View Source VS Code Setup

If you are using Visual Studio Code and the ElixirLS extension, there are a couple of things that you can do to smooth out the workflow of running and updating your tests.

The ElixirLS extension comes with some built-in tasks to run tests:

  • mix: Run tests
  • mix: Run tests in current file
  • mix: Run test at cursor

These are accessible by running the command Run task and then typing typing one of the tasks. By default, these will open a terminal panel, but will not focus it, which isn't optimal as Mneme requires input when something changes.

We can bind these tasks to a keyboard shortcut globally and then update the focus defaults on a per-project basis.

Keyboard shortcuts

Run the command Preferences: Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON), then copy the following keyboard shortcuts to the bottom of the list:

{
  "key": "ctrl+space a",
  "command": "workbench.action.tasks.runTask",
  "args": "mix: Run tests"
},
{
  "key": "ctrl+space f",
  "command": "workbench.action.tasks.runTask",
  "args": "mix: Run tests in current file"
},
{
  "key": "ctrl+space c",
  "command": "workbench.action.tasks.runTask",
  "args": "mix: Run test at cursor"
},

You can replace "key" with whatever you'd prefer.

Per-project task defaults

Tasks provided by extensions can be modified by adding a .vscode/tasks.json to your project's root. The following will modify the tasks listed above to give input focus to the panel they're run in.

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "group": "test",
      "type": "mix",
      "task": "Run tests",
      "presentation": {
        "focus": true,
      },
    },
    {
      "group": "test",
      "type": "mix",
      "task": "Run tests in current file",
      "presentation": {
        "focus": true,
      },
    },
    {
      "group": "test",
      "type": "mix",
      "task": "Run test at cursor",
      "presentation": {
        "focus": true,
      },
    },
  ],
}

The Mneme repository has this set up here, for example.