": "write",
  "content": "Hello World",
  "path": "<relative path to the file>",
  "position": "<position>"
}

// Via start placeholder
{
  "action": "write",
  "content": "Hello World",
  "path": "<relative path to the file>",
  "startPlaceholder": "<start placeholder>",
}

YAML

# Write to current active position
action: write
content: "Hello World"

# Write to a specific position in a file
# Via position
action: write
content: "Hello World"
path: <relative path to the file>
position: <position>

# Via start placeholder
action: write
content: "Hello World"
path: <relative path to the file>
startPlaceholder: <start placeholder>

Note

For more information about positioning, see the positioning text/code section.

Format text

Format the content of the active file.

JSON

{
  "action": "format"
}

YAML

action: format

Unselect text

Unselect or undo text highlighting in a specific file.

JSON

{
  "action": "unselect"
}

YAML

action: unselect

Delete text

Delete text in the editor at a specific location.

JSON

// Via position
{
  "action": "delete",
  "path": "<relative path to the file>",
  "position": "<position>"
}

// Via placeholders
{
  "action": "delete",
  "path": "<relative path to the file>",
  "startPlaceholder": "<start placeholder>",
  "endPlaceholder": "<end placeholder>"
}

YAML

# Via position
action: delete
path: <relative path to the file>
position: <position>

# Via placeholders
action: delete
path: <relative path to the file>
startPlaceholder: <start placeholder>
endPlaceholder: <end placeholder>

Note

For more information about positioning, see the positioning text/code section.

Positioning text/code

For the positioning of the text to insert, there are two options:

• Use the position property to specify the location where the action should be performed. With this property, you can specify the line number, character position, or a range of lines and characters.
• Use the startPlaceholder and endPlaceholder properties to specify the text to search for in the file to determine the location where the action should be performed.

Line position or range

For the position property, you can use the following values:

• number: The line number
• number:number: The start and end line number
• number,number: The start line and character
• number,number:number,number: The start line and character and the end line and character
• The start and end keywords can also be used instead of the line numbers
  • start will be replaced by the first line number
  • end will be replaced by the last line number

Examples:

JSON

"position": "10" // Line 10
"position": "10:20" // Lines 10 to 20
"position": "10,5" // Start line 10, character 5
"position": "10,5:20,10" // Start line 10, character 5 to end line 20, character 10
"position": "start" // First line
"position": "end" // Last line

YAML

position: "10" # Line 10
position: "10:20" # Lines 10 to 20
position: "10,5" # Start line 10, character 5
position: "10,5:20,10" # Start line 10, character 5
position: start # First line
position: end # Last line

Placeholder position

For the startPlaceholder and endPlaceholder properties, you specify the text to search for in the file.

Examples:

JSON

"startPlaceholder": "// Start of demo1"
"endPlaceholder": "// End of demo1"

YAML

startPlaceholder: // Start of demo1
endPlaceholder: // End of demo1

Note

The text will be replaced from the start of the startPlaceholder to the end of the endPlaceholder.

In the file, the placeholders should be defined like this:

// Start of demo1
const ext = 'Demo Time';
// End of demo1

Typing modes

When inserting or replacing text, you can specify the typing mode with the insertTypingMode property or on global level with the demoTime.insertTypingMode setting.

The available options are:

• instant: The text is inserted instantly.
• line-by-line: The text is inserted line by line, with a delay between each line.
• character-by-character: The text is inserted character by character, with a delay between each character.
• hacker-typer: The text is inserted in a hacker-typer style, where you are in control over the character instertion by pressing the down key (default key binding which can be changed in the keybindings settings).

Hacker-typer mode

When you use the hacker-typer mode, you can trigger the text insertion by pressing the down key on your keyboard. The text will be inserted in a hacker-typer style, where you are in control over the character insertion.

The demoTime.hackerTyperChunkSize setting allows you to define how many characters are inserted per ‘keystroke’. The default value is 3, which means that three characters are inserted each time you press the down key.

The down key is linked as a keybinding to the Demo Time: Hacker Typer next chunk (demo-time.hackerTyperNextChunk) command. You can change this keybinding in the keybindings settings.

When you enter the hacker-typer mode, you will see a keyboard icon in the status bar indicating that you are in hacker-typer mode and it will be removed when you have entered all the text.